“Her bottles are in the fridge with instructions. You know how to change a diaper. Other than that, just don’t set her down. She doesn’t like it.”
“But—”
She shut the door, leaving me alone with my niece. Rushing over to my phone, I got Jeff on the phone.
“Hello?”
“Jeff, you nutsack! You made a deal with Lizzy!”
“Hey, I said I would get you groceries. You got them.”
“You were supposed to bring them.”
“Right, yeah, I can see how you would think that. But see, Lizzy hasn’t been getting very much sleep and needed someone to watch Willa for a few hours. You needed groceries. It seemed like a win-win to me.”
“Not to me!” I snapped. “You could have warned me.”
“What fun would that be? Oh, hey, I’ve got a game going on over here, so I’ll catch you later.”
“Jeff—”
The line dropped, leaving nothing but dead air on the other end. “Bastard,” I muttered, making Willa cry harder.
“Not you, sweetie. I was talking about mean Uncle Jeff.”
She was turning red from screaming so hard. Laying her down only made it worse, but she had to be hot in all this stuff. Once I got her one-piece coat off, I stripped off the layers of sweaters and pants, cooling her down quite a bit.
And as soon as I got her cooler, the crying died down.
“There,” I smiled down at my little nugget of a niece. “That’s better, isn’t it. Was that all? Were you just too warm?”
Her skin slowly started returning to a normal color.
“Look at me. I did it!” I said, thrusting both fists in the air. “I’m like the baby killer.”
Her face scrunched up like she was going to cry.
“Oh! Shit. Not like an actual baby killer. I just meant I’m killing it at this babysitting thing. You’re too adorable to kill.”
“Please tell me you are not talking to a baby about killing,” Rob’s voice came from behind me.
Picking up my niece, I swaddled her in my arms and carried her over to Rob, who was leaning heavily on the doorframe. “Isn’t she adorable?”
He quirked an eyebrow at me. “Yeah, she’s adorable, but you do know that you’re not supposed to just take babies home from wherever you find them, right?”
“She’s my niece. My brother…well, never mind. My sister needed a break and just sort of dropped her into my arms. So far, I’m not doing too bad.”
He cocked his head, staring down at the little bundle in my arms. “She’s not too bad.”
“Willa,” I whispered, brushing my finger over her cheek.
“Pretty name. Which sister is this?”
“I only have one sister,” I said, rolling my eyes at him.
“It’s hard to keep track of all you Parkers.
“Lizzy is her momma. She was in the hospital when those bad men came to get me.” I lowered my face to hers and whispered in a baby voice, “Yes, bad, bad men came to kidnap your auntie, but she kicked them in the happy places and made them not so happy.”