Chapter Ten
The next morning, I got up early and started making phone calls.
Since I didn’t think Austin would be home with me today, I hadn’t made any arrangements for a babysitter. I already knew my mom was working over at the hospital administration office this morning so there wasn’t much of a point in calling her. But even our regular babysitter already had plans so she wasn’t available on such short notice, either. But when I couldn’t get a hold of anyone else, I started to panic.
I had to go to work. Not because I needed the money or anything. But because I was already covering someone else’s shift and couldn’t leave Daisy to cover a Saturday morning shift all by herself. If I bailed on work, I would be letting a lot of people down. And if I took Austin with me, he would be bored to tears sitting in a booth for so many hours of the day. Besides the fact that it would be really hard to keep an eye on him while I was busy.
Damn it. What was I going to do?
I was leaning on the counter, trying to figure out a solution, when Seth walked into the kitchen. “Good morning,” he said, heading straight for the coffee pot.
Something wiggled around in my brain, and I smiled. It probably wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had, but it wasn’t like I had any other option at the moment. “Could I get you to do me a huge favor?”
“Sure,” he said, pouring black coffee into a mug. “What can I do for you?”
“Keep an eye on my son for me.”
He gazed around the room, looking for Austin. “Seems to me that you lost him already.”
I grinned. “He’s still in bed. I’m about to go wake him up and feed him breakfast.”
“So you want me to go watch him sleep? That’s a little creepy, don’t you think?” He took a sip from his steaming cup.
“No, I want you to watch him while I go to work. It’s only for eight hours.”
Thank God he turned his head at the last second because coffee sprayed from his mouth. He sputtered and wiped liquid from his chin. “You want me to do what?”
“Babysit Austin.”
He set his mug down and shook his head. “Uh-uh. No way. Not me.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t do kids.”
“What are you talking about? You’ve been great with Austin. He loves you to pieces.”
He shifted uncomfortably. “I’ve never babysat someone else’s kid before. I wouldn’t even know how.”
“Oh, give me a break. You’ve kept your eye on him for me before.”
“Only for a minute. Kids don’t move much in one minute. Eight hours is a different story. I’d have to nail him to the floor. Hate to say it, Bobbie, but your kid is like a Mexican jumping bean.”
I sighed. “Please. I don’t have anyone else. I’ve called everyone I can think of. You’re my last option.”
“Well, that makes me feel better.” He rolled his eyes.
“You’d be doing me a huge favor, and I’d be happy to pay you for your time.”
He glared at me. “I don’t want your money. Why can’t you just tell my uncle that you can’t make it today?”
“Because I’m covering someone else’s shift and would be leaving one waitress alone on our busiest day of the week. She’s going to need my help.”
He ran a hand through his short black hair, mussing it. “I, uh…”
“Please, Seth.”
He blew out a breath. “All right, fine. I’ll do it.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you. I’ll be just a phone call away if you need anything at all.”
“You better be.”
…
After getting off work, I headed home and pulled up in front of the house just after three o’clock. I didn’t know where Seth and Austin were, so I checked inside the house first. That way it would give me a chance to put down my purse.
My first thought upon walking through the front door was that I had either been burglarized or someone had thrown a keg party. The entire house was in disarray. Blanket forts and toys littered the living room. Practically every dish in the kitchen had been pulled out of the cabinets. Clothes were strewn throughout the rooms, as if our laundry room had exploded. The only things I didn’t see were Seth or my child. Anywhere.
I decided to look out a window on the back side of the house to see if maybe Seth was letting Austin play in the tree house. That’s when I noticed the large plumes of white smoke billowing into the air. My blood ran cold, and my stomach tightened. I ran to the back door as fast as I could.
I barely pushed it open when I noted the rustic-looking tepee set up near the tree house in the backyard and blew out a sigh of relief. The smoke I’d seen came from the vent hole at the top. Though the tepee was primitive, it must’ve taken a while to build. Each of the long tree branches would’ve had to been cut to size and leaned against one another to form the frame. Then a large blue tarp had been draped around the frame to form the tepee, leaving one section flapped over which I assumed was the doorway to get inside.
Seth’s deep voice wafted from inside. “So whenever my people needed to speak to the guardians, work out a problem, or gain the ancestor’s sacred wisdom, they would go to the sweat lodge and connect with them on a separate plane.”
“Like an airplane?” Austin asked.
“No. The kind of plane I’m talking about is like a spiritual level. That’s where the guardians of the spirit world live. That’s who I go to in order to learn the mysterious secrets of my most highly trusted ancestors.”
“What if they don’t talk to you?”
“Well, they don’t always. Sometimes, they’ll just send a symbol of good luck to let you know that they’re happy for you and wishing you well. That sign usually comes in the form of a rare white stag.”
“What’s a stag?”
“Oh. Uh, well it’s a male deer.”
“My uncles call those bucks.”
Seth chuckled. “Well, that’s probably because they aren’t from my tribe and don’t have a Comanche name like I do.”
“You have another name?”
“Yep,” Seth told him. “It was given to me by my grandfather when I was very little. Probably about your age.”
“What is it? Is it a secret?”
“Not really. They called me Warhorse.”
That sent Austin into hysterics. “That’s a silly name. What about me? Do I get new name?”
“Do you want one?” Austin must’ve nodded because Seth continued. “All right, then how about we call you…Little Bull?”
My heart squeezed. Seth was so good with Austin and insanely sweet. Who knew the muscled-up handyman had such a soft side?
There was a slight pause. “It’s really hot in here,” Austin finally said, clearly unimpressed. “Can we get out now?”
I couldn’t help but grin.
Seth laughed. “Sure, buddy. Let’s go.”
Two shirtless bodies, slickened with sweat, emerged from the makeshift tepee. I walked toward them as they both looked up and Austin said, “Hi, Momma. Look what Seth made for me.”
“I see that. Very cool,” I told him, ruffling his sweat-soaked hair. “Why don’t you run inside and get you a juice box from the door of the fridge. It’ll help cool you down.”
“Okay,” Austin said before disappearing through the door.
I gazed up at Seth. “So do I get a name, too?”
Seth’s eyes roamed over my face, and he grinned at me. “Why not? I think I’ll call you…Sexy as Fuck. Will that work?”
I laughed. “Hmm. I like it. Very original. But my child can’t say that.”
“Then I guess we’ll just have to keep that one to ourselves.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you for watching him for me. I really appreciate it. And thanks for making a tepee for him, too. It looks like he had a lot of fun with you. I hope he didn’t give you any problems.”
“Not really. But, uh…I’m taking it that you’ve already seen the inside of the house?”
“Um, yeah. It looks like a tornado went through there.”
“Tornado Austin. That kid destroyed things he shouldn’t have been able to for his size.”
“Sounds about right,” I said, laughing. “Did you at least feed him?”
Seth nodded. “Of course I did. That was the only thing that kept him still for longer than two minutes.”
I laughed. “What did you feed him?”
“Candy.”
My eyes widened. “Candy?”
“Well, yeah. That’s what he said he wanted.”
Great. “It’s no wonder the house is destroyed. You pumped the kid full of sugar and turned him loose.” I shook my head. “I guess I’ll just go inside and start an early dinner.”
I went back inside with Seth following right behind me. Austin sat at the table with his juice box, still trying to put the straw into the hole. “I’m doing it all by myself,” he said before I could even offer to help.
“Okay.”
A minute later, he finally got the straw in and smiled. “Hey, Momma. Seth let me pee outside today.”
I glanced over at Seth. “Really? Do you know how long it took me to potty train that boy? What’s next? Are you going to teach him how to lift his leg on a fire hydrant, too?”
Seth started to grin but apparently thought better of it. “Sorry. I was right in the middle of chasing Romeo around the yard. I had to put the mutt in a full nelson just to get the football back from him.”
“Lovely. So now you’re beating up the dog? I can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I?” I winked to let him know I was teasing.
“Well, before you let me off the hook that easy, I probably should tell you that I owe you a new, uh…I don’t know what it’s called. The thing you put on your toes when you paint them.”
On my toes? “Oh, you mean my toe separator?”
“Yeah, that thing. We used it.”
I giggled. “You painted my son’s toes?”
“Uh, no.”
Oh. Okay. “He painted yours?”
“Hell no,” he said, making Austin chuckle at the curse word. “Oops. I mean heck no. We painted the toe thingy with your gold nail polish.”
I was so confused. “Why on Earth would you paint my toe separator?”
“Well, we had a rumble in the living room and Austin needed a pair of brass knuckles. Since I didn’t figure you’d want him playing with real ones, we made him some.” He shrugged. “And they were foam so it didn’t hurt when he punched me.”
“You let him punch you?”
“I didn’t let him. I was teaching him how to fight.”
Dear God. “Seth, he’s only four. He doesn’t need to know how to fight at this age. Besides, I’ve told him that it’s best to walk away from a fight.”
“I told him that, too. But I also showed him a couple of self-defense moves to protect himself. Sometimes it’s not possible to walk away from a fight.”
“Sure, it is. If it’s a fair one.”
Seth shook his head. “Fights are rarely fair. Usually one of the opponents has skills or strength the other doesn’t.”
“Maybe, but that’s why it’s best to walk away. You never know who has what. And if you’re the weaker person, the last thing you want to do is pick a fight with someone who is stronger and has more skills than you. That’s exactly why Jeremy always gets his ass…I mean, butt kicked every time he starts a fight in The Backwoods. You would think he’d learn his lesson, but he never does.”
“Momma, my finger hurts,” Austin said, gazing at his palm.
I walked over and peered at it closely. “Looks like you have a big splinter. We’ll have to go to the bathroom and get out the first aid kit so I can pull it out with some tweezers and disinfect it.”
“I want Seth to do it.”
“No, Seth probably has other things to do. I’ll take care of it for—”
“I don’t mind,” Seth said. “You go ahead and start dinner. I’ll deal with the splinter.”
“Okay,” I said. “The first aid kit is under the sink.”
I watched Seth lift Austin from the chair and flip him upside down as he headed for the bathroom with him. Austin’s giggle trailed behind them. And because I was curious how Seth would handle the splinter situation, I waited a moment before I followed behind them, too.
Through the crack on the door, I watched Seth flip Austin right side up and then place him on the sink before grabbing the first aid kit. Seth sanitized the tweezers with alcohol before grasping Austin’s hand and pulling closer.
But my son pulled his hand back. “Is this gonna hurt?”
“Not me,” Seth said, grinning. “I’m just kidding. No, it’s not going to hurt. Just hold your hand still and I’ll pull it right out. You won’t feel a thing.”
“Are you sure?”
Seth nodded to him. “I promise. You trust me, right?”
Austin nodded and let Seth pull his hand back to him. It only took a second to pull the splinter out and pour a small amount of alcohol on Austin’s hand. “There. All better. And you didn’t feel a thing, right?”
Admiration gleamed in Austin’s eyes. “I didn’t feel it at all. Thank you, Uncle Seth.”
“Uncle?” Seth said, his brow rising. “Austin, you know I’m not your uncle, right?”
“Why aren’t you?”
“Uh, well, you already have uncles. Lots of them, I hear. I don’t know that you need another one. But I can be your friend.” Seth smiled at him.
“How about my daddy? I don’t have one of those.”
The smile melted from Seth’s face, and I cringed. The poor kid wanted a father so badly that he had gotten confused about Seth’s role in our lives. That was the last thing I needed right now.
But to be fair, as well as honest with myself, I could see exactly why Austin was so perplexed. With Seth living with us, it had offered us a bit of security and stability in our lives that hadn’t been there before. I counted on him…too much. I just hadn’t considered that Austin had started doing the same. Without realizing it, Seth had filled a void in our lives.
Seth sighed. “Well, squirt. It doesn’t really work like that. But trust me, one day your mom is going to marry someone special, and that guy will be a great dad to you, I promise.”
“What if he isn’t?”
“Then I’ll find him and kick his ass…I mean, rear.”
Austin giggled. “You said another bad word.”
“I know. Sorry about that. Just don’t tell your mom on me, okay?”
“Momma said I can’t keep secrets from her. That it’s not nice to lie.”
Seth nodded. “Then you better listen to her. She’s a smart woman.”
“She’s pretty, too.”
Aw, my sweet angel.
“Yes, she is,” Seth agreed.
“And she smells good, too. Almost like Fruity Pebbles.”
Seth laughed and lifted him off the counter. “I’ll take your word for it, munchkin. If I go sniffing on your mom, she’s liable to use real brass knuckles on me.”
I grinned as I slipped down the hall and back into the kitchen before they came out.