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“I can stay with her. I’m not doing anything.” Yawning, I roll off the bed, trying my best not to wake her up.
“Um.” Lucy bites her lower lip, looking a little frantic.
“Um, what?”
“I don’t know. It’s just that you haven’t babysat her or anyone before.” Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, she’s clearly worried.
So, I take her in my arms, hugging her while I rock back and forth. “Come on, my queen. I got this. And it’s not babysitting when you’re taking care of your own kid.”
“But she’s sick.” Shaking her head, she seems unsure if I can handle things. “What if she throws up again?”
“Then I’ll do the same thing I did three times last night. She’ll be okay. I promise you that I will take good care of her.” He nuzzles my nose with his. “You can trust me, honey.”
“I know that you think you can handle this, but I’m just not sure that you can. What if she gets worse?”
Startled by what she’s said, I gasp, “It can get worse than last night? Dear God!”
Smacking me in the chest, she laughs a little. “I know you’re kidding, but it’s not funny.”
I was not kidding. “I know it’s not funny. But I can do this. Go to work. Let me be what I was meant to be.”
“A father?” she asks with a smile.
“Yeah, that thing. Let me be a father to our little girl who’s sick right now.”
“You have to text me every hour to let me know what’s happened.” She pulls out of my arms, goes to the bed, then drops a kiss on Aurora’s head full of messy curls. “Oh, my poor baby.”
Moving in behind her, I take her by the waist and pull her away from the bed and out of the bedroom. “Let her sleep. She needs her rest right now. Believe me. I know all about recovering from a night of throwing up.”
Rolling her eyes, she doesn’t seem to have much faith in me. “That was a completely different type of throwing up. You brought that on yourself. Our poor baby has a virus running amuck inside her right now.”
“About that. When can I expect to get sick?” I don’t want to give in to this virus, but I do want to know when to expect the war to begin.
“Anywhere from one to three days. Or we might luck out and not get it at all. You just never know.” Sighing, she walks toward the door. “Every hour. Text. Don’t forget.”
“I promise you that I won’t forget.” Following her, I reach around her to open the door. “I know last night didn’t go the way either of us expected.”
Turning to me, she leans against me. “I’m sorry about that. Having kids is a lot of work, and us parents rarely get what we want.”
“I am beginning to see that.” Kissing her on the forehead, I can’t wipe the smile off my face. “And I suppose I wouldn’t have it any other way. Now go to work.”
“You got this,” she says, nervously. “Right?”
“I got it. Now go. Make some money, honey.”
Her eyes show me just how nervous she really is as I close the door slowly in her face. Then I lean back on it and lock it. “Wow, she’s going to be a wreck today.”
“Text me every hour,” I hear her shout through the door.
“Go to work!” I shout back at her.
After grabbing a bottle of water, I go back to the bedroom to check on the still sleeping Aurora before I go to the bathroom.
My reflection tells me I need more sleep, so I head to the sofa and crash out until I hear my daughter calling out, “Mommy?”
Falling off the sofa, I scramble to my feet. “I’m here, honey!”
Walking out of her mother’s bedroom, she rubs her eyes with both fists. “Daddy?”
