The Weight of Love

Chapter 16

"Oh, Lila, you're early, bless you." Hannah Barclay leaned out of her front door. "I'm sorry it's such short notice. I completely forgot that our regular sitter needed the day off. Junior's in the playroom... Lawrence is in his crib. I really should get going now. Oh, and let me pay you."

She stuffed a wad of bills into Lila's hand before brushing by her out the door. Lila stepped in and shut it before counting the cash. A hundred and five dollars for a three hour job? That was more than reasonable, but it was what you got for showing up on short-notice on a Monday morning.

"Junior?" she called, poking her head around the corner in the direction of the playroom. The Barclays lived in a McMansion if she'd ever seen one.

She heard the sound of little feet, and then Junior -- William, Jr., to be exact -- appeared in front of her. He was holding a Nerf gun, which he aimed at her. Lila threw her hands up.

"Okay, that's enough, young man," she said, advancing on him and scooping him into her arms, gun and all. "Let's go check on your brother."

They went upstairs to the nursery, Junior squirming and giggling in her arms.

"Are you gonna make us lunch, Miss Lila?" he asked when she set him down outside the nursery door. "I want ants on a log!"

"I'll make you lunch," Lila said.

She took his hand, and they went into the nursery together. Lawrence was squalling in his crib. He was just over six months, beautiful and round and rosy-cheeked.

"Tummy time," Junior said, helpfully laying out an extra blanket on the nursery floor.

"I think he wants his bottle," Lila said, setting Lawrence down amidst his blocks. "Here, hold his hand while I run and get it. I'll be two seconds."

"I'm counting," Junior said, his eyes wide.

He looked like his father, with his mother's attitudes. Mr. Barclay was older than Hannah by eight or nine years, and he was a very serious man who almost never smiled. Lila stifled a laugh as she hurried from the nursery to the adjoining second floor pantry, which housed an upstairs fridge. There were five or six bottles of Hannah's breast milk, carefully labeled with dates, and another two or three of formula. Lila took out a bottle of half-finished breast milk and heated it according to the instructions posted on the fridge, then brought it back into the nursery. Lawrence reacted to the bottle right away, grasping at it with his little hands. She settled him in her lap to feed her. Junior had occupied himself with the toy trains in the corner.

Just then, her phone began to ring. She cursed her luck, imagining that it was probably Cameron's contact, Ed Krueger. There was no way she could take an important call while bottle-feeding a baby.

But when she fished her phone out of her pocket, she saw that it wasn't Ed. It was Cameron himself. She picked up.

"Hello? Cameron?"

"One generally opens a call with something like, 'Lila here,'" he teased her. "Hello."

"You didn't text me at all yesterday!"

"I know. I'm sorry. I was busy. There was a little incident. I ended up staying the night in the city, you see."

"Yes, and?" Lila asked. Baby Lawrence gurgled, pushing the bottle away and flopping down onto his hands, making an attempt at a crawl.

"What was that?" Cameron asked.

"That was Lawrence -- Junior, mind your brother for a second, will you? I have to take this call." She smiled to herself. "I'm babysitting Hannah Barclay's two boys on short notice."