“Right, do you want to see what I brought you from home?”
“Yep.”
He brought out a pair of lightweight pajamas, a clean dress, a pair of shoes, and three pairs of knickers, which made her blush even though all he did was pack them away in the hospital drawers. Then he drew out something which made her clap.
“My eReader! Oh, thank you.”
“Saw it sitting there and I thought you might like it. I brought the charger too.”
“Yay! That’s awesome. Watching mindless TV is already driving me insane.”
“I’ll leave it here on the nightstand, then.”
“Thanks so much. I love reading in bed before I go to sleep at night.”
“As long as you don’t stay up too late,” he told her sternly. “I expect lights out at nine-thirty.”
She gaped at him and he ran his hand over his face. “Shoot. Sorry. Sometimes my daddy side just comes out.”
She didn’t point out all the other times he’d slipped up already. She just nodded. “It’s okay.”
“I did bring you someone else, though.” He drew out the koala that had been sitting on her bed.
She stared at Kiki, the only thing from her childhood she had. One of the few toys she’d ever had and the most precious thing she owned. And he’d thought to bring it for her.
He really was good at this daddy stuff. He tucked the koala in against her without another word about it. Then he leaned over and kissed the tip of her nose.
“Don’t stay up too late, all right? You need rest.”
“I spent most of today napping,” she pointed out.
“And do you feel better because of it?”
“Yeah. I guess,” she said reluctantly.
“You need to pace yourself, sweet pea. Get plenty of rest so you don’t wear yourself out.”
“I know. It’s been difficult this last week.”
“I get that,” he replied softly. “Now, let’s get you into these PJs, yes?”
“I can get changed myself,” she protested. No way was she letting him help her.
“You’re not doing it alone,” he informed her.
In the end, they got one of the nurses to help her. He said goodbye to her shortly after, telling her he would be in tomorrow morning for the doctor’s rounds.
She couldn’t help but feel sad and lonely once he was gone. But that was silly, she’d only known him a few days.
He couldn’t have made that much of an impact on her life in such a short time, right?
Somehow, she wasn’t so sure.
6
The next few days continued like that. Macca would come in for morning rounds, listen intently to everything the doctor had to say then he’d go visit his grandmother then end up back with her each evening. They were monitoring her kidneys. Thankfully, her headaches had stopped and she was gaining more energy with each day that passed.
She’d even tested walking on her ankle and found it wasn’t too bad as long as she went slow. Not that she’d told Macca that.