Mike put both palms out flat in a gesture of halt! “We get it. And yes—we tried that. No go. We’ve sent flowers. Chocolates. Gotten extra cleaning and errand help. You name it. All she wants to do is play with the baby, nurse, and read.”
The group went silent as they ate their way through two continents’ worth of plates filled with amazing culinary feats.
As they picked at the remainders of the desserts, Josie had an idea. “You said she just reads all day, right?”
“Yep.” Unison. The frequency with which those two answered the same word or phrase was eerie.
“What’s she reading?”
Mike’s face folded into an expression of consternation. “No idea.”
Dylan shrugged, eyebrows coming together as he frowned, near-perfect muscles attuned and thinking, all focused on her question. He might be an arrogant ass but he was a damn attractive one. Shaking his head he looked at Mike. “Me too. I can’t say.”
Josie chuckled. “I think,” she said, scooping the last dregs of truffle shavings out of a tall sundae glass, “you might find some answers on her eReader.”
Alex crossed his arms over his chest, then groaned, removing his arms and placing a flat palm on his full stomach. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t you think that knowing what she’s doing for most of her waking hours could help Mike and Dylan to understand what she’s feeling?”
All three men bent in, leaning toward her, as if she were divulging the secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
“Seriously, guys? The woman spends eight or ten hours a day reading and living in a fantasy land in her head and you didn’t even think to ask her what she’s reading?”
Mike blinked rapidly, his strong, Nordic jaw set in concentration. Piercing blue eyes met hers, buried under a brow furrowed in understanding. “She is living in that little machine. And in her head. I never thought to ask what she’s reading, frankly. I just ask about her and the baby.”
Dylan sighed, his face so different from Mike’s, dark and swarthy, yet no less concerned. He was also the scruffier of the two, with a torn t-shirt from some ’80s band covering his toned body, and a face that hadn’t been shaved in a good three weeks. “Beard” wasn’t quite the word for the train wreck of whiskers that covered his face and neck.
“No, I didn’t ask either.” He ran a frustrated hand over his face. “Jesus. How could we miss that?”
“Because you’re men,” Josie declared.
Six eyes stared at her, gone to stone.
“It’s true!”
“You’re saying women are smarter than men about relationships?” Alex asked, his voice fighting to stay neutral. Her heart soared. She loved a challenge.
“Do you have a penis?”
“You know damn well I do.”
“Then yes.”
“You realize that you’re the one who was so terrified of my monster of a mother that you—”
“HEY!” Mike growled. “This is our relationship mess we’re deconstructing. Not yours. Go book a slot on Dr. Phil if you want to untangle your mess.”
“We’re the ones who should be on that show,” Dylan grumbled.
“You’re better suited for Maury,” Josie said.
“Who?”
“Nevermind.”
“Nice diversion,” Alex cracked, elbowing her in the rib, “but let’s get back to the point. Go read her eReader. See what she’s been reading. Maybe it will give you some ideas and you can go from there.”
“I can already guess,” Dylan groaned. “Breastfeeding books and baby signs and how to make homemade baby food. Sew your own cloth diapers. How to make a Maya wrap from leftover moss and shredded placenta. Shit like that.”
“It’s not shit!” Mike retorted. “It’s a perfectly valuable way to bond with your kid.”
Dylan rolled his eyes. “Co-sleeping and breastfeeding is fine. But she’s going on about sherpa fleece and buying a sewing machine to make more absorbent cloth diapers and my mind goes zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. And now she’s asking about ‘elimination communication.’”
“What’s that?” Josie was almost afraid to ask. “Like, announcing when you have to pee?”
“OK, she’s going overboard,” Mike relented. He turned to Josie. “No—it’s not using diapers on the baby and reading her signals when she needs to go, then holding her over the toilet.”
“Laura is doing that?” Josie’s jaw dropped.
“No, thank god,” Dylan exclaimed. “But she’s thinking about it.”
“She really has thrown herself into the whole Attachment Parenting thing,” Josie agreed.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Alex said. “Every parent has to pick the approach that works best.”
Silence. That anyone anywhere was holding a baby over a toilet every hour so it could pee was an eye opener. If Alex wanted that for their kids... Wait. What kids? She didn’t want kids! Josie scrubbed her mind. She needed to focus on Laura.
“But you might want to broaden your expectations,” Josie mused. “I think you’re in for a surprise when you see what she’s been reading.”
“You know something we don’t?” Dylan asked.
“No. It’s just...I’m a woman.”
Three balled up napkins hit her head at the same time.
Dylan
“Are they asleep?”
Mike closed the bedroom door slowly and looked at him, a finger pressed to his lips. Turning the knob slowly, he managed to close it entirely with just the faintest click. “Yes.”
Finally! Josie’s suggestion had been a good one, he had to grudgingly admit, but getting Laura 1) away from her eReader 2) away from both of them and 3) Jillian away from both of them all at the same time had proven to be a logistics nightmare worthy of air traffic control at LaGuardia Airport. What a mess. Ten days after their meeting with Josie and Alex at Jeddy’s they finally had their chance. With Laura sound asleep, and Jillian snuggled up with her, they could take a long look at what was going on inside Laura’s head.
Literally.
The eReader powered up quickly and Dylan zipped his way through the screen to find her library.
Well, now.
Josie was right, much as Dylan was loathe to admit it.
“It’s like a giant online porn shop!” Mike hissed. His eyes bugged out of his head as he leaned over Dylan and held the corner of the machine.