His lip twitched. “I’m not a detective. The plates made it easy.”
The man looked uncomfortable sitting there. Like he didn’t want to be there but had come because someone had forced him to. He was still in his knit cap and jacket and looked too big for the chair. She knew he was a big muscular guy. Not fat, by any stretch of the imagination. But he was tall, like definitely over six feet, and had breadth to his shoulders.
She eyed him suspiciously before letting her gaze wander down his physique to the gift bag covered in jungle animals and the bouquet of flowers from Flowers on 5th. She knew they were from Zara’s shop. Zara used the gold paper to wrap her flowers rather than plastic because it was better for the environment. And she also had a unique way of wrapping flowers that was easily discernible from lesser bouquets.
“Are those for us?” she asked, hoping to relieve him of some of his anxiety.
He nearly jumped in his seat before leaning over and placing the flowers and gift bag on her coffee table. “They are.”
“You didn’t have to.”
He shrugged. “It’s not much. I don’t really know anything about babies, so I hope it’s all okay.” The unease in his eyes and the way his full lips twisted pulled at her heartstrings. She didn’t take him for a man unsure of himself. He had an air about him that spoke of confidence, almost an alpha vibe. But at that moment, he looked anything but alpha or confident. The man was so out of his element, it would be funny if it wasn’t sad.
She stood up from her spot on the couch and walked over to where he sat in the chair. “Take off your coat.”
An adorable crease formed between his dark red brows. But he did as he was told, dropping the coat to the floor. He was in a long-sleeved, gray Henley, and it fit him like a glove. Muscles popped, and she finally got a true glimpse of those broad shoulders and chest. She quickly swallowed the saliva that pooled in her mouth and draped the burp cloth over his arm, then she placed her son in his arms.
The whole time Isaac looked like he was going to puke.
“I …”
She rested her hand on his shoulder. “You’ll be okay.” Then she went back to sit on the couch and open the gift bag.
Isaac stared down at the tiny human sleeping soundly in his arms, and his chest tightened to a point of pain he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt before. But even though his chest tightened, his muscles relaxed and his breathing evened out. Eventually, his chest relaxed too.
Lauren’s throaty chuckle from the couch had him lifting his gaze to her.
“He has that effect on people. He’s like a drug. The best medicine to calm the nerves,” she said, eyeing him with a coy, knowing smile. “He’s a good baby. Easy. The doctor has him on some anti-reflux meds, as he was spitting up a lot, which caused him some grief, but now that he’s on them, he sleeps well, eats well, poops well. I’m very lucky.”
It was like night and day, the woman who sat placidly in front of him with a calm, beautiful smile on her lips versus the woman who had been in a level-ten freak-out two weeks ago. But who could blame her? Two weeks ago, she was stuck in traffic alone and in labor. Now, she and her son were healthy, home and safe.
“How are you doing?” he asked, tucking his finger into Ike’s fist until the little guy held on. He lifted his head again to her face.
“Thank you for asking that. Besides my best friends, who are also mothers, most people just want to know about Ike. Nobody really gives a damn about me.”
Thank you, Sidney, for the words of wisdom.
“I’m doing okay, thank you. Tired, bloated and still a little sore. But all in all, I feel good.”
“Overwhelmed?”
How could she not be? He certainly would be.
She nodded. “A little, yeah. But my friends have been helpful. They come over and hold him so I can take a shower.”
Having a newborn made it challenging to have a shower? Couldn’t she just do it while he slept? But then, he had no idea. Maybe she had anxieties about leaving him alone or something. He had his own weird hang-ups about things, so he was no one to judge.
“Do you need to take a shower now?” he asked. The longer he held baby Ike, the more he was enjoying it. “I can hold him.”
She smiled and chuckled. “I just did, thanks. The girls watched him for me.” She opened the bag and pulled out the items Sid’s sister-in-law, Evangeline, had carefully selected for him. She’d done all the work. He told her how old the baby was and then she did the rest. Set him back over a hundred dollars, but he didn’t really have anybody else to spend his money on, so whatever.
Then the woman at Flowers on 5th made him the mother of all bouquets. He told her it was for a new mom and a single mom at that and she said “say no more” and went crazy grabbing various blooms and stems. She even gave him a discount—apparently. Though the thing still set him back over seventy bucks.
“This is adorable,” she said, holding up the sleeper Evangeline had picked out. It was green with little orange and blue dinosaurs on it. The feet had dinosaur feet, and it also had a hood, which sported soft spikes that ran all the way down the back. When Evangeline had shown it to him, he’d nodded immediately. He’d always been a dinosaur buff as a kid—he still really liked them. “I plan to do his nursery dinosaur-themed. Did I mention that to you?”
He shook his head. They hadn’t really talked much besides the necessary information, like she needed a doctor and was about to have a baby and the guy who got her pregnant was a fuckwad who should be castrated. Other than that, he knew very little about her. “No, I just really like dinosaurs and I thought it was cute.”
“I love dinosaurs,” she said, setting the sleeper aside to dig into the bag more.
After the sleeper, the rest of the gifts were a bit of a no-brainer. It was a dinosaur-themed gift, and now that he knew she liked dinosaurs and was doing a dinosaur-themed nursery, he had lots of ideas for future gifts.
Was he really thinking about future gifts? Where the hell did that come from?
She pulled out a T. rex-shaped teether filled with water that you put in the freezer, a matching dinosaur plate, fork and spoon, a couple of dinosaur bibs, a dinosaur stuffed animal and, of course, a dinosaur book. Once she’d emptied the bag, she looked up at him, tears in her eyes and an expression of wonder on her face. “You didn’t have to get us, him all of this.”
He shrugged before glancing back down at Ike. “I wanted to. I’m single, childless, petless. And this guy was named after me. Of course he needs to be spoiled.” He lifted his head to smile at her, jerking his chin toward the bouquet. “The flowers and gift card are for you. I was told explicitly not to ignore the mom.”
Chuckling through the tears, she reached for the bouquet and pulled out the envelope. She wiped the back of her hand beneath her nose as she opened it. He hadn’t been anticipating the gasp, but it made him happy that she did. Her sky-blue eyes went wide before she started to shake her head, her messy topknot jostling on her head. “I can’t accept this. It’s too much. Isaac, I can’t.”
He rolled his eyes. “You can. You deserve to be pampered. When you’re ready to leave him with a sitter, go and have a spa day. But for now, if there is a day where you’re frazzled and don’t feel like cooking, order something. Both the spa gift certificate and the pre-prepared meal gift certificate never expire, so use them whenever.”