G.I. BABY (19 page)

He knelt on the carpeted floor beside the crib and peered at Richard.

“He does look like me,” he observed for the nth time, not content that everyone had already said so. But his smug tone warmed her, too.
 

“I dunno. His face looks like Yoda. Especially when he’s hungry and pooping,” she said in a droll tone.

He gave her a funny look. “Hey, that’s my kid you’re calling a greenish, bald alien,” he replied in feigned affront. “My kid is cute, pooping, pissing, bawling. Aren’t you, little man?” He cooed to the sleeping baby.

 
She bit back a smile. He was a different man around his child. The Craig she knew would vanish when Richard was near.

He glanced at her. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m good, thanks.”

“Do you need anything?”

“None at the moment.”

He turned to fully face her. He looked big kneeling on the floor, his broad shoulders defined by ripped muscles proclaiming his strength even in his idle position.
 

“Andi…” he started, his tone, gentle.

“Yes?”

“I know you didn’t wanna be here.”

She didn’t comment. She didn’t want to be redundant.

“I’m sorry if I kind of coerced you into living here with me.”

She raised a brow. “Kind of?”

He sighed. “Okay, I did coerce you. I had no choice. You’re stubborn.”

“Have you ever heard of asking nicely?” she told him cheekily.

“I was.”

“No, you were demanding like you own me and Richard. I carried that baby for months inside me ALONE and then you showed up and started telling me what to do. Oh, you didn’t even tell me. You expected to be obeyed.”

“Here you go again.”

“What?”

“Stubborn. Your argument is beside the point.”

She glared at him. “And you’re a domineering ass!” she hissed.

“You’re yelling.”

“I am not!”

“If you’re not sitting beside the baby, you would have.”

She couldn’t deny that. She wanted to punch him in the face right now.

He sighed again. “So, okay, I’ll try asking. Nicely,” he added the last bit grudgingly. “Andi, for the sake of our baby, can we be friends?”

“Define friends.”

“Two people who share good stuff, like our kid, and some.”

“What’s in the some part?”

He slowly grinned, his eyes glinting with that familiar look. “I’ll let you define that.”

She evaded his eyes, her cheeks warming.

“So?” he prodded.

“Okay.”

“Okay what?”

“Okay, we can be friends for the sake of Richard. But I reserve the right to change my mind. I do have plans for myself and my son.”

“Andi, look at me.”

She met his eyes again. He looked serious now, minus the arrogance.

“Look…I know we didn’t have the opportunity to get to know each other before, but we have a reason to do so now. A huge reason. We have a baby to take care of, to raise together. We have to get along. I’m willing to meet you halfway, get to know you, the mother of my son. I really want to. I hope you’ll do the same, meet me half-way, want to get to know me, the father of your child.”

She swallowed. Craig could utter the most sensible words, if he wanted to. What else could she say about that? To say no would be irrational and immature.

She nodded. “Okay, Craig. I’ll meet you half-way. But you must respect my decisions, too.”

“I promise, provided they’re within reason and in the best interest of our son.”

“Fair enough.”

“Friends?”

Dammit, how long could she resist that gorgeous smile?
 

“Friends.”

——*****——

The door opened.
She was already lying on the bed.
 

“Hi. Sorry. Were you already sleeping?”

“No. Was about to. Did you need something?”

He looked embarrassed standing there at the door. The room was cozily illuminated by the lamp shades at the bedside tables.
 

“Craig.”

“Can I…sleep here?”

He was mostly in the room the past few days but he had the sensibility to look elsewhere whenever
 
she was preparing to nurse the baby. He’d chatted with her, avoiding looking at her chest which turned out to be amusing, after all. He was clearly uncomfortable watching her feed the baby but he enjoyed being with his son and wouldn’t want to leave the room unless he needed to do important errands.
 

“I’ll sleep on the floor. Beside the crib. Please?”

He sounded so adorable, like a kid asking for an extra cookie.

“I can watch him while you sleep. I’ll wake you up when he wants milk.”

“Then you won’t get any sleep.”

“I’m used to it. Very little sleep in the tour.”

While talking, he was slowly inching into the room, too.

“I don’t snore. At least nobody has complained about that.”

She couldn’t hold back a smile. “Alright.”

He pumped his fist. “Yes!” He practically jumped his way towards the crib.

Moments later, he was whispering to his sleeping son, gently touching his little face with his fingertips.

She was fascinated.
 
This was an entirely new person she was witnessing. After their serious talk days ago, the Craig she first knew was becoming a stranger every passing hour.
 

He was treating her like a fragile china. He’d cooked their meals and wouldn’t let her lift a finger except to eat. He’d cleaned up afterward. He did everything.
 

Then yesterday, he did something that totally blew her away. He ran a warm bath for her. He was just outside the bathroom door if she needed assistance in any way, he’d said. “You know, you have a wound…sort of.”

He was referring to her little stitches down there, where Richard had ripped his way out of her. It was healing fast but she was afraid to find out how her kitty looked now after child birth. The man was concerned for her kitty. It was nothing sexual, too. Just a man taking care of her.

Amazing.

“Here.” She gave him a pillow. He propped it beside the crib. The room was comfortably cool.

“Thanks. Sleep now. I’ll watch over him.”

She lay back on the bed on her side, watching him for a few minutes, meeting his eyes every now and then. His smiles were slowly dousing the flames of fear inside her, thawing the ice of distrust, breaking the walls of doubt.

He was putting a blanket of security around her. Something she’d never had all her life.

The sight was too good she didn’t even notice it was already a sweet dream.

——*****——

“Your aunt said you’re in college.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s great.”

“Thanks. Gimme more wipes.”
 

He went to get a new stack of wet wipes from a drawer. Richard had pooped and they were having fun cleaning him up. The joys they shared over Richard seemed endless.

“So, what course are you taking up? His poop smells bad now.”

“Accounting. It’s because he’s taking more milk now.”

“Wow. That’s serious shit. Numbers. I’ll put his diaper.”
 

“Be my guest. You’re an expert at it now, huh.”

“I’m in flight suits the entire tour. This is nothing.”

He changed the baby’s diaper like a pro. Richard was such an even-tempered baby who seldom cried. Except when he was hungry where he’d bawl with the vocal prowess of a heavy metal lead singer, as Craig joked once, Richard was a happy baby.

Moments later, they were lounging beside each other at the balcony, snacking on brownies and ice-cold lemonade. Richard was sleeping on his pram a few feet away. It was a beautiful afternoon.

“So, how many years do you have left till graduation?”

“I’m in my third year now. I didn’t enroll the following semester last year. You know…”

He nodded in understanding. “Is there a way you can continue your course online?”

“I was thinking about that. I’ll look into it.”

“Good. Education is important. I want our son to have a very good education one day.”

“You won’t browbeat him into becoming a pilot like you?” she teased him.

“God, no. He won’t be in the military. Not if I can do something about it.”

She heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

His expression became wistful as he stared into the distance.

“Hey…” She nudged his side.
 
“What are you thinking?”

“My father.”

“Yes…?”

“Maybe I was too hard on him. Maybe…maybe he didn’t want me to go into the Air Force because…” he sighed. “Because like me, he didn’t want his son’s life to be endangered.”

She nodded and kept quiet, realizing this was a turning point in his life. He’d been harboring a load of resentment towards his old man. Now that he had a son of his own, his perspectives might just change for the better. She hoped it would.

“But I reached out to him. Repeatedly. He turned me away every time. Then he died.” His voice shook a little. “How can he die without even talking to me?
 
He was a hard man, Andi. A very hard man.”

The sadness in his voice tore at her. Her heart broke for him all over again.
 
Oh Craig.
 

The past days had been a metamorphosis of a new man right before her very eyes. That week they’d spent together was still vivid in her mind. She’d been with a passionate, insatiable lover who took her to heights of pleasure. But the man she was with now was a whole new version of him.

She couldn’t hold back the urge to touch his hand.

She felt him tense.

It was the first time she’d deliberately made physical contact with him since he came back into her life. It was as electric as the first time.
 

Oh god, how she’d missed him.

She had a great lover that first time they’d met. Now she had a friend. A great one, too. He really made good of his promise when he offered her his friendship. She had never been more taken care of in her entire life. She had never felt more safe than in his presence. With him around, she felt like a new person too. Strangely, her fears came on less and less, her cynicism dying like a starving plant as he showered her with affection everyday. Not the sexual kind. He’d not made any sexual innuendos, had not looked at her in a lascivious manner since their “talk.” But it was more real. Better than sex.

Well, nothing could probably beat sex with someone you had 100% carnal chemistry with, but certainly, this came very close.

“But I won’t be like him. I wanna be the best father to my son. That I promise you, Andi.”

That undid her.
 

She laced their fingers together and turned toward him.
 

He squeezed her hand, his eyes, intense as he gazed at her.

It was her who leaned forward.

——*****——

He froze as her warm lips pressed to his own.

God, how he’d miss this. Her. The feel of her. His entire being had been starving for her all these weeks, but he had to make do with what she was willing to share with him.
 

He’d vowed to be a total gentleman, to be patient, to treat her as she deserved to be treated as a woman and the mother of his child. That included respecting her wishes, her right to privacy, and being attentive to her emotional needs. After he’d read about postpartum depression, he was extra careful not to upset her in any way that might trigger such condition.

He’d never thought he could function around a woman merely as a friend. He surprised even himself. He didn’t know he possessed the capacity to care deeper for a woman he’d been sexually intimate with, to curtail his animal needs and be more concerned of her well-being, to look at her as a woman in a deeper sense and not just a vessel to receive his lust.

He was ashamed of how he had treated women in the past. Yeah, one of those life-changing things that happened to him after witnessing her give birth.

He’d avoided touching her in any way, only when it was necessary. She looked unreal as it was post-pregnancy. Her figure was fuller, her face even more beautiful with that perpetual glow of joy as she took care of their son. Of course, he’d looked his fill when she wasn’t aware he was staring, tortured himself of images of her naked, her lush body his to touch freely, to taste anytime he wanted as he buried his cock inside her tight pussy over and over, again and again…

Those hot images became a single moving picture right in front of him now, kissing him like she’d missed him for a decade, like she couldn’t get enough of him.