Huntington Family Series Page 33

  His boss was silent for a few minutes. “I’m sorry about your situation,” he said, “but we can’t wait two weeks for your report. Our grants depend on your research. And don’t forget the new wolves at the zoo. They’ll be arriving next week, and I’ve told our boys you’re going there to observe.”

  A shiver of anticipation ran up Mitch’s spine. He’d been excited to learn about the new wolves and at the idea of working, however briefly, with live animals instead of researching documents written by others who studied in the field. Lately he’d begun to regret his choice of careers. Maybe he should have been a vet—except then he would have worked with ordinary animals instead of the wild variety, and that didn’t thrill or excite him as it had when he’d been a child. Maybe he should consider teaching, but going back for a teaching certificate meant more classroom study, which would further remove him from the animals he loved.

  “What if I work from home?” he suggested. “I can research anywhere. She sleeps a lot, and I’ll get a sitter when I go to the zoo. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t have to, but this little girl has just lost both parents. I’m all she has.” The lump was back in Mitch’s throat, impossibly large and painful.

  “Okay. We can try that for a few days. But keep me informed.”

  “Thank you. I will. And I’ll get it finished.”

  “I know you will. And Mitch?”

  “Yes?”

  “Good luck. It’s a good thing you’re doing.”

  “Thank you.” Mitch hung up, feeling happy. He could do this! Somehow the Lord would help him take care of Emily Jane.

  The phone rang, and Mitch was grateful to hear his mother, Jessica Huntington, on the line, calling from Arizona where she and his father were vacationing. “I heard what happened,” she said. “How are you holding up?”

  “We’re doing fine.” He hoped his confidence showed in the words.

  His mother wasn’t fooled. “Raising a child isn’t like raising a pet.”

  “I know. I can do this, Mom.”

  “Of course you can. And we’ll all help. Poor little girl—she must really be confused right now. A baby deserves to have both parents.”

  “What do you want me to do? Give her up for adoption?” Mitch couldn’t do that without betraying Lane and Ashley’s trust. Except maybe to Amanda or Kerrianne, where he could keep a close eye on her. But Amanda had been so sick with her pregnancy that she had barely managed to teach until the end of the school year, not to mention her challenges in dealing with the two children she was responsible for. As for Kerrianne, now that Adam was gone, she was already raising three children alone.

  “What I meant was that maybe it’s time you thought seriously about finding a wife.” His mother’s tone rebuked him.

  “Oh, that.” His mother was always stomping up that trail. Since Amanda was safely married, Mitch was next in his mother’s mind, especially since he would soon be twenty-five. “I thought you were suggesting that I give her away—maybe to Manda and Blake.”

  “I think Amanda has her plate full right now.”

  “The point is that Lane and Ashley wanted me to raise her.”

  “Yes, but it’d be easier if you were married. I’m sure Lane thought you would be by now.”

  “So did I.” There, it was out. Now his mother would close in for the kill. “What does everyone expect?” he added before she could respond. “That I drive down to the wife dealership and pick out my favorite model?”

  She chuckled softly. “Well, maybe not that. But I have faith the Lord knows what He’s doing.” Mitch hoped so, too.

  “We’re coming home early,” she said. “We’ll be there tomorrow.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “We’re doing it anyway. We want to see this freckled cutie, as Amanda calls her. She’s our grandchild now, you know.”

  Mitch’s heart filled with warmth. “Thanks, Mom.”

  A short time after the call, Emily Jane awoke, struggling to get down when Mitch lifted her from the crib. She wandered around the small house, checking out each room. “Looking for paper to eat?” Mitch teased.

  Ignoring him, she searched the rooms again, this time uttering a pitiful “Momma?” as Mitch followed her helplessly. She pushed him away each time he tried to hold her. At last in desperation, he pulled his chinchilla from her cage. Emily Jane stopped sniffling and stuck a hand in the long white fur.

  “Softly,” Mitch said, taking her hand and showing her how. “I bet Lady’s hungry. Wanna help me feed her?”

  Emily Jane enjoyed helping him pour food into the containers so much that he let her help him with Hiccup and Elvis (whose pink, hairless babies numbered nine), Lizzy Lizzard, Muffin the Mutt, and Dizzy, his other gerbil, who now seemed quite lonely in her small cage. More food ended up on the carpet than in the feeders, but Mitch didn’t care. By the time he took Emily Jane to the garage to meet the ferrets and out back where he’d stuck the rabbits, she was smiling again.

  Inside once more, she discovered a piece of paper with his home teaching assignments that had fallen from the countertop. She promptly began to tear off little bits with her teeth and swallow them.

  Mitch didn’t dare protest too much or take it away. Instead, he placed her in the high chair his sisters had brought and gave her tiny pieces of microwaved pizza. “You love that, don’t you?” he said. “Much better than tasteless broccoli.”

  Emily Jane jabbered something unintelligible and shoved another piece into her mouth. She was eating the pizza so well that he was sure it was very last on the list of things to feed a baby—if it had made the list at all. Didn’t children always like things they shouldn’t eat?

  Guiltily, Mitch cut up a fresh pear and set the bits on her tray. Then he opened a baby food jar of peas, but she spat them out repeatedly. “At least you like the pears. Hmm, I’ll have to remember that.”

  After dinner he played with Emily Jane until she was tired. Then he changed her into pink pajamas and gave her another bottle. She fell asleep easily. He had put her in the crib and was congratulating himself on a job well done when she awoke and started to sob heartbrokenly for her mother. Mitch paced the floor with her in his arms until she drifted off again.

  She woke up five more times that night, calling for a mother who could not answer. Each time Mitch held and rocked her, his own tears slipping down his cheeks.

  It was a long, long night.

  Chapter Four

  Emily Jane grabbed Mitch’s hand from the computer keyboard, babbling something that made perfect sense to her but that he couldn’t begin to understand. It sounded something like, “Mitch, buddy boy, you’ve been at this computer too long—at least five minutes—and I’m bored. You should come play with me because I’m ever so much cuter than those wolves you’re writing about. Besides, I’ve run out of typing paper to snack on, and if you don’t get me some more, I’m going to raid the bathroom for more tissue.”

  When Mitch put his hands back on the keyboard, Emily Jane slapped his jean-covered leg. “Babjan ba-ba-da, juba-ching dup, dup, lo!”

  He didn’t know what to do. This sweet, demanding, energetic, emotional little creature had been with him only five days, but it felt like much, much longer.

  Sunday had been good. He was the focus of attention at his singles ward, and afterward his family had rallied around him—even his brother Tyler, who was scarce these days while working on his journalism degree at BYU. That night was rough again, but since Mitch didn’t need to get up early for work on Monday, he didn’t mind.

  After he’d stopped at work to get a few files, he’d spent some of Monday buying baby items and introducing Emily Jane to the neighbors. The afternoon and evening went well. But Monday night was the worst yet, bringing back the stark reality of his new existence. Neither he nor Emily Jane slept for longer than fifteen minutes at a stretch.

  On Tuesday he’d managed to get in an hour of work but was positive that whatever he’d written about those darn wolves wo
uld have a million holes in it. How could his employer get grant money that way? Again the night passed slowly, with Mitch dozing between Emily Jane’s screaming fits. He discovered that she slept longer if he held her on the couch, but the position afforded him little rest.

  That brought him to Wednesday—today—with little sleep and next to no work completed. He’d tried to take her to his neighbors’ that morning, but she had cried and clung to him with such fervency that he hadn’t the heart to leave her. The woman with the lawyer had said Emily Jane was good with strangers, but apparently she’d changed her mind. She was more needy than any little animal he’d ever rescued. He only hoped that rescuing her wouldn’t put him in an early grave.

  Emily Jane took his hands from the computer again and tried pulling herself onto his lap. He lifted her up, and she banged on the keyboard. Then she grinned at him for approval.

  “You are a lot cuter than the wolves,” he said softly, tiredly. “But I’ll lose my job if you don’t let me work, and then we’ll be living under a bridge somewhere, sipping rancid milk heated in a dirty tin pan.”

  Emily Jane smiled, but when he didn’t respond, her smile vanished, and she stared at him with wide blue eyes. Her lower lip quivered. That galvanized him into action. He hurried from the living room where he’d moved his computer so that he could watch her play as he worked and went to the kitchen for the phone.

  When his sister picked up, he began talking immediately. “Manda, I don’t know how I can do this. You and Kerrianne were right. No, don’t say you didn’t think I’d bit off more than I could chew. I saw those looks you exchanged. And you were right. Are you happy? I’ve learned now. Emily Jane isn’t like a bird or any other kind of animal. She is way harder to take care of. I don’t know whatever possessed me to think I could do something so hard. I’m just too young—or something. I swear I’m going crazy! And we both know that can’t be good for her or me. What should I do? Don’t say call that Texas lawyer because—”

  “Hold it!” For some time Amanda had been trying to talk over his torrent of words. “Everybody has days like this. How much sleep have you had?”

  “Last night or since Saturday?” he asked. “Not that it matters. Either way I can count the hours on one hand.”

  “Ah, that explains it.”

  “That explains nothing! Who cares about sleep? If I don’t get my work finished, I’ll be moving in with you and Blake.”

  “I can’t come over right now because Kerrianne’s having a bad day,” Amanda said, “and I promised I’d go to her house for a while.” Mitch began to feel guilty. Here he was whining about taking care of one child when Kerrianne was taking care of three. “But don’t worry,” Amanda continued. “Reinforcements are on their way.”

  “Blake?” he asked doubtfully.

  “No, he’s at work. But that reminds me. He first got Kevin when he was years younger than you are. He muddled through and so will you. And look how good Kevin’s turning out.”

  Mitch laughed despite his exhaustion. “I don’t know why, but that makes me feel better somehow. Either that or it made me feel worse, and I’m so numb that I can’t feel anything.”

  “Hang up,” Amanda ordered. “Take a break until your reinforcements arrive.”

  “They won’t be able to take her from the house. She’ll cry. I can’t let—”

  “Don’t worry. Now hang up.”

  Mitch obeyed, already feeling more positive. He wondered briefly who Amanda would call. Probably his mother. That meant he’d have to endure another speech on finding a bride, but any help was worth at least three lectures. Maybe she’d even put in a load of laundry or two while she was here. Emily Jane would love that. Last night she’d become so eager to help push the wet clothes inside the dryer that he’d had to stop her from climbing right in after them.

  A ghastly smell and the intense expression on Emily Jane’s face signaled time for a diaper change. He set to work, marveling at how his life had changed in so few days.

  “Say Mitch,” he told Emily Jane in singsong as he finished. “Mitch, Mitch. Come on, you can do it.” He should probably teach her to say Daddy instead, but he couldn’t—not yet. The memory of Lane was still too fresh. Yet a child deserved to call someone Daddy. And Mommy, too, he thought. But I don’t have a mommy for her. Earlier that year he’d dated a girl from work, but they’d drifted apart when she got a new job. Now he had only the occasional date with someone from his singles ward.

  “Jajahda,” Emily Jane said. Mitch wasn’t sure what that meant, if anything. So far her repertoire of comprehensible words consisted of Momma, Da, here, no, and ow. She used ow as a universal word when she didn’t want to do something—particularly cleaning her face or hands. Quite a good start, in his opinion.

  When the doorbell finally rang, it wasn’t his mother but his younger brother, Tyler, and their friend Savvy Hergarter. Mitch’s despair returned until he remembered that as the sister to four younger siblings, Savvy must know something about children.

  “Come in,” he said. “Did Manda call you?”

  Tyler nodded. He was shorter than Mitch by a head but still taller than Savvy. He had close-cropped sandy blond hair, a nice build, and green eyes topped with stylish black-framed glasses. He was gregarious and popular with the ladies. “We’re yours all afternoon and evening. Savvy and I were going to a foreign film down at the Y later, but it wasn’t something we had to do.” Tyler frowned and added, “Besides, a person I was hoping would be there isn’t going after all.”

  Mitch knew that meant Tyler was hung up on another woman. Last time it was a too-skinny girl in his journalism class and before that a tall girl from ballroom dance.

  Savvy’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly at Tyler’s statement, but to Mitch, with everything minutely focused due to his lack of sleep, it was as though she screamed her irritation. That confused him. Yes, Amanda had set Savvy up with Tyler when he arrived home from his mission to Bolivia, but if anything had been going to develop between them, it should have happened by now. Besides, Tyler had assured Mitch that he and Savvy were just friends.

  Savvy held her arms out to Emily Jane. “Hey, cutie. Want to come to me? Huh?” Savvy was Mitch’s idea of a beautiful girl. Her blonde hair was cut to one length, reaching halfway down her back. She had clear smooth skin and blue eyes the color of a bright sky. He knew she bemoaned her curvaceous figure, as it didn’t match the anorexic look that seemed to be popular these days, but he thought she was one attractive woman.

  “How about it, sweetie?” Mitch asked the baby. “Want to go see Savvy?” For an answer, Emily Jane buried her face in his shoulder. “Don’t worry. She’ll warm up to you. She seems to like strangers as long as they don’t pick her up. Look, I’ll put her down and get her playing. Then I’ll slip over to the computer. She’s tired, so she might fall asleep if we give her a bottle.”

  “I don’t get it.” Tyler wrinkled his brow as Mitch set Emily Jane among the toys. “Aren’t you supposed to put kids in their cribs and let them cry themselves to sleep? From what I heard, they get used to it quickly and then everybody sleeps.”

  An unexpected rage built inside Mitch. “Not this baby,” he snarled. “She’s just lost her mother and father, and I’ll go without sleep for the rest of my life if I can begin to make that up to her. I only hope I can make her happy again.”

  Tyler stared at his vehemence, lifting his hands in surrender. “Okay, just asking. I’m sure you’re right. I don’t know anything about kids.”

  Savvy gave a disgusted sigh and settled down next to the growing mound of toys people had given Emily Jane. The baby suspiciously eyed the newcomers for several minutes but eventually crawled over to Savvy and began going through her purse. Mitch returned to his computer, stuffing cotton in his ears. Emily Jane studied him briefly, as though making sure he wasn’t deserting her, before reaching for Tyler’s glasses.

  Mitch soon became involved in his work. True, it wasn’t as fascinating as Emily Jane
or working with live creatures, but the wolves and their curious habits pulled him in. Before long, Savvy was tapping his shoulder and pointing to the door.

  “Co ee rake er or uh ak?” she asked.

  Mitch removed the cotton from his ears. “What?”

  “A walk. Can we take her for a walk?”

  “Sure, if she’ll go with you. But I don’t have a stroller or anything.”

  “At this age, she’d probably rather walk.”

  Emily Jane grinned when the door opened. She stepped outside, one hand clinging tightly to Savvy’s. As she crossed over the threshold, she glanced back at Mitch and waved. “Bye-bye,” he called, feeling an odd pang when she disappeared from sight. For five days she’d been his constant companion, and suddenly he was alone. Almost, it was as if a part of him had walked out the door.

  “Don’t worry,” Tyler assured Mitch. “Savvy’s good with kids.”

  Pocketing the cotton, Mitch opened the window—just in case something happened outside to Emily Jane that he should hear.

  The rest of the afternoon went smoothly. Emily Jane fell asleep on Savvy’s shoulder during their walk and slept on the couch for another hour. Savvy and Tyler made dinner while Mitch kept working. His words came faster now that Emily Jane was near and he could be sure she wasn’t crying or unhappy.

  He’d made great progress by the time Savvy called him to eat spaghetti—Tyler’s favorite food. The timing was good, since Emily Jane yawned and sat up. The baby loved the spaghetti and took a particular joy in smearing it around her face and on her head. “She’ll need a bath,” Savvy said, grinning.

  Tyler rinsed his plate and set it in the sink. “I’ll run the water.”

  “Yeah, anything to get out of cleaning up,” Savvy teased.

  Tyler grinned. “Hey, this little baby is the messiest thing I see here.”

  “Whatever.” Savvy rolled her eyes as he left the room.

  “Only a few inches,” Mitch called. “Not too hot or too cold!”

  Savvy laughed and began dumping the leftover spaghetti into a plastic storage bowl. “He’ll do okay, I think. He’s not as inept as he likes to pretend.”