I force another smile I hope looks reassuring before I hang up and make my way to the man who I’ve rarely seen looking anxious before.
“Hey,” I call out. “You all right?”
Eli looks up, then pulls his phone away from his ear and presses something on the screen.
“Minor crisis. I’ll be fine.”
“What happened?”
As he types something, he says, “One of my kitchen staff just called in sick, and we have an event to cater in an hour, so I have to step in.”
So, he hasn’t taken over his dad’s food truck, then. A restaurant, maybe?
“Can I help with anything?” I don’t know anything about professional cooking, but I’m sure I could learn quick if I’m givensimple tasks.
“Unless you can get your sister or mine to answer their phones and agree to babysit tonight, then I don’t think so, but thank you.”
Right. He needs help with Zoe, not with his job.
I crack my thumb, watching as he makes another call. I hate feeling useless.
Except I don’t have to be.
“I could do it,” I say before I can second-guess myself. I can’t work. I can’t go see Keira, I’m not ready to go to Mom’s yet, and being stuck in a space that reminds me of Ruth at every turn is stifling. But this, I can do. Plus, this could be some kind of exposure therapy. I’ve felt suffocated, being surrounded by mothers and babies recently, but Zoe isn’t a baby. She’s just one kid.
Eli’s head snaps up, but after a second, he returns his attention to his phone, disconnecting his unanswered call. “I wouldn’t ask that of you.”
“You’re not asking. I’m offering.”
“Still. That’s… It shouldn’t be on you to do this.”
His lips twitch, and while he’s not being rude, it feels almost insulting, how much he’s resisting my offer.
“We took our Red Cross babysitting class together, remember?”
That makes him chuckle once, and immediately, I get a glimpse of the old Eli. “Considering we were, like, nine and ten, and I remember exactly zero things from it, this is not the reassurance you think it is.”
“But I always did have such a better memory than you.”
He grins again but still presses another call button. I see the contact being Mrs. Peabody.
“All right, now this is seriously wounding. You’d rather have the old librarian who always smelled like weed than me?”
As if I’ve reminded him of who exactly he’s been calling, he cancels the call. “Pretty sure that weed was medicinal.”
“You are gullibility incarnated.” I take a step in his direction. “Seriously, though. I’ve dealt with more shit than you could ever imagine at the hospital. I can take care of a kid for one evening, I promise.”
His lips twist once more, and then he says, “Fine. Thank you. You’d be a lifesaver.”
It’s nothing big. He’s allowing me to do him a favor. And yet, after the distaste I got from Keira this morning, and the reminder of my failure at work, this trust feels like a major win.
He tucks his phone in his pants and heads toward his front door. I assume it’s an invitation to follow him.
“She’s already eaten dinner and had her bath, so the only thing to do is maybe read her a story and get her to bed, and then you can do whatever you want.” We walk inside, and while I want to take it all in and see what’s changed over the years, he doesn’t give me the time to. Eli is on a roll. As we walk, he grabs a package I recognize as his father’s knife set, then closes a few cupboards that had been left open. “She’s usually easy to get to sleep, but that’s when she’s used to who tucks her in…” He pauses, gaze darting at his daughter playing with Legos in the living room. He drags a hand through his hair. “You know, maybe I should call Keira again. She’s usually home on Tuesdays.”
It’s a hit he’s not even aware he’s given. “Eli,” I say, placing both hands on his shoulders. It’s the first time I’ve touched really him in years, but now’s not the time to notice how bulky his arms have gotten or how, from this close, I can smell the same Irish Springs body wash he used as a teen. “We’ll be fine.”
I don’t pause to think about whose kid it is I’ll be having under my care or what it is exactly I’m signing up for. He needs me. I can do that one thing for him. If I had time to consider this, I’d probably freak out at how I haven’t taken care of a kid, not as a nurse but as a babysitter, maybe ever, but I don’t have that luxury. Plus, Zoe looks to be the sweetest kid. How hard can a single night be?
