Sometimes I washed bottles while Nate changed diapers. Other times, I held Luke so Emily could eat a full meal with both hands.
She was always grateful.
« You don’t have to keep doing all this, Helen, » she told me one afternoon as I placed a casserole in their refrigerator.
« I know, » I replied. « That’s why it counts as helping instead of serving a sentence. »
She laughed, and for a while, everything between us felt easy.
But there was one thing Emily would never let anyone else do.
Bath time.
The first time I offered, Luke was only a few weeks old. Emily had mentioned that he always became calmer in warm water, so I thought bathing him might give her a small break.
She smiled warmly and said, « That’s sweet of you, but I’d rather do it myself. »
I didn’t think anything of it.
