Chapter 26 #2
This was new. I’d never heard her whine before. “Honestly? I don’t think they’re gonna want you there.”
She didn’t move.
“Ava.”
“What!”
“Call your office. Tell your boss you’re staying home. Then go back to bed.”
“Moms don’t get to be sick. Nina needs breakfast, and I have to–”
“Dad and I will take care of it.” When she glared at me, I moved in closer. If she tried to gun it for her Chevy, I could grab her. I doubted she’d put up much of a fight. “You’ll probably piss off customers if you go in like this. Do you think that’s what your boss wants?”
A weak protest growled out of her.
“Do I need to call Rock ‘N Roll for you?” I asked.
“No. I can do it.”
I followed her to the den and waited while she left a message for her boss. After which, she shot me the stink eye. “Happy?”
“Very.” I popped my head into their room. Sure enough, Nina was whimpering in her bed. “Hey, Monkey, let’s make pancakes.”
She ignored me.
“Come on. Your mama doesn’t feel good, so we’re gonna let her sleep.” I scooped her up, blanket and all, and ticked my head toward the larger bed. “All yours, crabby patty.”
Ava brushed past and fell on top of her mattress, probably asleep before I shut the door behind us. That’s how I knew it had been the right thing to do.
“Question for you, Monkey,” I asked the squirming lump in the blanket. “Do. You. Like. Whipped cream on your pancakes?”
“No!” she snapped. Mama’s little parrot.
“Have you ever tried it?”
“No!”
“Then I’m making you a Cubbie-Bear special.” She fixed wide, dark eyes on me as I navigated up the stairs. “Oh, shoot, but it has chocolate chips and banana on it.”
A toothy grin split her face, tears forgotten.
Ava appeared in the kitchen around lunchtime, wearing a pair of shorts and a baggy sweatshirt that hung off one shoulder. She filled a glass of water at the sink.
I put my sandwich down and finished chewing. “Feeling any better?”
She shook her head and downed the whole glass in a single go.
I swallowed a rising impulse. “You hungry? Want me to make you something?”
“No.” She put her cup in the sink. “Have you seen my phone?”
I grimaced, sliding it out of my pocket. She wasn’t going to like this. “It kept ringing. I only went in to make sure you weren’t dead.”
“You came into my room?”
When she reached for it, I held it away to explain. “Yeah, but when I saw you were still breathing, I left. And I took your phone so it wouldn’t wake you up.”
Ava dragged her fingers through the loose hair that fell out of her messy bun. “Fine. Whatever.”
“You’re not mad?”
“No.”
I handed her the phone. Should I push my luck? “By the way, Nancy hopes you feel better.”
She groaned. “You answered it?” After a pause, “Did she sound upset?”
“I don’t know. How does she usually sound?”
“Never mind. Where’s Nina?”
Her skin looked flushed now, her eyes a little red. Probably from the fever. “Nina and Dad are tinkering in the garage.”
“Okay. I’m going back to bed. Get me when it’s naptime?” Without another word, she thumped down the stairs.
That went better than expected.
An hour later, I snuck into the den with Ava’s cash-filled envelope in my back pocket. I’d figured out a way to win our little game. When I hit the bottom step, her big blue comforter greeted me from the couch, complete with snoring.
Perfect.
I snuck into her room to find her purse, and tucked half the bills into her wallet. A couple of twenties were already clipped to the visor of her Chevy. The rest I stuck in shorts and jacket pockets so she’d have cash wherever she went.
On my way out, I peeled the edge of the comforter back so she had air. Sweat made her face shiny, but her teeth chattered. I checked her forehead again, then ran upstairs for water and Tylenol.
“Ava.” I shook what was probably her arm.
She curled farther into the crease of the couch, tugging her blanket tighter.
“Ava,” I tried again.
“Is it naptime?” she croaked.
“Don’t worry about it. Nina’s sleeping upstairs.” I held out two pills. “Take these.”
“What’s that?”
“Tylenol. You’re burning up.”
“I’m freezing.”
“Would you like me to take your temperature?”
“No. Go away.” She burrowed her head under the blanket.
“It’s a good thing you’re cute, because you’re grouchy when you’re sick.” I sat on the couch next to her. “Take these pills, then I’ll leave you to your little cocoon.”
Ava shoved herself upright. The bra strap on her exposed shoulder and the drag of her fingers against my palm as she took the pills sent heat places it shouldn’t. She handed back the empty glass, then sank into her nest, tugging at her comforter.
She looked miserable. She sounded worse. I couldn’t leave her. “Want to watch a movie?”
“No.”
The instant my butt left the couch to grab the remote, she shot her legs across all the cushions.
“Ava.” I laughed. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
“You said you’d leave.”
“I wanna make sure your fever goes down.” I lifted her legs and slipped under them, letting her calves land on my lap.
She jerked her knees back and pushed her bare feet against my thigh. “Move! Don’t you have a TV in your room?”
“This one’s bigger.”
“Eli …”
“Guess you caught what Nina had.” I scanned the guide for something light. Tremors still shook her body. I scooted closer. “Come here. I’ll share my heat.”
“No! I’m gross.”
“I promise you’re not.”
“I don’t want to get you sick.”
“You won’t,” I told her as I scrolled page after page of channels. “Damn, you’d think with all these choices, there would be something worth watching.”
“I’m not sitting by your bedside when you get sick,” she huffed.
“Even if I let you read my Hustler? It has great pictures.”
She groaned into her blanket.
I grinned, settling on Deadpool, because you couldn’t go wrong with Ryan Reynolds. Once the movie started, I fished under her blanket for her foot and tugged it onto my lap.
She yanked back. “Eli, what are you doing?”
“Just relax.”
“I can’t relax when you’re touching me.”
I tried not to think too hard on that. Catching her ankle again, I pressed a thumb into the arch of her foot, going up and down. I worked my way up to her toes. Did little circles. “Am I doing this right?”
“Doing what right?”
“The breathing thing. You said it worked with feet?”
She peeked at me from under the edge of her blanket, then tucked into the corner of the couch again. “Mhmm.”
I pretended to watch the movie, but every little scuff against my lap–her heel, my wrist–stole blood from my brain.
Hopefully, Ava didn’t notice. With each pass of her toes, her breathing got quieter until I couldn’t hear her at all.
When I leaned over and flipped back the blanket, she was sleeping.
That tight feeling in my chest came back. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt like I’d done something so worthwhile.