Careful, Honey

At the end of July the Penguins team received a mass picture message from Geno. Alena sat in his lap, frosting on her scrunched up nose, and a blurry hand waving around the rattle Vero had given her with success for the first time. There was a birthday cake for Geno in front of them and twenty of Evgeni’s closest friends and family milling around the house behind them. Max got a special picture, one of Alena holding herself up on her stomach at a 45 degree angle smiling into the mirror’s reflection of herself. The caption affectionately read, “You are bad influence.”

A week later Geno made the excruciatingly long trip back to Pittsburgh a month before the preseason started in hopes of finding a nanny good enough to take care of his little girl. His mother was none too pleased with the departure of her first grandbaby who she had grown to love taking care of while Geno was off training for the day…and of course she would miss her son too but that was so obviously implied.

Geno filled out an application with a local agency and by mid August he’d interviewed close to 30 applicants; ten college-aged girls who shrieked when he opened the door, five old ladies who definitely wouldn’t be able to keep up, and an assortment of crazy in between. Just before the end of August Alena had turned four months old, preseason was about to start, and no nanny had been found.

“Alena, say ‘Hi’ to Uncle Max…look…say ‘Hi’!” Alena looked at the moving image of Max on her dad’s phone with interest. She gurgled and smiled when she recognized the furry face in front of her and reached her hand out to the phone hitting her small fingers on the screen until finally she accidently ended the Face Time call.

Max called back a minute later, Geno laid Alena on her tummy on the floor letting her attempt mini baby push-ups with the front half of her body while she watched Yo Gabba Gabba with an inordinate amount of concentration.

“So I was talking to Briére,” Geno made a gagging noise and Alena laughed and attempted to turn her body to see her daddy. Geno smiled proudly at his daughter, Max however didn’t falter, “about the nanny he’d hired right after his divorce. Says she’s really great with kids and very discrete, she’s apparently worked with a lot of hockey dads and families.”

“You tell him about Alena?” Geno was slightly panicked about word getting out about Alena.

“No, I just asked whatever happened to that smoke show of a babysitter he’d had hanging around. I managed to get her number out of his phone for you if you want.”

“Max, don’t want a ‘smoke show’ hanging round Alena.”

“She’s not a puckbunny G. It’ll be fine, I’ll text you the number,” and with that Max hung up abruptly.

Geno wished he had more time to plan out the call, talking to people who were unfamiliar with his broken English was not something he ever looked forward to doing, but it was almost the start of preseason and he had no time to wait. Alena went down for her nap an hour later and Geno took the opportunity to call the number Max had sent him for a ‘smoke show’ named Rose Taylor.

He kept his phone tight between his ear and shoulder listening to the ring as he cleaned baby bottles and set them to dry on the rack. Time was still a precious commodity in the Malkin household…just because Alena had found a routine didn’t mean that routine wasn’t constantly being broken or that time was magically freer than before.

“Hello?”

“Is this Rose Taylor, yes?”

“Yes, this is she. May I ask who is calling?” Geno smiled at the woman’s voice, she sounded as if she had the biggest most welcoming smile on.

“Is Evgeni Malkin…I got your number from a friend of Danny Briére.”

“From Max?” she laughed which made Geno laugh. She had obviously been an active part of Danny’s life.

“Da…Yes.”

“So what can I help you with Geno?”

“I was wanting to know if you are free to come down and talk about me maybe hiring you,” Geno fumbled along for the right words.

“Oh, last time I checked you didn’t have a child Mr. Malkin.”

“Max said you are very…uhm… discrete.”

“When would you like to meet?”

“As soon you are available.”

“I can be there tomorrow, is noon okay?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Rose.”

“No problem Mr. Malkin.”

At promptly noon the next day there was a knock on the door and Geno answered with a crying Alena on his shoulder. Geno shifted Alena into the crook of his arm and softly rocked her back to her previous calm state.

He reached his free arm out towards the dark haired women in front of him, “Geno,” he introduced himself.

“Rose Taylor.”

He offered her a drink, she decline and proceeded to follow him to the living room where he placed Alena on her play mat and muted the TV so he and Rose could speak. He gave her the abridged version of Alena’s and his history and told her about his schedule and what he needed. She answered all his questions about her past, her experience, and her availability to nanny Alena while he was at games and road trips. An hour later Geno let Rose take Alena up to her room and put her down for her nap.

She came back down and Geno had moved to the breakfast island in the kitchen with two glasses of ice water on the counter in front of him. Rose straddled one of the stools next to him and took a long sip from her glass.

“You be able to try out during preseason?”

“I’d love to Mr. Malkin.”

“Geno,” he corrected her.

“I’d love to Geno.”

The two planned for Rose to come back tomorrow morning and spend the day with Geno and Alena so they could slowly introduce Rose into Alena’s life. They made the transition gradually; one day Geno would leave Alena with Rose to go get milk at the grocery store, then he’d leave them together to go to the gym for an hour, and so forth until after a week Alena and Rose were comfortable together and Geno had built up enough trust in Rose to leave her alone with his only daughter.

September started and with it came the first preseason game. Alena cried for a full hour before he left for the arena as if she knew he was leaving. Geno had managed to quiet her long enough to pass her over to Rose, kiss her on the forehead, and slip out the door. He sat in his car for five minutes trying to convince himself that he had to leave Alena because it was his job and that she’d be fine for the few hours that he’d be away. He finally pulled out of the driveway and forced himself not to look back at the house…it was harder for him to leave than it was for Alena to be away from her father.

The game was hard fought and the Penguins won by a single point. Geno rushed through his shower, skipping any post game interview, and heading straight home. Rose was asleep on the couch when Geno came home. He woke her up softly, she apologized profusely for falling asleep, “Next time use guest bedroom.” She gathered her bag and gave Geno the rundown of the night. Alena put up somewhat of a fight going to bed but lost the fight to her heavy eyelids half an hour after her usual bedtime. Otherwise she was only slightly cranky through the night. Geno frowned at that and Rose simply smiled and patted his arm.

“Trust me, she’s just adjusting. It’ll all be fine.” Geno smiled and opened the door for Rose thanking her for help.

Geno climbed the stairs two at a time, quietly opened Alena’s bedroom door, and sneakily walking up to her crib. He checked to make sure she was still sleeping and the baby monitor was on before he quietly walked back out of the room and headed for the bathroom to get ready for bed. By 11 o’clock he was laying in bed unable to sleep. Geno crept back into Alena’s room and scooped her out of her bed, her warm body and steady breathing finally allowing himself to release the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Thankful to have his daughter back in his arms he crawled back into his room and into his bed laying Alena down on his shoulder and finally falling asleep after one of the longest days he’s spent away from Alena since he became a father.