Pulling out her mat, he lay her down and placed one of her feet on his mouth while he got to work. As always, the sensation of his stubble on the sole of her feet started her giggling like crazy. With Olivia’s foot still over his mouth, he let out a deep growl, shaking his head slightly as he did it, making her laugh even harder. “There’s my smile. Remember, that’s your Ellis smile, not your Sheriff one. He gets the poor man’s version of it, okay?” Not that he needed to remind her. She might love her uncle, but no way did he get a smile close to the one she kept specially for this man. “You been a good girl for your mama and Aunt Tabby? What about those sit-ups you were meant to do, and the five laps around the house?”
Tabby got back in the seat she’d originally been sitting in and watched him wide eyed. “He didn’t even gag at the smell,” she whispered, not taking her eyes off him. “And she’s not even moving her foot. When I change her, it’s like trying to keep Law in the tub when it’s bath time.” Law was her dog and a squirmy little bugger. I knew from experience that bathing him was a two-person job – one to hold him in the tub, the other to do the bathing. If you had a third person helping out, it was even easier.
“Hear that? Your aunt says your tushie smells bad,” Ellis informed Liv, stressing the word bad with a growl and another shake of his head. “But I think it smells like roses.”
“Roses buried under a field of poop, maybe,” I snorted, taking a mouthful of coffee.
Making quick work of what he was doing, Ellis put Liv back together again, scooped her up, and went to dispose of the shitty diaper in the special contraption I had to keep the stench from escaping. Some people might ask why I let someone who wasn’t related to her change her, and maybe even accuse me of courting trouble doing it, but they didn’t know Ellis if they said that. He’d been in her life since she was born and had an immediate bond with her. Days after I gave birth, he took me to a group put together for new parents to meet and ask questions. During it, a retired midwife took the babies weights and recorded them for us, and helped us out with whatever issues we’d encountered. I’d been intending to go on my own, but he’d insisted on helping out, and had surprised me by striking up friendships with some of the dads and learning the best and safest way to change a diaper. After that, our friendship had grown deeper and stronger, and he’d fallen more in love with Liv. He even stopped in daily to see her, and if she didn’t see her best friend, she got cranky as hell. A couple of months ago, I’d gotten some sort of bug that left me feeling like crap, and he’d snuggled me up on the couch while he looked after Liv and had made sure I was ok with him changing her diaper. My answer had been an immediate yes, and that was the end of it. Those nay sayers on that could have their opinion, but I assessed people more closely after what I’d been through with my ex, and I knew who Ellis Beauregard was and how awesome he was, so I had no issues at all with my decision. Talking away to my daughter, he walked back toward us and sat down next to me on the couch, shifting Liv so that she didn’t have to turn her head too much to see Tabby. She was a nosy little devil, and if someone spoke she’d lean around you to see who it was, which was great with friends but when you were in public, not so much. Ellis knew this and had already made sure that she wouldn’t have to risk pulling her neck if Tabby spoke.
Which she did just then, with a small smirk on her face. “So, what brings you here?”
“Came to see the two beautiful Harrison ladies,” he replied, picking up Liv’s hand and giving her a high five. “Saw your fiancé in town and he told me he was heading here at five, so I wanted to get here before him so he didn’t try and hog her.”
Looking at the clock on the wall I saw that it was five o’clock on the dot and chuckled. Almost like the mere mention of him summoned the man, there was another knock at the door making us all look at each other to answer it. Sighing, Tabby got up leaving us alone. That wouldn’t have been such a bad thing if my daughter hadn’t reached out her arm to me while still holding onto her human teddy bear, making it clear that she wanted contact with me as well.