Broadway Baby (13 page)

“No!”
Lily’s screams filled the room as the shots were given in rapid succession in her bottom. Three Band-Aids later, Lily was once more upright in Shelby’s lap, being held and comforted.

“How soon before the blood work comes back, Dr. Kate?” Shelby asked over Lily’s crying.

“Early next week sometime. We’ll call with the results as soon as we have them. Are there any other questions?”

Shelby shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Dr. Kate smiled at the woman. “The injection sites might be sore for a day or two so you’ll need to go easy on those areas. She also might get sleepy from them.” Dr. Kate made her way to the door and stopped with her hand on the knob. “It was very nice to meet you, Lily.”

Hearing the door close, Lily relaxed a little bit and began to calm down. “My hiney hurts, Mama,” she whined.

“It won’t hurt for long, baby. Are you ready to get dressed and go see the ducks?”

“And get a hot dog?” Lily’s tears were almost completely stopped.

“Yes, and get a hot dog.” Shelby smiled.

Lily nodded. “I’m ready and I don’t wanna come back here for a really long time.”

* * *

Almost tripping over Lily’s shoes yet again, Shelby yelled for Lily to come back from the living room and pick them up. Wondering why she was being ignored Shelby strode into the living area with a set purpose in mind. That purpose ended however when she got sight of Lily asleep on the couch clutching Albie.

Deciding to let her continue her nap, Shelby took the throw blanket from the back of the couch and covered Lily up. “Sleep well, baby,” she whispered before heading back to the front door to pick up the trail left by Lily upon entering.

It was just a short time later when Shelby heard, “Mama! Mama!” as she moved toward the living area.

“Hey there, baby what’s wrong?” Shelby entered the room wiping her hand on a kitchen towel.

“I don’t feel good and I’m hungry.” Lily wrapped her arms around Shelby as she sat on the edge of the couch. “My bottom is sore and I’m hot,” Lily’s whining became louder and Shelby sighed.

“Let’s go get you changed and then we can have a snack.”

“Cookies?” Lily asked hopefully.

“We’ll see,” Shelby’s reply was noncommittal as she stood and helped lead Lily down the hallway to her bedroom.

“Just say yes, Mama. It’s nicer that way.” Lily yawned and held onto Mama’s hand tightly as they headed to her room to change.

“Hold me, Mama.” Lily stood on the bed her arms held up to Shelby.

“Lily do not stand on the bed.” Shelby admonished before sitting down and pulling Lily onto her lap. Lily felt warm and Shelby had a feeling the worst of the injection side effects were not over.

Tears began and Lily buried her face in Shelby’s neck, “I just wanted you to hold me, Mama. You don’t hafta get mad at me.”

Shushing Lily Shelby brushed some hair back from Lily’s face and rocked her back and forth. “I am not mad at you, baby. Are you still hungry?”

Feeling a nod on her shoulder Shelby stood and then took Lily’s hand as they walked to the kitchen. Helping Lily sit on one of the barstools Shelby smiled gently at Lily. “Snack time, baby girl.”

“Cookies, Mama. I want cookies.”

“You may have one cookie with the rest of your snack.” Shelby bit her lip as not to smile at the pouting lip that resulted on Lily’s face with her pronouncement of one cookie.

“Three cookies?”

“No cookies?”

“No, Mama! One cookie is good,” Lily backtracked quickly. “I can eat one cookie.”

“If you’re sure,” Shelby teased.

“I’m sure. One cookie is good.”

Shelby nodded and moved to the pantry grabbed the coveted bag of cookies. Reaching inside she removed one cookie and brought it back to the counter. “Do you want to eat it now or after the rest of your snack?”

“Both.” Lily sniffed and stared at the lone cookie still pouting.

Shelby broke the cookie in half and handed Lily one of them before placing the other half on a plate. “There you go, baby. You can have the other half after you eat your apple.”

“Man,” Lily pouted but went ahead and ate the apple that Shelby had cut up for her anyway. “All done, Mama, can I have my cookie half now?”

“Yes you may,” Shelby handed Lily the remainder of the cookie and chuckled as she ate it with a look of pure joy on her face.

Pouring some juice into a glass Shelby handed it to Lily and was happy that she didn’t have to fuss to make Lily drink it. “That’s good apple juice, Mama. You know what would make it even better?”

“What?”

“Another cookie.” Lily grinned at her brilliance. “I could sure use another glass of juice and a cookie.”

“The juice we can do but not the cookie.”

Opening her chocolate-eyes wide Lily pouted. “Please. That apple juice doesn’t wanna be lonely when I drink it. It needs the cookie.”

Closing her eyes as Mama’s hand felt her forehead Lily looked up into hazel eyes with longing. “I don’t feel so good, Mama but I know the cookie would help me feel better.”

Lily watched as Mama shook her head and poured another glass of juice before heading to the pantry in silence. “One more, that’s it, little girl.”

Squealing in delight Lily hugged Shelby tightly, “You are the best Mama ever.” She proclaimed taking the prized item from Shelby and biting into it closing her eyes in contentment.

Chapter Six

Two more weeks had passed and Lily and Shelby were enjoying some little Lily time on their one day off. They were finishing up their brunch and Lily was having fun making faces at Albie. Putting their plates on the counter Shelby turned her attention to Lily.

“Would you like to play a game, Lily?”

“Yes!” Lily grinned from ear to ear. “I’ll go get it, Mama.”

“Alright. No running, Lily.” Shelby admonished as bare feet ran down the hallway.

The running feet returned quickly and a board game was placed on the table. “It’s the color game, Mama. I wanna be the red one.”

Throwing down the kitchen towel Shelby grinned. “I think I’ll be the yellow one then.”

“Okay.” Lily set up the cards and then got on her knees as the game began. “Oh a double purple.” Lily grinned and moved her red figure the proper spaces.

* * *

Putting the bottle of juice on the coffee table Shelby put down her glass of iced tea before heading back to the kitchen to grab the popcorn.

“I wanna watch this, Mama!” Lily held up her favorite princess movie and waved it back and forth. “Hurry up, put it in for me, please.”

Chuckling Shelby put the popcorn down on the coffee table and took the video from Lily’s hands. “The ice queen one, again?”

“Yup, I love the castle. It’s so pretty when it comes up outta the snow.” Lily happily watched as Shelby put the movie into the DVD player.

“Are you ready to watch it?” Shelby asked.

“Almost,” Lily ran from the room and returned rather quickly with a duffle bag. “Now I’m ready.”

Sitting on the floor in front of the TV, Lily unzipped the bag and began to pull items from it. “I knew these would come in handy.” She muttered to herself stopping just for a moment when the movie began.

“Lily what are you doing?” Shelby asked noticing the brunette’s attention was still focused more on the bag in front of her than the movie playing.

“Just getting out some fun stuff, Mama. Geesh, no need to have a cow.”

“Lily Anne watch that attitude with me.”

Rolling her eyes at the TV Lily merely nodded before pulling the best item ever from her bag. Being sure to hide it from Shelby with her body she put it on the floor in front of her and grinned.

Putting the paper down in front of her Lily grabbed her favorite marker and began to draw. Looking at the TV she decided to draw the reindeer. Making sure the marker didn’t get everywhere, Lily put that away and looked at her picture. It was missing something. Glitter.

Looking behind her Lily smiled at Mama before turning back to her paper. Slowly taking the glue she outlined the reindeer and then dumped a bunch of sparkly purple glitter in the glue before shaking it off onto the carpet.

“Lily, what are you doing?”

“Making you a picture, Mama. Don’t look, it’s a surprise.”

Hearing Mama chuckle, Lily breathed a sigh of relief. No problems with the glitter on the light colored carpet, yet. Hearing the phone ring Lily watched Mama once more and decided to use the distraction of Mama talking on the phone to her sister as a chance to use her best item yet.

Opening the bright red nail polish Lily bent her knees and made sure she could reach her toes. Getting the first toe painted she extended her foot to admire it. Loving the results she pulled the foot back and kicked the polish over. “No,” Lily whispered picking it up right away.

Sniffling Lily put the lid on the now empty bottle of polish and threw it back into her bag with the rest of her stuff. Wondering what she could use to wipe up the polish she noticed the ugly throw blanket Mama had on the chair. The blanket was itchy and was brown and tan instead of pretty colors. Figuring it would work Lily retrieved it and threw it on top of the polish and glitter and began to rub the carpet rather hard.

Stopping for a moment Lily grabbed her cup of apple juice and opened the straw on it. Taking a big drink she looked under the blanket and gasped. This was not good. Mama was not going to like the red glittery carpet. Putting the blanket back over the spot Lily looked for something else to hide the stain. Pulling a cushion off the couch she put in on top of the blanket and then decided to dump the entire bowl of popcorn on that. Yep, that should do the trick.

Hearing Mama heading her way Lily grabbed Albie and took off down the hallway to her room. Stopping in her room Lily looked around in panic. Where could she hide that Mama would never think to look? The closet called to her but that wouldn’t work. Smiling she ducked behind the long curtains at the window and hoped Mama would never think to look for her there.

“Lily Anne Prescott!” Shelby’s voice echoed throughout the apartment and Lily pressed her face into Albie’s head. “Come here!”

Holding Albie tighter Lily was quiet. Very quiet. Maybe if she was quiet enough Mama would forget to come and look for her. Yeah, being really quiet and hiding behind curtains was as good as being invisible. Relaxing Lily then tensed up again when she heard Mama’s footsteps in the hallway.

* * *

Taking a deep breath Shelby tried to calm down before entering Lily’s bedroom. The light pink footprints led this way and Shelby once more wondered how red nail polish, glue, and glitter managed to find its way not only into her carpet and throw blanket but all over her little Lily’s feet.

Entering the bedroom Shelby looked at the bed and then moved to the closet. No Lily. Deciding to give the girl time to come to her she looked around the room and held her smile. Not only did Lily have her eyes closed but it seemed as if she honestly thought the sheer lilac curtains hid her from Shelby. If the little pink footprints hadn’t given her away, the toes, one painted bright red sticking out from under the curtains, would have done so anyway.

“I wonder where Lily is hiding,” Shelby sat on the bed and put the pink pig in her lap. “I know she must be scared about what happened but if she could only talk to me then we could figure out what happened to the carpet.”

Glancing at the curtain Shelby noticed Lily now had her eyes open. “I wonder, Piggy, if Lily knows how much I love her even when she does naughty things. Do you think that mess was put on the floor on purpose or was it an accident?”

“Accident!” A little voice called before gasping.

Looking at the curtain again Shelby sighed and noticed Lily’s face buried in her bear’s head. “Well, Piggy, I guess we’ll just have to sit her all alone and wait for Lily to find us. I hope she isn’t too scared to be by herself. I know that accidents can happen anytime and even Mama’s can have accidents sometimes.”

“They can?” the little voice asked.

“Yep.” Shelby gave a deep sigh. “I sure would like to hug Lily and tell her how much I love her. I guess I can’t though since she’s disappeared. I hope she comes back so I don’t get too lonely. I sure would miss her if she ran away.”

Putting the pig down Shelby began to walk from the room only to be stopped by a small body throwing itself at her. “I didn’t run away, Mama. I’m right here! You just couldn’t see me ‘cause the curtain made me invisible.”

“It did?” Shelby’s eyebrow raised and Lily nodded.

“Yup, I was real quiet too and I closed my eyes and everything. So I know I was invisible ‘cause I couldn’t see you so you couldn’t see me.”

Shelby nodded at the little girl’s logic, “I see. Well then how about we head over to the rocking chair and talk about what happened in the living room.”

Picking up Lily to avoid any more pink footprints on the hardwood floor and area rug Shelby sat in the rocker and allowed Lily to get comfortable on her lap.

Shelby sat Lily on her lap sideways allowing Lily’s feet to fall over the arms of the chair as she laid her head on Shelby’s chest. Her free arm was wrapped around Albie and her hand fell onto one of Shelby’s breasts. Letting it stay there, Lily snuggled even closer to Mama. “I’m sorry, Mama.”

“What are you sorry about, baby girl?”

“Spillin’ the nail polish. I just wanted my toes pretty like yours are, but the bottle spilled and I couldn’t get it all cleaned up.”

“Can you tell me how glitter and glue were on the carpet as well?” Shelby asked as she gently rubbed Lily’s back.

Lily took a deep breath, “Well, you see, Mama, it’s like this,” she paused and looked up at Shelby briefly before once more tucking her head into Shelby’s chest. “I wanted to make you a pretty picture so I drawed the reindeer from my movie, but he wasn’t pretty enough.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So I decided he needed sparkles, but not just any sparkles, the best sparkles ever.”

“The purple, glittery kind?”