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Cursing, I whip my glasses off and rub my eyes with the heel of my hand. A sound drags my attention away from my work.
I see a small, slim shadow hovering in the doorway of my lab.
“Hey, bud. Can’t sleep again?”
Rowan shakes his head.
I swivel my chair around and stare at him as he moves gingerly through the lab. Rowan’s visited this messy room so many times that he could dance through the obstacles with his eyes closed.
“You should get some rest.” I squeeze his shoulder when he stops in front of me. “It’s been three days since you’ve gotten a full eight hours.”
“You too,” Rowan says.
I arch both eyebrows.
He rubs his bony elbow with a hand. “Every time I get up, you’re always working.”
“So what?”
“So you don’t sleep either.”
I rub the back of my neck. “I’m an adult.”
“Adults need to sleep too.” He shakes his head. “You don’t know anything.”
Smart mouth.
I nod to the sketch book that’s got a permanent place on my work table. I cleared up the spot so that Rowan could draw next to me. “You can stay up for an hour.”
He pumps his fist.
“Onlyan hour.” I slant him a hard look. “And then you have to go back to sleep. Even if you just stare at the ceiling, you’ll get sleepy eventually.”
“No, I won’t,” Rowan mumbles. Reaching forward, he nabs a colored pencil from a sculpted pencil holder. The fancy monstrosity was a purchase from the emporium.
Why we spent so much for a fancypencil holderwhen we could have just used a mug for free? I don’t know.
But alas, Rowan’s desk is full of them.
I found out later that some of Nova’s purchases at the emporium had been for Rowan. Now, his side of the work table has a cork board, sketch books, paints, colored pencils and markers. I can clearly see where his side ends and mine begins.
“Take it or leave it. One hour here or you can go straight back to bed.”
“I’ll stay here,” Rowan says quickly.
I smile and focus on my own side of the table. Since my eyes are tired from trying to work on the tiny microchip, I switch over to my laptop and monitor the specs.
For a while, we both work in peace.
“Adam,” Rowan says quietly.
“Mm?”
He hesitates. “Is there any way we can keep mom from dying?”
I freeze, my heart in my throat. Most of the time, I don’t grapple with topics as depressing as death. But with all that’s going on lately, I feel like I can’t run away from the darker sides of life.
“No, kid. The doctors have tried everything.”
