Sing to Me (2 page)

I wasn’t popular or anything, but I had a lot of friends. I tr
ied to be nice to everyone, and I rarely had problems with anyone else.
Maybe that was why it was so hard for me to deal with his teasing and sarcasm. It hurt, and I couldn’t figure out where it came from. So, I’d
decided
he was
a punk
I should just ignore -
a shame since he was actually pretty cute.

I
liked the deep brown of his eyes, though it was really unfair that a boy should have such long lashes. His nose was a little on the thin side, but it made him look kind of… I don’t
know
, aristocratic.
It wasn’t really his looks that made him attractive though.

A
magnetic intensity radiated from him
, hinting
at tempests beneath the surface
. It drew you to him, made you curious to know what drove the storms in his eyes
.

He seemed different with his sister, though. A sense of calm and belonging clung to him as tightly as Abby’s fingers on his sleeve.
T
hey didn’t look much like brother and sister, since his hair was as dark as hers was light and he had olive skin while hers was fair
, but it
was clear t
hey were close
.
I guessed that he didn’t much like having a stepmom, especially one so close to his own age, but it was
clear th
at his hang-ups with her
didn’t affect his feelings for Abby
.

The front door opened behind me and a man came in who I assumed to be Colby and Abby’s dad.
He was the same height as Colby, still looking young and fit for a man old enough to have a son about to graduate from high school. He was dressed casually, but something about him screamed C.E.O. Maybe it was his
stiff
posture
and
sharp eyes.
I smiled and tried to look confident. No parent would want to leave their lit
tle girl with a nervous teenager
– especially this one.

He came towards me with a hand held out. “Hello there. I’m Gerry Adams. Are you the babysitter or Colby’s date?”

I shook his hand, but
w
as so surprised by the question that I had a hard time answering.
This man’s personality compelled an answer, however, so I
opened my mouth to give him one. Who knows how long I would have stood there looking like a goldfish if
Colby
hadn’t
answered for me.

“This is
Rylie
Butcher
, D
ad. She’s the babysitter.”

I nodded and
forced a smile, but a second later, my eyebrows pulled together as I tried to figure out why his answer bothered me.

“Well,” Mr. Adams said, “
Too bad, but that’s what I thought.
Colby doesn’t usually bring his girlfriends around for us to meet.
Makes me wonder abo
ut his taste in girls.
”
Completely unaware of the awkwardness he’d plunged us all
into,
he reached for his daughter and said, “Come here, baby girl. Let’s go see if Mommy is ready to go.”

As he left with her, I glanced sideways at Co
lby and saw that there was
a slight tightness to his jaw. When he saw me looking at him, he shook his head
and rolled his eyes. “Well, I’ve
got
ta
get going. Have fun.
Hopefully you can manage babysitting better than singing a solo.
”

I
glared at him as he left, but he never turned around to see it. Hurt twisted me up inside, and I already felt a little sick to my stomach because I was nervous about being left in charge of a little girl who didn’t know me
and
whose parents were both a little overwhelming.
All at once,
this
seemed like a
bigger deal than it had before
.

Ten minutes later, Mr. Adams handed Abby over to me and she immediately began to scream and reach for him. Meanwhile, Marcy was giving me last minute instructions about dinner, bedtime, and emergency numbers.
I tried desperately to hear her
over Abby’s wailing, but I knew I was missing stuff.

“Don’t worry,” Marcy said. “
I left a detailed list of information and her schedule in the kit
chen on the counter. Give Mommy
hugs, baby girl!”

She leaned in to hug her while I still held her, brushing her hair in my face and wafting her expensive perfume in my nose. I was relieved when she stepped back, even though it made Abby wail even louder.

Mrs. Adams looked like she was about to cry too. “Oh, I just hate leaving her like this.”

I could have sworn that Colby’s dad rolled his eyes before putting a firm hand on her arm and pulling her out the door.

“
Call us if you have any questions
,
”
she called back to me.

When the door shut behin
d them, Abby was struggling so hard
to run after them I was afraid I would drop her. I sat her down
,
and she ran
to
the door
and pounded
it with her little fists
, screaming,
“Momm
a
! Momm
a
! Momm
a
!”
She was terrified and so was I.

Maybe
bugs weren’t so bad after all.

*****

I’d given up on “Hush Little Baby”
because I didn’t know all the words.
There were only so many times you could sing “Rock-a-By-Baby.” I started singing “Twinkle
, Twinkle
Little Star” in a soft voice, my breat
h stirring
Abby’s
curls
where they lay
under my chin
.
Her
sweet little f
ace, still wet with tears, was
tucked into my neck.
There had been
a short time after
her parent
s left when I
’d
doubted her sweetness, but once I
’d
calmed her down
and made friends with her, she r
eally was a darling. We’d had a good time until I’d tried to put her to bed.

Marcy had assured me that all I had to do was put her jammies and sleeping diaper on and she would settle right down. She’d even said that she usually cri
ed for
little while
but
to just let her cry. When she’d screamed for fifteen minutes though,
I
hadn’t been able to take
it
anymore. I’d gather
ed
her up with her
blankie
and settled into the rocking chair with her.
For a while
,
she’d shuddered with the aftermath of her screaming, but she’d calmed down when I’d started singing and rubbing her back.

Unfortunately, every time I’d thought she was asleep and stopped singing, she’d sat up and looked at me with wide-awake
,
accusing eyes.
I’d completely lost track of
how long I’d been trying to put her to sleep.

I was
singing “like a diamond in the sky” when I heard the front door open downstairs. I was both relieved that her parents were finally home and extremely frustrated that I hadn’t been able to get Abby asleep before the
y
got here.
I had a feeling they would be peeved about the mess in the perfect living room
.

I was afraid to stop singing
, so I started the song again as I waited for Marcy to find us.
However, i
t was Colby that
leaned in through the doorway to my left and peeked in at us
. His eyes
assessed
the situation, and a brief smile glanced across his lips before he left again.

I felt like throwing something – preferabl
y
at him.
Of course
Colby had
to
come home and hear me singing lullabies.
I
c
ould
already hear him teasing me over it.
I
desperately
wanted
to stop, but I knew
Abby
would
scream the place down
if I did
. So, I kept rocking and singing
, telling myself that I didn’t need to be ashamed of my voice, whatever Colby said about it.

Needing to focus on something
so I could calm down
, my
eyes drifted to the moonlight streaming through the blinds
on the wall opposite to me. I’d opened them a little to
let in
enough light that I wouldn’t trip getting Abby in her bed but not so much that she wouldn’t go to sleep.

I didn’t know Colby had come back until I heard a whisper of a chord being str
ummed on a guitar. I looked over
at him, surprise halting my song, and Abby popped up to stare at him as well.

“Keep singing,” he murmured as he sat on a
n ottoman nearby. “Abby loves when I play for her
.”

I started over, thrilled at the gentle tone of Colby’s guitar. His fingers barely brushed the strings, giving what was really just a hint of the sound they could make.
It was perfect for the lullaby
. When we
came to the end, he whispered, “Again.” This time he joined in, perfectly harmonizing with the melody I was singing.
It was crazy that Colby was voluntarily singing a duet with me, and even crazier that our voices blended so well.

“Do you know Moon River?” he asked when we were done, his soft voice barely reaching me from where he sat. I nodded. We’d sung it for a choir concert last year and I’d loved the haunting song so much that I still remembered all the words.

As much as I’d loved it before,
I’d never gotten to sing
it to the original guitar accompaniment
.
It was beautiful, and when Colby
sang harmony
on the verse that began “Two drifters off to see the world…
,
” I completely forgot that we were trying to put Abby to sleep. I got lost in the
song and the thrill of blending my voice with Colby’s deeper one.

When the last strains of the song died away, we sat quietly, looking at each other in the near darkness. I couldn’t see his features well because his back was to the window, but I could feel a ribbon of
connection
flowing
between
us
.
And it just didn’t make sense.
I tried to reconcile what
I knew
of Colby and the way I was feeling, but it was impossible.

“
You know what’s funny?
”
He asked in a whisper, interrupting my silent debate.

“What?”

“Your hair is like a river of moonlight falling over your shoulder.”

I glanced
down at it, but quickly looked up again to stare at him.
I knew I looked confused, but that’s because I was. Just not for the reason he thought.

“You know
…
the song
.
”
he explained.

“Yeah, I get it. ‘
Moon River.’
I just can’t believe you said that.”

He made a sound like he was clearing his throat or something. “Yeah, well, it didn’t sound so cheesy when I was just thinking it.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. It was nice. I liked it.”

We sat there in
silence
as
strange new currents passed
between us
. We studied
each other
,
like we were meeting for the first time
,
until Colby
murmured, “
She’s asleep.”

“She is?
”
I moved my arms to shift her so I could see her face, and sure enough she was. Funny how I was disappointed when I had been so anxious for her to fall asleep earlier.

I stood up as slowly as I could,
trying
not to jostle her, and carried her over to her toddler bed
. I bent and eased her onto it
, carefully pulling my arm out from under her. She moved a little, but only to get comfortable on her pillow.