"It's Still There – part 24"
. . . . .
His first afternoon at home was a busy one for Joshua. He was passed around to almost a dozen people in just a few hours, as everyone who stopped by wanted a chance to hold him.
It was just before seven when the constant stream of visitors finally ended. Rory had left to go pick up takeout for dinner, and Lorelai was holding a crying Joshua on the couch while Luke went to make him a bottle.
After a few minutes, Lorelai called, "You remember how to make it, right? The directions are on the canister of formula."
"I know, I'm fine," Luke replied from the kitchen.
"Well, could you go a little faster, please," she called back. "His screams are getting pretty loud."
"You think I can't hear him? I'm not deaf, you know."
"Well, you can't appreciate how loud it is, you're too far away." Lorelai walked to the kitchen with the crying baby. "There, if that's not enough encouragement for you to go faster, I don't know what is." She pouted toward the baby. "Say 'Daddy, I'm starving, hurry up with my food.'" She looked up as Luke was screwing the cap on the bottle. "Did you warm it up?"
"Yes."
"Shake it up and test it on your wrist," Lorelai told him. "Make sure it's not too hot."
"I made him a bottle earlier, I know how to do it," Luke reminded her.
"Okay, sorry, I wasn't sure if you remembered."
He shook the bottle, then dripped some of the formula onto his wrist to test the temperature. "It's fine." He handed the bottle to her. "Here."
"Thanks." She placed it in Joshua's mouth, and he immediately began sucking on it hungrily. "There you go. You're okay, honey." She stared down at him for a moment before bringing her gaze to Luke. "I think he's gonna fall asleep after this. He looks pretty tired."
Luke lightly rubbed Joshua's leg. "Well, he's had a busy day."
Lorelai started walking toward the living room, and Luke followed behind her. "Yeah, it must've been exhausting having all those people hold him and tend to his every need."
"I would think so," Luke agreed.
Lorelai yawned. "I'm going to bed right after dinner. I wanna try to get some sleep before he gets up in a few hours to eat again. Unless we lucked out and got one of those kids who already sleeps straight through the night. Cross your fingers."
. . . . .
Joshua woke up crying just after ten that night, and Lorelai groggily climbed out of bed to go get him. When she walked into the nursery, she saw that Luke was already in there retrieving him from his crib. "I tried to get him before he woke you up," Luke said apologetically.
Lorelai yawned and rubbed her eyes. "That's okay. Were you asleep?"
"No, I was downstairs watching the baseball game." He brought the baby over to the changing table and lay him on it. "Go back to sleep, I can handle it."
"Well, I'm up now, so I can help," Lorelai said. "One of us can change him, one of us can make the bottle." She watched Luke pull a diaper from the shelf. "Are you gonna change him?"
"Yup."
Lorelai smiled and walked over to the changing table. "This I have to see."
Luke rolled his eyes. "It's not that entertaining that it requires an audience. Go down and make the bottle."
"Come on, Luke. This is the first time you're changing your son. I wanna see it."
Luke scoffed. "What are you talking about? I changed him at the hospital."
"Um, no, each time you unbuttoned his outfit, then handed me the diaper," Lorelai reminded him. "So technically, I'm the one who did all the actual changing."
Luke sighed and folded his arms across his chest. "Look, we could stand here discussing this all night while he lies there crying in a wet diaper, or you could actually be quiet and let me change him. Your choice."
Lorelai gestured to Joshua. "Go ahead."
"Thank you."
"I'll be here if you need me."
"I can handle it," Luke muttered as he began unbuttoning Joshua's outfit. He gently pulled his tiny arms and legs out of the holes, then removed the wet diaper. He folded it up and placed it in the trash can, then wiped him with a baby wipe. "There, all clean." He stared down at the small black umbilical cord stump on Joshua's belly button, then glanced at Lorelai. "That thing's gonna fall off soon, right?"
Lorelai nodded. "In a week or two."
"Good. It looks gross." Luke lifted Joshua's legs up and slid the clean diaper under him. "All right, here we go. We pull this side up and stick it on like that," he muttered to himself as he secured one side of the diaper. "And then we do the other side and stick it on like this. And there. . .all done." He stepped back and glanced at Lorelai with a small smirk of pride. "Pretty good, huh?"
Lorelai smiled and nodded approvingly. "Perfect." She patted him on the back. "Good job, hon."
"Thanks." He began putting Joshua's outfit back on him.
"I'll go make the bottle," Lorelai said. "I'll be right back."
"Okay." Luke finished dressing the baby, then sat down in the rocking chair with him.
Lorelai returned a few minutes later and handed him the bottle. "Here you go."
"Thanks." As he fed it to Joshua, he nodded toward the door. "Go back to bed, I'm good here."
Lorelai nibbled on her bottom lip. "You sure you can handle him?"
"What's there to handle?" Luke asked. "I'll feed him, he'll go back to sleep, I'll put him in the crib. It's not brain surgery."
"Actually, you have to burp him after you feed him," Lorelai reminded him.
"Right. I'll burp him, too," Luke added. "Feed, burp, crib. I can handle it."
"And remember to put him on his back or his side in the crib, not his stomach," Lorelai warned. "He's not as safe on his stomach."
"I know, I remember," Luke assured her. "Go back to bed. You need to rest a lot more than I do."
"Okay, but if you need help with him, come wake me up, okay?"
"It'll be fine," Luke assured her. "Night."
"Night." Lorelai leaned down and kissed him, then ran a finger over Joshua's forehead. "Night, sweetie. Be good for Daddy." She headed to her bedroom and crawled back into bed.
. . . . .
Every time Joshua woke up that night, Lorelai and Luke would both get up to tend to him. One would make his bottle while the other one changed him, and they alternated who fed him each time. In between the feedings, Lorelai would occasionally get up and wander into the nursery just to check on him, to make sure he was sleeping all right.
When morning rolled around and the baby woke up crying just before seven, Lorelai muttered to Luke that she would handle it herself, that he could sleep in a little more. He started to argue, but she insisted, and he reluctantly rolled over to go back to sleep.
She pulled on her robe and walked into the nursery. Joshua was crying loudly, and after lowering the side of the crib, she reached down to pick him up. "How's my little Joshy today?" she asked softly as she lifted him up out of the crib. She kissed his cheek, then brought him up to her shoulder and rubbed his back until his cries died down. "See, there, you're okay. Let's get you changed."
Lorelai changed his diaper and put a fresh outfit on him, then carried him downstairs. She cradled him in one arm while she made his bottle, then brought him to the living room to feed him.
Luke couldn't get back to sleep, so he took a quick shower before walking down to the living room. Lorelai had finished feeding Joshua and sat holding him on the couch as she watched the morning news.
"Everything okay?" Luke asked.
"No. What is the world coming to when the biggest news headline is that there's officially going to be a Friends spin-off next year?" Lorelai rolled her eyes. "God, are we ever gonna get rid of those people? Enough is enough."
"I meant with the baby," Luke said. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's fine," Lorelai replied. "He ate, I burped him, and now he's sitting here listening to me make fun of Matt Lauer's buzzcut."
Luke rolled his eyes. "Oh, good, let's instill the 'it's okay to make fun of people' attitude into him as soon as we can."
Lorelai smiled. "That's the idea."
"Did you eat breakfast?"
"No, not yet."
Luke gestured toward the kitchen. "I'll go make us something, then I'll take him for a while so you can go take a shower or bath or whatever you wanna do. What do you feel like eating?"
Lorelai shrugged. "Whatever you feel like making. Eggs, pancakes, whatever."
"Okay." He started walking toward the kitchen.
"Thank you," she called, then turned her attention back to the television.
A few minutes later, Rory walked out of her bedroom, and after greeting Luke in the kitchen, walked to the living room. "Morning."
"Hey sweets," Lorelai greeted her.
Rory sat down next to her on the couch and rubbed Joshua's foot. "Hey there, little guy. How was your first night at home?"
"Overall it seemed to go pretty well," Lorelai said. "He got up a couple of times to eat. I hope his crying didn't wake you up."
Rory shook her head. "Nope, I didn't hear him."
"Okay, good."
Rory glanced at the television. "Wow, Matt Lauer's not really a 'short hair' kind of guy."
Lorelai nodded in agreement. "I know. Joshua and I were just discussing that, and we both feel that he should let it grow back in so it looks like it used to." She turned off the television. "I can't look at it anymore."
Rory picked up the fabric-covered keepsake baby journal that Babette and Morey had given to Joshua. "Have you written anything in here yet?"
"No, not yet," Lorelai replied. "You can fill out the first page for me if you want. You have much better handwriting than I do."
"Okay." Rory reached for a pen and opened the book to the first page, where it asked for the baby's name and birth date. She filled in the name, then asked Lorelai, "What was Tuesday's date?"
"The twenty-second."
Rory wrote in July 22, 2003 on the birthday line. "Okay. Time of birth, weight and length?"
Lorelai thought for a moment, then declared, "1:18 p.m., seven pounds six ounces, twenty and a half inches long."
Rory filled in the information, then capped the pen. "Okay, first page is done."
"Thanks."
Rory set the book and pen on the coffee table. "Last night before bed, I started making a list of things I'll need to bring with me to school. I broke it down into a bunch of different categories, like general dorm stuff, school supplies, bathroom supplies, stuff like that. That way we can see what we need to buy over the next few weeks."
Lorelai smiled amusedly. "Do you have any idea how much I'm gonna miss that freaky organizational quirk of yours when you're gone?" Her smile turned into a frown. "Aw, I'm getting sad thinking about it."
"Don't worry, you'll be so busy with your new child that you won't even have time to miss your first one," Rory teased. "I'll be thrown out like a piece of parsley."
Lorelai narrowed her eyes. "A piece of parsley?"
"Yeah, 'cause, you know, sometimes there's a piece of parsley as garnish on a plate, but no one usually eats it, so it gets thrown away," Rory explained. "So I'll be thrown away from the family like that garnishing piece of parsley."
Lorelai let out a laugh. "Wow, first off, your analogies suck at 7:45 in the morning." Her expression grew more serious as she patted Rory on the knee. "And second, you know that's not true."
Rory nodded. "I know, I was just kidding."
"I mean, I start to feel separation anxiety when you go over to Lane's house for a few hours, so I think you going off to college may scar me forever."
"I won't be that far away," Rory reminded her. "We'll talk a lot on the phone and I'll come home to visit all the time. It won't be that bad, I promise."
Lorelai sighed. "Okay, but if it gets to be too much for me to handle, I'm moving into your dorm room with you, and we're getting Luke and Joshua a room on the guys' floor so they can be nearby."
Rory nodded. "It's good that we have a backup plan."
. . . . .
A few days later, on Sunday afternoon, Joshua was sleeping in his baby swing in the corner of the living room while Lorelai and Sookie sat at the kitchen table. Sookie was helping Lorelai write thank you notes for the baby gifts she'd received.
Lorelai finished writing out a card and passed it to Sookie. "Miss Patty." Sookie put the card in an envelope and addressed it, then set it in the stack of finished notes. Lorelai checked off Miss Patty's name on her list. "Okay, Jess is next."
"Jess gave you a baby present?" Sookie asked. "That was nice."
"Yeah, he and Jill stopped over on Friday afternoon." Lorelai smiled. "I didn't show you what they gave us? Oh my God, it's the cutest thing I've ever seen. I'll go get it." Lorelai walked to the living room to retrieve the gift bag, giving a quick glance toward Joshua to make sure he was all right. She returned to the kitchen and sat down. "Okay, prepare to break out some major aww's." Lorelai reached into the bag and pulled out a tiny blue baseball cap.
"Aww," Sookie gushed. "Look how cute that is!"
"And that's not even the best part. Look at this." Lorelai pulled out a tiny flannel shirt and infant-sized blue jeans.
Sookie gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my God!"
Lorelai giggled. "I know! Isn't it the cutest thing ever?"
"Absolutely. Aw, he's gonna look like a little Luke. I can't wait to see him wear that."
"Me either. As soon as the cooler weather hits, this is the first thing that's going on him." Lorelai put the stuff back in the bag and set it aside. "You should've seen Luke's face when he saw it. He was trying not to look too excited about it, but you could tell he loved it."
Sookie smiled. "He's really into this fatherhood stuff, huh?"
Lorelai smiled and nodded. "Yeah, he is. I never thought it would be like this. I mean, I knew he'd be a great dad, but. . . " Her voice trailed off and she stared into space for a moment, a small smile on her lips.
"But what?" Sookie prompted her.
Lorelai shrugged. "I don't know, it's weird. I mean, there was a time when I never would've been able to picture Luke in the same room with a baby, let alone taking care of Joshua the way he does. The way he's always holding him, changing him, feeding him. . ." She shook her head slightly. "It's like he miraculously transformed from Mr. Macho into Mr. Mom overnight."
"It's good that he's so involved," Sookie commented.
"Yeah, he's great. I can't imagine doing this without him." Lorelai paused. "Well, I can, because I did it with Rory, but . . .you know what I mean. It's so much easier when there's someone there doing it with you."
Sookie nodded in agreement. "I bet it is."
Lorelai finished writing out the thank you note and passed it to Sookie. "Joshua's one week checkup is on Tuesday afternoon. It'll be our first time out of the house since we came home from the hospital."
"You haven't gone anywhere at all?"
"Nope."
"Not even to Friday night dinner?"
"No, Rory went alone," Lorelai replied. "My parents told me they'd understand if I needed to take a few weeks off, so. . ."
"So of course you took 'em up on it."
"Of course." Lorelai rolled her eyes and added, "Rory told me that they already turned one of the guest rooms into a nursery. You know, in case I'm there with the baby and need to put him in a crib or rock him or something."
"So I guess they want you to bring him to dinner?"
Lorelai shrugged. "I guess so. I don't know if I want to subject him to the house of terror at such a young age, though." She heard whimpering coming from the living room, and she smiled. "Ooh, someone's up." She glanced at the clock. "And right on schedule to eat. This kid inherited his mother's appetite, let me tell you. Be right back."
Lorelai walked to the living room to retrieve Joshua from the baby swing. "Hello, little boy." She unbuckled him from the swing and lifted him out. She kissed his cheek and asked, "Did you have a good nap?" She carried him to the kitchen. "Look, your Aunt Sookie's here to see you."
"Hi, cute baby," Sookie greeted him.
"Can you hold him while I make his bottle?" Lorelai asked.
"Sure." Sookie took the baby and cradled him in her arms.
"Luke and I started a new routine last night," Lorelai said as she started making the bottle.
"A new routine for what?"
"For the middle-of-the-night feedings," Lorelai replied. "The first couple of days, both of us were getting up every time Josh got up, but now we alternate one at a time. We figured we would get more sleep that way."
"Sounds more efficient," Sookie commented.
"Yeah, it seemed to work well," Lorelai said. "Of course, we were both still tired as anything by the time morning rolled around, but unfortunately, lack of sleep is what parenthood's all about. Consider yourself warned."
"Trust me, we're prepared. We've read plenty of articles about it."
Lorelai finished making Joshua's bottle, and they moved into the living room so she could feed him on the couch.
. . . . .
Almost two weeks later, on Friday night, Luke arrived home from work slightly after nine. Rory was reading in the living room, and after talking with her for a few minutes, he quietly climbed the staircase. Like every night when he worked late, he stopped in the nursery to check on Joshua before heading into his own bedroom, and he was surprised to find the crib empty.
Confused, he walked to his bedroom and slowly pushed open the door. Lorelai lay on her side, her back facing him. He stepped closer to the bed and saw that she was asleep with a contentedly sleeping Joshua right next to her on the bed.
Lorelai, as if feeling his presence in the room, stirred and opened her eyes. She craned her neck back and saw Luke standing over her, and she smiled up at him. "Hey," she whispered.
"Hi." Luke leaned down and kissed her. "Looks like we have some company tonight, huh?"
Lorelai glanced at Joshua, then back at Luke. "Yeah, he cried every time I tried to put him down in the crib, so I brought him in here. He just needed some cuddling."
"Is he okay? Maybe he's getting sick."
Lorelai rolled onto her back. "I think he's fine. He was just being cranky."
"Are you just gonna leave him there?"
"I was planning on it, unless you wanna try to move him to the crib and risk waking him up," Lorelai said. "But then it might be a while before we get him back to sleep, and we'll be sitting here that whole time regretting the fact that we didn't just leave him here in the first place, and I always think that the less regrets you have in life the better, so we should try to take any preventative measures we can to avoid adding to our list of regrets"
Luke rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'm getting the very subtle hint that you don't wanna move him."
Lorelai sighed. "Well, he was cranky all night and just wanted to be held, so I'm like twice as tired as usual, and he seems to be sleeping well here, so. . .isn't there a saying that it's best to just let sleeping babies lie?"
"I think that's sleeping dogs."
"Well, I'm pretty sure there's one about babies, too." Lorelai frowned. "Come on, look how cute he looks in the center of this big bed. I'd get up and take a picture if I wasn't about to collapse of exhaustion."
Luke sighed with concern. "But what if one of us. . .I don't know. . .rolls onto him or something?"
"Then we won't have this same problem tomorrow night."
"I'm being serious here, Lorelai."
Lorelai sat up with a sigh. "We're not going to roll on him, Luke. Our subconscious knows he's there, so our instincts will keep us from inadvertently squishing our newborn, okay?" Luke still seemed doubtful, so she added, "It'll be fine, trust me. And it won't be for that long. When he wakes up to eat, we can try to put him in the crib again. I just don't wanna risk waking him up now just to move him."
Luke reluctantly agreed to let him stay, and he went to get ready for bed. When he returned from the bathroom, he climbed under the covers on his side of the bed, keeping an eye on the baby as he shifted to get more comfortable.
Lorelai rolled onto her side to face him. "So, anything interesting happen today?"
Luke shrugged. "Not really. Couldn't find a case of mayo for awhile, but we finally tracked it down. How was your day?"
"Okay. Just a normal day of mothering. Went through the usual routine of changing him, feeding him, cleaning up his spit-up. Oh, and I took him for a walk in the stroller this afternoon. He loves being outside."
"Well, the doctor said that fresh air is good for him, so that's good."
"Yup." Lorelai yawned and closed her eyes. "God, I'm so tired. You don't mind if I just doze off in the middle of our conversation, do you?"
Luke sat up and leaned against the headboard. He switched his gaze between her and Joshua for a minute, then said, "I think that I'm gonna try not to work nights anymore."
Lorelai opened her eyes slightly. "Hm?"
"I know I already cut it down to a few nights a week, but I don't wanna work any anymore," he said. "I mean, the days like today when I work a full-day shift, open to close, I never get to see you. I get home and we have a three-minute conversation before you fall asleep." He shook his head. "It's not enough."
Lorelai smiled. "Aw, you miss me."
"Yeah, I do. And him. . ." He ran a finger over Joshua's chin. "And I wanna spend some time with Rory before she goes off to Yale."
Lorelai reached for his hand and kissed the top of it. "Well, whatever you wanna do that results in us getting to see you more, I'm all for it."
"Good."
"So what are you gonna do? Hire some more people?"
Luke shrugged. "I don't know yet. Maybe. I'll have to figure something out." They talked for a few more minutes before kissing goodnight and going to sleep.
. . . . .
Two weeks later, Rory was down in the living room with Joshua while Luke and Lorelai were in their bedroom getting ready for Friday night dinner.
Lorelai was sitting at her vanity in her robe putting on her makeup. "Have I mentioned that I don't wanna go tonight?"
"Only twenty times in the past half hour," Luke replied as he buttoned his shirt.
"They told me I could take a few weeks off. You were there at the hospital when they said that. You heard it, right?"
"Yep, I heard it."
"So I stupidly interpreted that to mean that I could, in fact, take a few weeks off from dinner and start going again when I was ready."
"I hate wearing ties," Luke muttered as he picked one out of his drawer.
"So does that give my mother any right to call me up in the middle of the week and tell me that enough time had passed and that I was expected to be at dinner this week?"
"They said a few weeks, and it's been a month," Luke pointed out. "So, yeah, I think she does have a right."
Lorelai frowned at him. "Someone seems to be forgetting the promise that he made almost a year ago that said he would forever be on my side when I was complaining about my mother."
"Oh, was that one of the wedding vows I took? Must've slipped my mind." He walked over to her, and she stood up with a sigh. He tucked her hair behind her ears, then kissed her. "Stop worrying about it, it'll be fine. And I'll be there with you, remember?"
She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. "Thanks for going. You being there will help ease the transition of getting back into the Friday night dinner routine."
"Good, I'm glad."
"And there's always the possibility that Josh will be really cranky and it'll give us an excuse to leave early."
"There ya go, way to look on the bright side."
She smiled and kissed his cheek before pulling away from him. "I gotta get dressed." She walked over to her closet and stared at the selection. "What should I wear?"
Luke shrugged. "Wear whatever you want."
"There's that husband-y helpfulness that I love so much. Thanks, hon."
"You're welcome." He sat on the edge of the bed to put his shoes on, and when he was done, she was still staring at the closet. "Just pick something."
Lorelai sighed. "I can't. All the things I wanna wear won't look good on me."
"Everything looks good on you."
"No, everything does not look good on me." Lorelai took off her robe and patted her stomach. "Look at this."
"What about it?"
"It feels all soft and mushy," Lorelai whined. "This is not the nice flat stomach I had when I bought any of these dresses, and thus I will not look good in them until I have that nice flat stomach back again."
Luke walked over to her and put his hands on her waist. "Trust me, you look good with either stomach."
"I do not."
"I wouldn't say it unless I meant it."
"Yes, you would, because you're sweet and adorable and you love me, and you'll say anything to make me happy."
"That's true."
Lorelai kissed him. "Plus, you haven't gotten any in a really long time and you're trying to flatter me into putting out."
Luke rolled his eyes. "That's not true."
Lorelai gasped. "You mean you have gotten some lately? From who? It certainly wasn't from me. Unless I was so tired and out of it that I didn't know it was going on, which is a definite possibility."
Luke walked over to the bed and sat down. "Uh, could you just find something to wear? We're gonna be late."
Lorelai walked over and sat down next to him. "Seriously, though. . .you're still okay with the waiting thing, right?"
"I'm fine," he replied with a shrug. "I've told you before, I don't care how long it takes. When you're ready, great. Until then, no big deal."
Lorelai reached for his hand and laced her fingers through his. "I wish I could tell you how much longer it'll be, but I'm not sure." She frowned. "Poor Chester might be neglected for another few weeks or so."
"Look, all that matters is that you're completely ready. If it takes a year, I'll wait a year. Don't worry about me, just take your time."
Lorelai kissed him and squeezed his hand. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Luke pointed to the closet. "Now go pick out something to wear."
Lorelai sighed and walked over to the closet. After surveying the selection for a moment, she chose an outfit and started getting dressed.
"So, next Saturday's the big day," Luke said.
"Ugh, don't remind me," Lorelai told him. "I don't wanna think about it."
"You gotta think about it sooner or later."
"No, because if I don't think about it, then maybe it won't happen. Maybe the day for my firstborn to go off to a big scary college will pass by and nothing will happen and I won't go through the nervous breakdown that I've been preparing myself for."
"Or maybe she'll go off to that big scary college and you'll deal with it because you realize that it'll probably end up being the best four years of her life."
Lorelai frowned. "Okay, I'm in no mood for your completely irrational opinions."
As he watched Lorelai continue getting dressed, he could tell she was thinking about Rory. "You okay?"
Lorelai glanced over at him with a shrug. "I don't know. I'm just thinking about how different it's gonna feel around here. I mean, we've never lived apart. We've never been separated for more than a few days at a time."
"I know."
Lorelai sighed. "I'm just. . .I'm really gonna miss having her around."
Luke nodded understandably. "I know you are. I am, too."
Lorelai took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "Okay, I'm not gonna think about it right now. Let's just get this night over with." She buttoned up her shirt, then checked her hair in the mirror.
Luke stood up and walked over to her. "Listen, I'll try to take a few days off from work this week. Then I'll stay home with Joshua, and you and Rory can go out and spend some time together, just the two of you."
Lorelai turned to him with a smile. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Lorelai hugged and kissed him. "Thank you." She took a step back from him and smoothed out her outfit. "Okay, how do I look?"
He nodded approvingly as he eyed her up and down. "Your usual perfect self."
"Good. Let's go."
The two of them walked downstairs, where Rory was sitting on the couch holding the baby. "How's he doing?" Lorelai asked.
"He's sleeping," Rory replied softly.
"Oh, cool. He'll probably sleep during the whole car ride." Lorelai gently lifted Joshua from Rory's arms and placed him in his carseat. She buckled him in and tucked a blanket around him.
Luke picked up the carseat. "Ready?"
"Yeah, I just have to grab his bottles." Lorelai walked to the kitchen, pulled some bottles out of the fridge and stuck them in the diaper bag that was on the table. She picked up the bag and returned to the living room. "All set. Let's go." They walked out of the house, piled into the truck, and headed toward Hartford.
. . . . .
To be continued . . .
