Gray:This is the best cookie in all of creation.
Her phone sat on the bath mat next to her knee. When she read the message, she grinned and dried her hands on Oscar’s towel.
Meredith:Told ya. It’s the corn flakes.
Gray:On my second. Good. Lord.
Laughing, she texted back.
Meredith:Sounds like you’re feeling better.
Gray:The cookies and mac & cheese are helping. Thank you.
Meredith’s smile grew. Helping. That was even better than having a job with flexible hours and higher pay. At Champagne’s, she’d helped people check out groceries, but it certainly hadn’t been a job that had given her any sense of purpose or fulfillment. Being able to help people was why she’d chosen to study nursing.
She’d never been more scared and overwhelmed than the night she gave birth to Oscar. Her parents had abandoned her. Brooke’s parents hadn’t wanted their daughter driving across town in the middle of the night to be by her side, and Jamie had been offshore. That meant the only person she had was Leona.
What a nightmare.
But the nurses and doctors at UMC had been really good about making her feel safe. And the experience had touched her. Every day, there were people in hospitals who were hurting, alone, and scared. Caring for people like that would matter. It would be hard work, Meredith knew, but it wouldn’t be empty work.
Life could be cruel. She knew that firsthand. There would be sad days, but she wanted to be there to make the sad days easier for patients and their families.
What kind of work was more important than that?
So if she could make life easier for Gray Blakewood — and help him to feel better — it would mean a lot more than running Cheerios and Kleenex over a scanner at the market.
Meredith:You’re welcome. Happy to help.
Oscar slapped the water with his washcloth, sending a splash over the side of the tub and onto her leggings.
“Okay, buddy, I think you’re done,” Meredith said, setting her phone aside.
“Not done!” Oscar fussed.
“Not done?”
As an answer, Oscar smacked the surface of the water again, and again Meredith got a lap full of spray.
“No splashing, please.”
Mischief narrowed his brown eyes, and he hit the water a third time. Meredith held back a sigh as more water seeped into her clothes. She hated to admit it, but her little guy was changing. Growing up. And growing up meant testing the boundaries. Wistfulness pinched her heart. She certainly was not ready to say goodbye to her sweet baby.
“Oscar, you got Mama all wet, and now I’m cold,” she said calmly.
Oscar peered over the edge of the tub at her soaked leggings. Then he looked up at her with wide eyes.
“My sorry, Mama.”
My sorry.Meredith could only smile. He was still her sweet baby. Even if he was changing. “C’mon. Let’s get you out of the tub, and we can have story time.”
Oscar reached up so she could lift him from the bath, and Meredith hurried to set him down on the mat and bundle him in a towel. The McCormicks’ house — like most of the older houses in the Saint Streets — was on piers, not a slab, which made it drafty and chilly in the winter. The bathroom had the original white-chrome space heater set in the wall, but Meredith was always too afraid of carbon monoxide poisoning to light it.
Oscar’s arms turned to gooseflesh as she rubbed him down with the towel. As fast as she could, Meredith put on his diaper and pajamas. Her phone chimed while she scrubbed the towel over his head to dry his hair. She ignored the tone, drained the tub, and cleaned up Oscar’s bath toys before she carried him through the house to tell his grandparents goodnight.
After two songs and five picture books, Oscar drifted off, and Meredith moved like a ninja to slip out of bed to keep from waking him. It was only 7:50, and she didn’t feel like joining Leona and Big Jim in the living room to watchHoarders, so she grabbed her phone and jacket.
“Oscar’s down,” she said as she headed for the front door. “I’m going for a walk.”