She sighed. “It’s a great opportunity for you to grow up a little, son. You haven’t even had a pet before. You have no concept of what it means to give of yourself for another. This experience is going to be hard, but you’ll grow and mature so much during this time. Take it as an opportunity.”

I nearly laughed. “An opportunity? It’s a fucking nightmare.”

Her voice went hard. “Watch your language with me. You know I hate that word.”

I paused and bit my lip. “This isn’t my burden to bear, and honestly I don’t have a clue what the f—, what I’m doing.”

One minute stretched into another, and for a moment, I thought she hung up. Then she sniffed. “I miss her too much, son. I can’t bear to keep the baby here. He looks just like her. Don’t make me suffer any more than I have. This is your moment to shine. Do like you do at work.” A soft sob lifted from her.

I let out a long puff of air, my legs suddenly weak. Dropping into a nearby chair, I shook my head in desperation and closed my eyes, holding the baby close to my chest.

I can’t do this.

“Alright. I’ll try. I don’t want to add to your grief. I just...”

“Thank you, son. I love you. I need to go.”

The phone went dead, leaving me alone and lost as to what to do next. I needed help, but who should I turn to? The only person in the world I trusted was gone. My sister was everything to me.

“What are we gonna do, little man?” I stood and pulled the boy higher on my shoulder, rubbing his back as I pressed my cheek to the baby’s small head. “What are we going to do?”

I hadn’t had to deal with a younger brother or sister, but surely someone in my friend circle had. I milled through the faces, trying to discern if any of them had mentioned having to help raise a younger sibling. The fact that I knew little to nothing about the guys I would call my closest friends was concerning. I patted Tyson’s back as the child wailed. Something was obviously wrong.

Laying him down, I walked into the hall and pulled up an old group text, offering beer and late night pizza for anyone who was awake and would come over to help. The text was short, but most of the guys would show up. They were all mooches in some way or another.

It wasn’t but a few minutes before the doorbell rang. I jogged downstairs as despair tugged at me. The boy was screaming like he had a splinter in his eye. It wasn’t an agitated cry, but a painful one. If the guys couldn’t help out, we would be on our way to the all-night clinic down the road.

I opened the door in time to see Paul and Jared clap hands, each having just shown up.

“Get in here,” I barked and turned on my heel, walking to the kitchen and pulling out various brands of beer and wine. It was just after midnight from what the clock above the oven reported. There was only one pizza place in town that would still be open. “That’ll have to do.”

“Hey, buddy. We’ll go up and see if we can get him to calm down.” Paul smiled, his red hair and freckles making him look all of ten years old.

“Yeah, good luck,” I muttered and turned to face the back windows of the kitchen. I pressed the phone to my ear and ordered the food. The doorbell rang again and I walked to it, tugging it open and nodding at three more friends of mine from my college days. “Any of you guys have younger siblings that you helped take care of?”

“Naw, not me, man.” Michael shook his head. “Seth is a doc though. He should be able to figure out what’s up.”

“Fuck you, Mike.” Seth walked in and turned to me. “Where is he?”

“What, buddy?” Michael popped Seth on the back. “An animal doctor is still a doctor. Shit.”

“Totally different,” Kent muttered beside them. “I’ll start researching the situation. Where’s your laptop and what’s the little dude doing?”

Michael and Seth bounded up the stairs, simply following the sound of a pissed off kid. Paul and Jared had yet to calm Tyson and the hope of anyone being able to was dwindling fast.

“Computer’s over there and honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Just type in ‘excessive crying’ and see what the options are.” I shrugged and walked back to the kitchen, popping the top off a beer and drinking half of it before taking a breath.

“Dude. Little man is thoroughly pissed.” Paul walked into the kitchen and took my beer from my hand, emptying the rest. “Did you drop him or some shit?”

“No.” I grabbed another one and leaned against the counter. “He’s been crying since my date and my babysitter got into a screaming match. It’s been a hell of a night.”

“Sounds like it. You want me to call Stephanie?”

“Your girlfriend?” I lifted my eyebrow.

“Yeah. She’s babysat before. We could at least ask her what the hell to try next.”

“Sure. Anything is better than sitting around praying for a miracle.”

“You pray?” Paul chuckled and walked to the door, already knowing the answer to his asinine question.

I walked from the kitchen and took the stairs two at a time as sickness rolled through my gut. I needed the guys to help me solve the problem, but leaving the boy with them too long would only scare the tyke. Not having his parents for the last little bit had to have him out of sorts.

“Maybe that’s it,” I grumbled and walked into the room to watch the circus. Seth was trying to hold Tyson and survey his little body as if giving him a sad excuse for a physical. The other two idiots in the room were dancing around while Jared sung a fucked up version of Little Miss Muffet.

“Give him here, damn.” I walked toward them and took Tyson from Seth, tucking him against my chest and giving them a hard stare. “None of you fuckers have had experience with a baby?”

“Um, no. We try to stay far away from the topic.” Jared laughed and walked toward the door. “I’ll call my mom. She’ll tell us what to do.”

“It’s one in the morning. Your mom is up?” Seth moved out next and I followed him, leaving Michael to mill around the room, playing with various baby toys.

“True dat. Okay. When in doubt, use the internet for answers. Google is my God.” Jared jogged past me down the stairs, leapt over the couch and landed by Kent, who grumbled something.

The doorbell rang and I handed Tyson off to Seth again before pulling out my wallet. I paid for the food and sunk down onto the couch as the guys went through video after video. We did a checklist of things that needed to be done.

Changed his diaper? Check.

Fed him in the last two hours? Check.

Checked for fever? Check.

The list went on and on. As it approached four in the morning, I’d had all I could handle. I politely kicked everyone out, not getting anywhere. Tyson wasn’t crying much anymore, but I couldn’t blame him. He had to be exhausted. Paul was the last to leave, his constant apologies at being ineffective and Stephanie not answering her phone were on my last nerve.

If I had to say, ‘it’s no big deal’ one more time, I might pull a kill bill and start tearing limbs from my closest friends.

After seeing Paul to the door, I walked back to the living room and sunk down on the couch, closing my eyes as the sound of Tyson’s breathing told me he was finally out.

“Fuck me,” was the last thing I muttered before succumbing to the darkness.

***

“You look like shit.” Hunter, the youngest and best trader on our trading floor stopped by my office at nine as planned. I had dropped Tyson off at the nursery on the bottom floor of the large investment bank building my family owned, grateful for the reprieve.

“I feel like shit. Come in and sit down. Take a load off.” I pointed to a chair in front of mine and worked to not rub my eyes. It had been a long night of changing diapers, heating bottles of milk, cleaning formula that I spilled, cleaning the vomit, changing clothes, and patting the back of a tired little boy.

Raising my sister’s kid had to be tougher than any business deal I’d ever been faced with. I was giving myself another week and then my mom was getting the boy. Her grief would have to be overcome for the greater good. Tyson was all we had left of Alice. I wasn’t willing to fuck the boy up and it seemed that’s all I was capable of doing.