“What are his symptoms? I can go to the twenty-four-hour pharmacy up the road.”
“He’s throwing up. Feverish. It looks like he hurts when he moves.”
“Okay. I’ll pick up a few things to try and make him better along with some Pediasure he can drink. But you’ll have to make a doctor’s appointment for him if he can’t keep the medicine down. He might have brought something home from school, it happens all the time. But dehydration is the thing to be worried about,” she said.
“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”
“Not a problem. Leave the sheets. I’ll get them cleaned. Just stay with Benjamin while he bathes until I can get there.”
“Will do.”
I hung up the phone and knelt by the bath as Benjamin laid his head on my shoulder. I felt terrible for him and I could already feel him trying to fall asleep again. I gave him some cool water to swish around to rinse out his mouth, and thirty minutes later there was a soft knock at my door.
“I’ve got a surprise for you, buddy. Wanna see it?”
“Is it Mommy?” he asked.
“No, but it’s like Mommy,” I said. “How do you feel about Miss Emma?”
I watched his eyes light up behind the sickness haze he was sitting in.
“I’ll be right back,” I said.
I rushed to the front door and ripped it open. Emma was wrapped up in a robe with her slippers on and her hair thrown up into a bun on top of her head. How she managed to be beautiful at three in the morning was fucking beyond me. She looked up at me and our eyes connected, but the moment was ruined the second Benjamin started heaving again.
She pushed past me and ran down the hallway just before he threw up into the tub.
“Come here, big guy,” she said as she unplugged the tub. “I hear you aren’t feeling well.”
“I wanna cuddle,” Benjamin said.
“Let’s get you feeling a little better with this nausea, then we can talk about it. Okay?” Emma asked.
“Okay.”
“I want to see if you can drink something for me. Here. It’s orange. It tastes really good.”
I watched Emma screw open the top off a small drink and hold it to Benjamin’s lips. He grimaced at the taste to begin with, but then he started taking really big gulps. I was nervous that he’d make himself sick with drinking so much at once, but he finished the entire thing before he wrapped his arms around Emma. She reached for a towel and wiped him down, then slipped her robe from her shoulders and wrapped him up in it.
She was wearing nothing but a spaghetti-strapped nightgown.
With no bra.
Fuck. This was a bad idea.
&
nbsp; “Why don’t we do this? Uncle Ryan’s going to cuddle you until I can get your bed made up again. Okay? Then I’ll come out and we can cuddle for a little bit.”
“Can we all cuddle?” Benjamin asked.
Emma raised her gaze to me and I shrugged.
“We’ll talk about it,” she said. “Let’s just get your bed cleaned up first. Okay?”
“Okay,” Benjamin said.
I picked the boy up in my arms and held him close. Then, Emma walked into the room like it was nothing. If it stunk to her, she didn’t grimace or heave herself. She was careful to roll up the sheets and I pointed her in the direction of the laundry room. She was gone for a little while, and then emerged from the hallway with a can of disinfectant in her hand I didn’t even know I had.