Earning Yancy (16 page)

T
he next morning,
I got up before Carolena, took a quick shower, and began making food for our picnic. I knew that my daughter wouldn’t remember today, but I was determined to make it special for myself. To me, this was a big deal.

I drank my coffee and focused on making potato salad. I would make the chicken salad and deviled eggs later, once the baby was awake. I had just put the container of potatoes in the fridge when I heard Carolena stirring.

After I got her up and fed her breakfast, I let Carolena play in the floor with a couple of pots and a wooden spoon while I made the eggs and chicken salad. On a whim, I decided to make some fruit salad as well. I cut up grapes and strawberries and I would slice the apple and banana right before we left for the park and toss it with a citrus dressing to keep the fruit from turning brown.

“Ready for a bath?” I asked Carolena after I put the fruit in the fridge.

“Ducky!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands.

I laughed at her enthusiasm and scooped her up from the floor. I put her in the tub and let her play and splash for a while. When she was done, I checked the weather report on my phone and saw that the day would be in the high fifties, so I dressed us both warmly in jeans, long-sleeved shirts, and hoodies.

At eleven, the doorbell rang. My heart picked up speed as I carried Carolena to the door with me. After Cooper’s unexpected arrival on Wednesday night, I peeked out the window to be sure that he wasn’t the one standing on my porch. Charles saw me and winked.

Smiling, I opened the door. “Hey.” I stepped back and let him inside. I looked at Carolena. She was staring at Charles with wide eyes. She hadn’t spent a lot of time around men other than my father and brother-in-laws. “Carolena, this is Charles. He’s a friend of Mommy’s.”

Charles, bless him, seemed unfazed by her intense scrutiny. “Hi, Carolena. It’s nice to meet you.”

She put a finger to her mouth, lips pursed, as she continued to study him like a bug under a microscope. Finally, she laid her head on my shoulder, her eyes still on Charles.

I sighed. “She’s going to pretend she’s bashful for a while,” I joked.

Charles shrugged. “Hey, when my niece was her age, she used to scream every time she saw me, even though I spent time with her at least once a week from birth. This is preferable.”

I chuckled. “That sounds about right. You’re just in time to help me pack up the cooler.”

I led him into the kitchen. I placed Carolena on the floor by her pots and pans and started loading up the large blue cooler. I directed Charles to the fridge to get a small bottle of milk, a pitcher of iced tea, and a few bottles of water while I gathered everything else we would need for the picnic.

Charles insisted on carrying the cooler out to my car and I found myself hypnotized by the sight of his muscles bunching under his henley as he hefted the burden from the kitchen counter. I planted Carolena on my hip, grabbed my bag and keys, and followed him out to the driveway. I popped the trunk for him and buckled the baby into her car seat while he settled the cooler into the trunk, along with a blanket I’d gotten out that morning.

The day turned out to be warmer than forecasted, and the temperature was in the mid-sixties when we reached the park. I immediately stripped both Lena and myself out of our hoodies. Charles grabbed the food while I handled the baby and the blanket. Once we sat down and I began to dish out food, Carolena inched closer to Charles, obviously curious.

At first, he acted as though he didn’t notice her, letting her get closer and closer to him. When she was near enough, she reached out a chubby hand and fingered the material of his jeans near his calf.

That was when he looked at her and smiled. “Hi there.”

Carolena’s head cocked to the side as she considered him. She patted his leg. “Pwetty.”

The expression on Charles’ face made me laugh and relax simultaneously. He seemed at ease around my little girl, which told me he hadn’t been exaggerating when he said he spent a lot of time with his niece and nephew.

“Thanks,” he said.

Carolena beamed at him. In an effort to distract her, I snapped a bib around her neck and fed her a bite of potato salad from my fork. I gave her bits of fruit and part of a deviled egg as Charles and I ate and talked.

As we finished eating, my vision seemed to sharpen and it was as if my brain became hyper focused on what I was seeing, hearing, and smelling. My daughter’s blonde head seemed to glow in the bright sunshine. I could smell a faint trace of her baby lotion mixed with the fresh tang of Charles’ scent. The cool breeze carried the sound of children playing on the nearby playground. Again, I was struck with the certainty that I should remember this moment because it was important. I wanted to take a three dimensional snapshot of the day and tuck it into my heart.

My thoughts suddenly stopped when I realized why this day seemed so special. This was the kind of memory I imagined for myself when I was married. The three of us at the park on the weekend, eating a picnic and playing together. These were the things that made a family, made a life. While Coop had never given me anything like this, Charles seemed to enjoy it.

Carolena’s squeal broke through my reverie and I blinked down at her. She clapped her hands and pointed at the swings fifty feet away.

“Sing!” she exclaimed.

“I’ll clean this up and meet you over there,” Charles said, gesturing for me to take my daughter to the playground that now held her rapt attention.

I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thanks.”

My face stayed close to his, our eyes locked despite the fact that we were both wearing sunglasses. Suddenly, I felt a little hand against my stomach and I realized that Carolena was standing between us, trying to push us apart.

I leaned forward and placed a loud, smacking kiss on her cheek. She giggled, pressing a hand to her cheek. Then, to my utter shock, she grabbed Charles’ shirt and put her face against his chest in a toddler parody of a kiss. She hadn’t yet mastered the gesture, but I knew what she was doing.

I could see Charles was confused. Before I could explain, Carolena smacked his arm. “Kiss!”

My chest felt tight as I watched Charles lower his face to give her an exaggerated version of a kiss on her cheek. The same warmth I’d felt before suffused my body. Every time this man did something sweet or unexpected, it took my breath away.

I lowered my face to hide my reaction and walked with my little girl to the playground. Immediately, she began to chant, “Sing, sing, sing, sing.”

I lifted her into the baby swing and began to push her. Five minutes later, Charles joined us, leaving the cooler beneath a nearby bench. Carolena played on the swings for a while before I pointed out the slide. She decided that the slide was what she wanted next.

Charles would help her climb the ladder on the shortest slide and I would catch her as she reached the bottom. After thirty minutes, she began to wind down, rubbing her eyes and yawning. I caught Charles’ eye and snatched her from the bottom of the slide, making her scream with laughter.

I knew she was ready to go home when she lowered her head to my shoulder. I rubbed her back gently. “You want your monkey?” I asked.

She burrowed closer and made a noise that I took for agreement. Charles seemed to understand what was happening because he grabbed the cooler and we began to walk to the car.

By the time we pulled out of the parking lot, Carolena’s head was bobbing as she fought to keep her eyes open. When we reached my house, I saw that she had succumbed to exhaustion.

“I’ll get the cooler,” Charles said softly. “You go ahead and put her down.”

I nodded and gently pulled my baby out of her car seat. Her eyes popped open, but stayed glazed as I carried her into the house and up the stairs. I managed to strip her out of her shirt and pants without fully waking her and laid her in her crib, putting her stuffed monkey within arm’s reach. Before I even straightened, she was asleep again, her plump cheeks flushed in sleep and her long eyelashes fanned over them. My heart swelled with love at the sight of her. It was the perfect ending to a beautiful afternoon.

I snuck out of her room and grabbed the baby monitor from my bedroom before I headed back downstairs. When I reached the kitchen, I found Charles pulling a beer out of the fridge.

“Want one?” he asked.

I nodded and smiled gratefully as he opened one and handed it to me. “Thanks. Wanna go chill out on the couch for a bit? I think I’m as tired as Carolena.”

He grinned, that dimple popping in his left cheek. “Sure.”

We went into the living room and I turned on the television. March Madness had begun that week, so there were a ton of basketball games on. Since I knew he preferred basketball to other sports, I handed Charles the remote.

“You choose. I just want to veg out,” I said.

That damn dimple returned, wreaking havoc on my heart. “Thanks.”

After he found a game he wanted to watch, Charles placed a pillow in his lap and patted it. If any other man had done that, I would have been wary. Instead, I rested my head on the pillow and sighed as the fingers of his free hand tangled in my hair, running through the strands. I wanted to purr like a cat at the sensation of being petted.

“You were great with Carolena today,” I mumbled, feeling drowsy from the beer and the physical activity.

“She’s freaking adorable, so it’s not hard to like her. Besides, I like kids. Wouldn’t mind having a couple of my own someday.”

I smiled sleepily. “You’d be a good dad.”

I was vaguely aware that Charles replied, but I was already drifting off and didn’t catch the words.

My pillow shifted
beneath me, jarring me out of a very pleasant nap. I grunted and tried to burrow deeper.

“Oh my!” My mother’s shocked voice had my eyes popping open.

I realized where I was and that I was still lying on my couch with my head in Charles’ lap. I also realized that, in my effort to hold my pillow still, my hand had crept beneath it and was resting precariously close to something that definitely didn’t feel soft.

I shot into a sitting position. “Holy shit!”

Charles winced as my mother and I both gaped at him, then one another as he discreetly clutched the pillow closer to his lap.

“Mom! What are you doing here?” I yelped.

Her face was bright red and, for the first time in my life, I saw my sweet Southern mama at a loss for the polite response. “Uh, well, sweetie, I wanted to drop by and see if I could take Carolena shopping with me this afternoon and give you a little break. I tried to call your cell and the house phone and couldn’t reach you, so I got a little worried and came by to make sure you were okay.”

I smoothed a hand on my hair, trying to calm down. “That was sweet of you, Mom. I know Carolena would love that, but she’s napping right now.”

My mother nodded, the blush finally leaving her face. Well, at least now I knew where I got the tendency to turn as red as a tomato. I realized that Charles and my mother were staring at me expectantly.

“Oh, Mom, this is Charles Faulkner. Charles, this is my mother, Carol Miller.”

Charles stood, displaying good old-fashioned manners that had a look of approval crossing my mother’s face. “It’s lovely to meet you, Mrs. Miller.” Like a proper gentleman, he waited until she offered her hand before he lifted his to shake it.

“Likewise, Charles. Please, call me Carol.” She smiled warmly at him, but her eyes turned slightly cool when she looked over at me. “I wish I could say I’ve heard all about you, but I’m afraid my daughter hasn’t told me much.”

He grinned affably. “Well, we’ve only been dating for a few weeks, so I’m sure she wanted to wait a while before mentioning me to her family.”

While my mother was polite to him, I recognized the look in her eye and I knew that I would be answering lots of questions about this man from both her and my sisters.

“Do you want something to drink, Mom?” I asked.

“That sounds lovely, dear.” Looking at Charles, she said, “Do you mind giving us a moment?”

Crap, it looked like my interrogation would start earlier than I expected.

“No problem,” Charles answered easily.

I followed my mother into the kitchen. As soon as the door shut behind me, she whirled, a huge grin on her face. Well, that wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.

“Yancy, why didn’t you tell me you were dating someone?”

I groaned and went to the cabinet to get a glass. “Like Charles said, it’s pretty early. Today was the first time he met Carolena. I wanted to see how things were going before I risked you people scaring him off.”

My mother scoffed. “Oh, we’re not that bad.”

I lifted an eyebrow at her as I put a few cubes of ice in the glass and reached into the fridge for a pitcher of sweet tea. “Not that bad?” I asked incredulously. “I can’t tell you how many boys you, Leslie, and Kelly drove away every time I brought them home from school.”

My mom waved a hand in dismissal. “They were all greasy-haired college boys. Charles is nothing like them. He’s the kind of man I expect for my baby girl.”