Heaven Knows it's High Time | Joanne

Chapter Eighteen

"Careful with the speed bumps!"

Dianne braced herself from her seat in the back of the car as Joe carefully drove down the street.

"You alright?" he asked, looking at her in the rearview mirror.

Dianne nodded. "Yep. It's just uncomfortable."

Joe laughed. "This is the slowest I've ever driven. Not only because I don't want to hurt your sore lady garden, but because I'm nervous. I've never driven with a baby in the car. And she's only a day old."

Dianne turned to look at her daughter in the car seat next to her. "She's fine. She's fast asleep."

"Good thinking feeding her before we left. What do you want to do when we get in?"

Dianne leaned back in her seat. "Sleep? If little Ru-bean here will let us. I want to put clean clothes on and brush my hair. I'll have a bath later, probably, but I feel like I just need to settle back into the house first."

"Very smart. What shall we do about Bodhi?"

Graham had left that morning, after dropping Emelia at school. Bodhi would only have been alone for a couple of hours.

"If you let him out in the garden first, I'll get Ruby settled in the living room. Then he can come and have a sniff. He needs to get used to her scent."

///

"Bless him. He's so protective."

Bodhi had come straight into the living room to greet Dianne. He had immediately noticed Ruby, had taken a good look at her and had curled on the floor between the two of them.

"He's a good boy. Is that your new baby?" Dianne asked, reaching down slowly to stroke his head. "Are you going to look after her?"

Ruby had stayed asleep after her last feed. Dianne yawned as Joe sat down next to her and cuddled her into his side.

"Go to sleep" he said, pressing a sweet kiss to her forehead. "You look like you need to."

Dianne nodded, moving one of the cushions against the arm rest of the couch so she could lay down. Joe produced a blanket from the back of the sofa and threw it over her.

"Are you sleeping too? Surely you must be as tired as I am?" Dianne asked, her eyes already closing.

Joe smiled. "I'm fine. You rest, Di."

Joe took a sip of his tea, smiling. He pulled out his phone and snapped a quick picture of Dianne, Bodhi and Ruby all asleep. Captioning it simply with the word 'home' he sent it to his friends and family.

After a few minutes of quiet, where Joe felt himself nodding off too, Bodhi began to walk around the moses basket, sniffing. He looked over at Joe and whimpered.

Joe chuckled. "Mate, I can smell it too. Let me deal with that." Walking over, he leaned down and smiled at his daughter.

"Rubes, mate. You stink. Shall daddy go and change you? Come on."

He picked her up gently, walking quickly out of the living room before they disturbed Dianne. Joe carefully walked upstairs, into the nursery and laid Ruby down on the changing mat.

"Right, we need a nappy, wipes, cream. Anything else?" he asked Ruby, who blinked at him.

"Well, we'll soon find out."

Unfastening the poppers on her sleep suit and vest, rolling them carefully up to avoid catching what was left of her cord, Joe coughed lightly.

"Jesus. Right, Joseph, you can do this. You're a big boy."