Barbara Boswell - The Brennan Baby

“Do you think there could be something really wrong with her, Mom?” Gillian asked anxiously. “Should I take her to the emergency room?”

“She’s not hot, not cold, not wet, not pulling at her ear, not throwing up, her nose isn’t stuffy, her stomach isn’t hard, her muscles aren’t rigid,” Dolly Sinsel recited the lack of non-symptoms that Gillian had relayed to her. “That baby isn’t sick, Gillian. Sounds to me like she’s just overexcited or overtired. Put her in her crib with a bottle of juice, close the bedroom door, and then you sit down and turn on some music or the TV.”

“You mean, just ignore her? Keep her in there alone and crying?” Gillian shivered, remembering how it felt to be small and scared and all alone. “Ashley has never cried much and never like this. She—”

“She is exerting her independence. Babies need to cry to exercise their lungs,” Dolly said calmly. “Now put Ashley in the crib and make yourself a nice cup of tea, honey. You two need to unwind away from each.”

Gillian attempted to follow the advice. After all, who knew kids better than Dolly Sinsel, who’d raised four children of her own and taken in hundreds of foster children down through the years? Gillian had lived with the Sinsels from the age of twelve until her graduation from high school and had never seen her foster parents fazed by anything. Or anyone Not even the most hardcore adolescent veterans of the foster care system.

Gillian still marveled at Mom and Dad Sinsel’s unshakable aplomb as they dealt again and again with the young fire-setters, the kid thieves and liars, the screamers and marauders who’d been placed under their roof by the State of Michigan. The Sinsels were impervious to upset and insult, and while Gillian was able to emulate their attitude in her career as a medical social worker, she couldn’t muster such calm in dealing with Ashley. When Ashley was upset, so was her mother; when Ashley was happy or excited or fearful, her mommy was, too.

“Grandma Dolly says you’d rather be alone,” Gillian told Ashley as she carried the howling baby into the small bedroom filled with toys and baby furniture and bright posters of cartoon figures on the wall.

She put Ashley into her crib with its cheery Winnie the Pooh sheets and handed her a bottle of apple juice. Shrieking her displeasure, Ashley pulled herself to her feet and threw the bottle out of the crib. Distressed, Gillian put it back in, then quickly left the room, closing the door behind her.

While Ashley’s roars of infantile fury echoed in her head, Gillian turned on her TV set. Nothing claimed her interest, not even the hurricane currently being tracked in the Caribbean by the Weather Channel. She decided to forego the suggested cup of tea. Her stomach was in knots and her throat felt too tight to swallow. The baby’s cries continued unabated, sounding less angry and more and more piteous.

Gillian looked bleakly at her watch. Only six and a half minutes had elasped but it felt like an eternity. Poor little Ashley, exiled to her crib. Gillian wondered if she felt unwanted, alone in the dark world without anyone who cared.

It was a horrible feeling that Gillian knew all too well. To imagine Ashley having to experience such despair was unbearable. She rose to her feet and fairly flew into the nursery. With all due respect to Dolly Sinsel, isolating the baby felt all wrong.

After all, it wasn’t as if Ashley had tried to burn down the house or stone a neighbor’s dog; she didn’t need a stint in solitary confinement as punishment. Ashley was cutting a tooth and she was uncomfortable. Why shouldn’t she cry?

Gillian arrived at the cribside just as Ashley succeeded in pulling the rubber nipple off the top of her bottle and turning it upside down, emptying the juice The baby was so shocked by her sudden soaking, she stopped crying and looked up at her mother with astonished blue eyes.

“Oh, Ashley, you’re all wet and so is the bed!” Gillian was dismayed.

Ashley was furious that she’d been doused. She began to howl again.

“It’s all right, sweetheart.” Gillian picked her up and cuddled her. “I’ll put you in nice dry jammies and then I’ll change the sheet.”

She sponged the sticky juice from the baby, then dried and dressed her in fresh, aqua cotton footed pajamas. And discovered that there were no more clean crib sheets. The other six were in the laundry basket waiting to be taken to the washer and dryer in the basement of the building.

“I’m sorry, Ash. I didn’t realize how low we were on crib sheets and we’ve been so busy after work, I haven’t gotten around to doing the laundry,” Gillian lamented aloud.

Ashley babbled a few syllables in response. Gillian was so relieved that the baby had stopped crying, she felt almost giddy. “We’ll go next door and ask Shelly or Heather if they’ll stay with you while I go downstairs to do a load of laundry now, okay? You like Shelly and Heather, they’re operating room nurses at the hospital, and they gave you some ice cream the other day, remember?”

She carried Ashley into the hall and walked to the apartment on their left, talking to her daughter all the while. Gillian knocked long and loud before she conceded that neither Shelly nor Heather was there.

Gillian sighed. She’d hoped to avoid having to tote Ashley and the laundry basket down to the basement laundry room but with no one to watch the baby, she had no other choice. She wasn’t about to leave Ashley alone in the apartment and she hadn’t met any other neighbors yet... Her eyes flicked to the apartment door across the hall from her own, Devlin Brennan’s door. Assistance from that quarter was not an option. She would never ask him to watch her baby, not even for a moment.

And then the door opened and Devlin stepped into the hall.

Gillian froze. It was as if her thoughts had conjured him up! She stood stock-still, clutching Ashley, and staring at him. He was wearing a faded Detroit Lions T-shirt and jeans, simple and common enough clothes but the way they showcased his male attributes—his muscular arms and broad chest, his long lean thighs and flat belly—evoked a reaction within Gillian that was neither simple nor common. His face was darkened by the shadow of a beard, reminding Gillian of how sexy he looked in the morning when he awakened, unshaven and aroused.

She scowled at the renegade memory. This was no time to recall anything about her three-month lapse of sanity that had characterized her affair with Devlin Brennan.

Her dour expression did not go unnoticed. “I bet the bubonic plague got a less hostile welcome,” Dev said dryly.

“I, uh, I was just seeing if Shelly and Heather are home.” Gillian started toward her apartment. His mere presence threatened her.

“Neither one is there. They’re both working till midnight for the next few weeks. I saw their names on the OR schedule,” he added.

“Oh.”

“I heard knocking out here.” Devlin felt obliged to explain his appearance. She was looking at him as if he were a serial killer closing in on his latest target—which happened to be her. “Anything I can do?”

Gillian shook her head no. She was almost to her door....

Devlin crossed the hall to block her entry, positioning himself in the frame the same way he’d done on the day he had moved into the building. But that time, at least, she’d been inside with Carmen and Mark as allies. Now Mark was back in L.A., Carmen was in Detroit, and here she was, stuck in the hall with no buffers against Devlin’s intimidating presence.

“No friends around as backup this time, huh?” He arched his dark brows.

Gillian was disconcerted that their thoughts were so similar. It was almost as alarming as being trapped with him like this, face-to-face with their child in her arms.