Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
AARON
Aaron rubbed his forehead, trying to ease the tension headache that had started a little bit ago. He glared at the animated movie on the TV as if it was to blame. “Chloe,” he reached for the controller from the three year old lying on the other end of the couch, “please quit turning it up so loud.”
He lowered the volume then set the remote control on the end table instead of giving it back. Maddie was napping upstairs, and he didn’t want to wake her. Chloe kicked her feet up and down beneath the blanket. “But this my favorite!”
“You’ve said that about the last two,” he said with a chuckle as he put a hand on her feet to stop the frantic movements. “You’re supposed to be resting.”
“I bored.”
Rolling his eyes, he glanced at his laptop screen balanced on top of his legs. “You’re sick. That’s why you stayed home, remember?”
She sat up. “Can we play pirates?”
“No, Little Monster.” Shaking his head, he fought a smile. This girl was obnoxious, but that was why he loved her so much. “Watch your movie and try to take a nap.”
He needed to focus on work. He was behind on multiple projects, and he couldn’t delay anymore if he wanted to meet deadlines.
But when Chloe woke up this morning with a fever and a sore throat, he told Lars he would take care of her.
He’d been staying with Maddie throughout the day anyway, giving their grandma a break.
Lars had been concerned because in his words, “Chloe is a different sort of chaos when sick.” He’d tried convincing Aaron it would be okay if his mom came to help, but Aaron brushed it off as unnecessary.
Besides, he’d already been around the germs. There was no need to potentially get Lars’s parents sick too.
Aaron had admittedly underestimated the little girl staying home. She might have been sick, but it was like fighting the need for rest just made her more hyper. She’d been climbing all over him most of the morning.
As if on cue, she pushed to her knees and crawled over to him. He held open an arm, and she burrowed into his side, resting against his chest. “My tummy hurts.”
He leaned down, pressing his cheek to her forehead. “Aw, my poor monster, you’re burning up.”
He glanced at the time and mentally calculated how long it had been since he gave her medicine this morning. Deciding it had been long enough, he set his laptop on the coffee table then lifted her into his arms and stood. He rubbed her back, holding her close as he walked into the kitchen.
Aaron sat her on the edge of the counter beside the medicine he’d kept out earlier, knowing he would need to give her more throughout the day. Standing in front of her, he filled the syringe.
“Juice?” she said before he could have her drink the medicine.
He let out a breathy laugh. “Okay, okay.” Setting the syringe down, he said, “I’ll go get your cup. Don’t move.”
She nodded, and he quickly rushed back to the living room to grab her sippy cup.
Except, he couldn’t find it. Shaking his head, he picked up her blanket then searched behind the pillows and between the couch cushions to no avail.
With a sigh, he dropped to his knees to look beneath the couch, the coffee table, and the nearby chair. “Where in the hell—”
Aaron’s phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket to answer while still searching for the cup. He regretted not looking at the number the second his greeting was responded to.
“Aaron?” his dad’s voice said from the other end.
Aaron sighed. “Yeah. What do you want?”
“Is that how you answer the phone with everyone or just your dying father?”
“Are you dying right this second? Because I’ve got a sick three year old in the other room with a fever I need to get back to.”
His dad made a noise of disbelief. “She’s not yours, Aaron. I’m your actual family.”
“You haven’t been my family in a really long time,” Aaron said through clenched teeth, his blood boiling. Chloe was more his family than that man would ever be. “You left me when I was six years old. You don’t get to just come back and try to make me feel guilty.”
“I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, but we have things to discuss. I need to—”
A loud thump sounded from the other room, and Aaron snapped his attention to the kitchen doorway. He thought for a moment maybe Chloe knocked something to the floor. But then, her piercing scream filled the air, stopping Aaron’s heart entirely.
He had never moved so quickly in his life.
Jumping to his feet, he told his dad he had to go and ended the call without waiting for a response.
He ran to the kitchen to find Chloe sobbing on the floor, and he rushed to kneel beside her, unable to breathe properly.
“Chloe, why did you…” He trailed off as he reached for her, pausing.
What if he made it worse? “Where does it hurt, baby?”
She held up her arm with a wail.
As gently as possible, he put one hand under her much smaller fist. Then, with his other, he touched her shoulder and asked, “Here?”
Chloe shook her head.
Slowly, he moved his fingers down her arm. When he got to her elbow, she cried out. He winced. “Can you straighten it?”
He slowly moved her arm but stopped when she yelled, “No!”
“Okay,” he breathed. “Okay.” He swallowed, unsure what to do. How could he have been so stupid? Why had he left her sitting up there? Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to her brow.
“It hurts,” she said in a cry.
“I know, sweetheart.” All at once, he realized what needed to happen next.
He got to his feet then picked her up, careful not to jostle her too much.
She curled into him, effectively breaking his heart.
Cradling her head, he quickly made his way upstairs.
“Let me get your sister. Then, we will go to the doctor to make it better, okay?”
She nodded, still crying into his shirt. Aaron sat her in the corner rocking chair. She clung to him only for a moment before releasing him. He went to the crib to find Maddie already awake and standing at the rail.
“Aarnin,” she said, raising her arms. When he lifted her, she pointed to Chloe. “Sissy sad.”
“Sissy got hurt, so we need to take her to the hospital.” He quickly changed her wet diaper, pulled some pants on over her onesie, and put her little tennis shoes on.
Once dressed, he picked her up then returned to Chloe, whose crying had softened to whimpers.
Aaron knelt to lift her into his other arm.
After years of taking care of these girls, he’d become a professional at carrying more than one at a time, but he was still cautious as he rushed downstairs.
He stopped only long enough to put on Chloe’s shoes and both of their coats. When he realized that wasn’t going to work with Chloe’s injured arm, he grabbed her blanket from the couch to wrap around her instead.
All the while, through the short drive to the hospital and the wait in the ER waiting room, he fought down the guilt. The pure panic at knowing he was responsible for his little girl’s pain.
But… his dad had been right. She wasn’t his. Not really. And that thought hurt his heart even more. Because he wanted her to be his. And he knew that with the call he was about to make, that might never be possible.
As Chloe got X-rays of her arm, Aaron stood in the hall with Maddie and pulled out his phone. With a sigh, he tapped on Lars’s contact and leaned against the wall as it began to ring.
“Hey. How’s it going? Chloe feeling any better?”
Aaron swallowed.
“Aaron?” he said, concern immediately filling his voice.
“Hey. So, everything is okay, and… I need you not to panic…”