Zip, Zero, Zilch
Page 48

I’m happy to babysit Kit. I’m just really surprised they asked me. They usually use a network of the brothers and their wives. “Do you two have big p-plans today?”
Logan points to his ear. “Pre-op appointment.”
“Do your b-brothers know?” Surely Sam would have mentioned it to me.
He shakes his head. “We wanted to do this alone. So I’d appreciate it if you could keep it to yourself.”
“You want me to l-lie to him?”
“No…” He shakes his head. “We’re putting you in a bad spot, aren’t we?”
“You really should t-tell them.” Their feelings are going to be hurt if he does this without them. “It’s a big deal and you need your family for this.”
Emily punches his shoulder. “See, I told you so. You need to tell them.”
He swipes a hand down his face. “Okay. After this appointment, I’ll tell them that I’m giving up my culture so that I can have an operation. That I’m taking back all the ways they changed for me so that I can hear. It was all for nothing. Their learning to sign. Their learning to communicate with me. Their lifestyle changes, like flashing phone monitors, and captioned television all the time. It was all for nothing.”
“You’re not nothing,” Emily tells him. “And that’s exactly why they learned everything they did. And you’re not changing. You’re not giving up anything.”
I feel like I shouldn’t be here, so I bend down and pick Kit up. She lets me lift her in my arms and she starts to babble at me.
“What did she say?” Logan asks. I can hear his teeth grinding as he waits for my response.
“Nothing, really,” I tell him.
“See, that’s what I need to know.”
“I get it,” I tell him. And I totally do.
“What we don’t get is why you feel the need to do this alone.” Emily isn’t pulling any punches with him at all.
He wraps his arm around Emily’s shoulder and pulls her against him. “I’m not alone.”
Emily rolls her eyes and hands me a piece of paper with phone numbers on it. “Call me if anything goes wrong, okay? We should be gone at least until this afternoon.” She hugs me really quickly. “And thank you for doing this. I didn’t know who else to ask. I mean, I could have asked one of the others, but then I’d have to lie about where we’re going and I didn’t want to do that.” She glares at Logan. “I still don’t want to do that.”
“One of the others?” I’m not sure what she meant by that.
“One of the other Reed girls.” She grins at me. “You’re officially a Reed Significant Other.” She starts to tick items off on her fingers. “So, you’re officially invited to girls’ night, makeover parties, and shopping trips.” She jerks a thumb toward Kit. “And babysitting.” She grins.
Honestly, I feel honored she even asked me to watch Kit.
Emily hands me a toy. “If you’ll shake this around and make lots of noise, we’ll sneak out the door when she’s not looking.”
I take the toy and do a little dance with it, and Kit follows me down the hallway as fast as her little legs will take her. I hear the door open and shut, and then it’s just me and the baby. When she goes back into the living room, she notices her mom and dad are gone and she plops down on her bottom and lets out a long and disgusted wail.
I shake the toy and make faces at her, but it does no good. I drag her diaper bag over, trying to find something to take her mind off her parents, and she spies her bottle. She pulls it from a pouch on the side of the bag and pops into her mouth. She immediately quiets.
Well, I never saw a self-serve baby before. Maybe the rest of the day will be this easy.
Sam
I knock on the door and step back, about to shit my shorts in fear. Marta opens the door and looks up at me and grins. She motions me forward. “Is Emilio here?” I ask. I wipe my feet on the doormat.
She crosses her arms in front of her chest. She has flour on her cheek and her forehead is damp.
“Am I interrupting you?” I ask.
“Not at all.” She motions for me to follow her to the kitchen. Emilio is there and he’s icing cupcakes, grumbling to himself.
“Are you here to help?” he grouses.
“Um…” I straighten my spine. “Actually, I came to talk to you.”
His eyes narrow.
Marta smiles at me, winks, and walks out of the room whistling.
“What do you want?” he asks. He blows out a breath.
He’s struggling with a bag of icing. I motion for him to hand it to me. “What are these for?” I ask.
“Marta got a wild hair up her ass and decided she had to make several million of these little fuckers for the bake sale at the church.” He grumbles obscenities. “The girls were supposed to help her, but Peck suddenly had something she had to do today, and the rest of them haven’t shown up yet. So who gets drafted?” He points to his chest. “Me, that’s who. And I fucking hate this shit.” He glares at me. “What did you come here for?”
“Oh, nothing,” I mutter.
He sets down the cupcake he’s holding. “Nothing’s wrong with Peck, is it?”
“No, she’s fine.”
I start to pipe icing onto a cupcake. Emilio watches me and grins. “You can stay,” he says.