“Tower,” Jose snorted, hitting the couch cushion beside her. “I can’t even…”
Evil cow. “He did indeed lock her in his tower…”
“Because the prince wanted to deflower her in his tower…” she snickered. “While the handsome giant called Jarrod read her dirty books and sang songs about sex.”
I never got to continue my story, which was probably a good thing because it was pretty shit and I’d never been good at making things up, because she started singing Red Light Special by TLC just as someone knocked on the door. Seeing as how I was stuck under seven perfect pounds of baby, I left it to the harpy to see who it was. I had other obvious reasons for not answering it – around six-foot-three-inches of them, with a sheriff badge on his shirt who I was avoiding. But see, this was where Olivia got her first lesson in karma. She may have been asleep for it, but little kids were like sponges so it totally would have made its way into her head in amongst the boobies and milk.
Still singing, and now adding butt shimmies, Jose made her way to my door and swung it wide open without checking who it was. On a side note, I really liked that she felt secure enough to do that, because it meant Larry and Rita Slutita had no power over her. She hadn’t even told me to check who it was on my phone, which was linked to the cameras and security that had been installed at the same time as hers. I liked it even more when she let out a yelp as she came face to face with the handsome Ellis who was leaning against the wall, grinning at her.
“I only came over to see if y’all needed a hand setting anything up, but you wanna give me the red light special, I’d be a stupid man to say no.”
Not one word came from Jose. In fact, if it wasn’t for the body twitch that followed her hearing those words, I’d wonder if she’d died and gone into instant rigor mortis. After thirty seconds where she just stood staring at him in horror while he grinned back, she finally snapped out of it and moved to the side. “In. We have chairs.”
Chuckling, he walked past her, closing the door behind him and hooking her with an arm around her back. He didn’t move any further, instead looking at her in a way that told me he was reading her emotions. Whatever he saw was good though, because he nodded and gave her a small kiss on the forehead.
“Looking good, Jose. You sleeping?” When she just nodded and stared at him some more, he pressed further. “Olivia good?”
Jose had taken to motherhood perfectly, and talking about her daughter was her addiction, and mine, but it was aunt pride that fueled mine. So, him bringing up Olivia broke her out of her stupor and straight into Chatty Cathy mode.
“She’s great. She only woke up twice last night and then slept until seven this morning. She loves baths, which is weird because everyone says babies hate them, but I think she’s allergic to the baby bath stuff I’ve got for her, so I’m going to change to that oatmeal one. And her poops are perfect. They gave me a poop chart to check the color against every day, and hers is the exact color on it.”
Blinking at her, Ellis took in what she was saying at an unnatural speed, probably wondering about the poop chart like I had when I’d heard about it. Truth be told, I kind of wanted an adult version to check my own against. How would you do it though? I didn’t want to hang over the toilet and hold a piece of paper next to it.
“Hey, how do you check it? Do you open her diaper and put the paper next to it?” I asked, smiling when Ellis mouthed ‘thank you’ at me. Apparently he’d been wondering the same thing.
Wincing, Jose looked down at her feet and tucked a chunk of hair back behind her ear. “I tried, but I dropped it onto it the first time. It’s in a baggy now, so I take a photo on my phone and hold the screen next to it.”
Clearing his throat, Ellis directed the conversation away from poop and back to the little princess herself. “How about food? Is she having what she’s meant to?”
Jose’s head lifted up, and for a second she looked like she was going to snap at him, but when she saw that he wasn’t implying that she wasn’t a fit mother, she visibly softened. The big tattooed guy was truly interested in her daughter.
“Yeah, she’s doing great. I’m taking her to be weighed at the baby clinic tomorrow, and I think she’s definitely put some on since we left the hospital.”