its in the voice

"Its too cold to be out." Minnie informed Omaha over the phone. Besides, if she got off base, she might not be able to get back on. As it was, she supposed she was in hiding, but what did Blackie care. "He hasn't called, right?"

"No. But-" Omaha sounded worried. "I talked to him, while he was out deer hunting...and I..I thought he'd call back, but he didn't."

"Don't worry so much." She told him he liked the outdoors, especially with his Dad.

"Maybe, you should call his parents." Omaha sounded, it was the right thing to do.

"Its kind of a forbidden subject." Blackie didn't like her talking to his family. Evidently, they didn't like her much, either. He always made it sound as if he was protecting her from them. Still, she knew he didn't want her saying bad things about him. And she didn't.

"God, what am I suppose to do?" He sounded as if he needed to clear this up.

"Sorry, I don't even have their phone number." She felt a bit useless to Blackie. She knew she should have a plan, but she didn't. Still, she felt that being at Josh's was the right place to be. It felt genuine to be helping out with the baby.

Besides, she did all those things she needed a lot of practice doing. Reading. Holding. Talking. Playing with the baby.

It even felt good to keep the house clean and the laundry done. Of course, she carried the baby on her back when she was doing chores. And yes, maybe it was tiring, but it was a good kind of tired.

This much she could handle.

But maybe Omaha didn't call about Blackie, Minnie decided. It was as if this conversation was on repeat.

"Did anything happen, when Mitch was over?" She remembered Omaha mumbling something about the blond Mitch was with.

"What?" There went that shock and dismay sound in Omaha's voice.

"Just tell me..what's really wrong?" It was easy to see he needed to talk, but it wasn't about that silly cousin of his that worked at the zoo. "You, don't like Mitch's fiancee?"

"Emily." Even when he said her name, Minnie could tell Omaha must remember her from somewhere.

"Is that her name?" Minnie asked.

"Yeah." Still he sounded as if he was lost in thought.

"Is she an old girlfriend of yours?" Minnie couldn't help but grin as if she wasn't all that bad at math, after all.

"How-" Oh, she'd caught Omaha and she couldn't help but laugh. "How did..you know?"

"Its in your voice." She sighed. "You, can tell me about her, if you want too."