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“I don’t know,” Pres said softly, trying to soothe his daughter. He brushed her hair from her face. “Try to go to sleep. We’ll find her in the morning.”
“I can’t sleep without Lola,” she wailed. “What if she’s hurt? What if she’s in pain? She needs me.”
That fucking giraffe. He’d wring that stuffed toy’s stupidly long neck when he found her.
“Try to think again,” he murmured. “When was the last time you saw her?”
“I don’t know.” She clutched at the covers like they were a lifeline. She’d only noticed Lola was missing when she’d come up to bed. It had been one of those overwhelming evenings – he’d had a customer demand to meet him at six, so he’d been late picking Delilah up from his mom’s. And of course she’d wanted nuggets for dinner and he had none in the house.
So they’d had another battle about that before she finally took a shower and pulled her pajamas on, pouting all the way.
And now here they were, one giraffe missing, one little girl in tears. Damn, he needed a drink. Or about a hundred night’s sleep.
“I had her at dance class,” she whispered.
“Okay…” Well that was something. “And did you take her to Grammy’s?”
“I think so.”
Relief washed through him. “Don’t move. I’ll call her now and see if she’s there.”
Five minutes later the relief was gone.
“She didn’t have her when I picked her up,” her mom said. “I just assumed she’d left her at home.”
And yeah, sometimes she did. Delilah was attached to Lola, but not as much as she used to be. After Jade died, she’d been practically glued to the stuffie. Everywhere she went, Lola went too. Her school principal had given her permission to take the giraffe with her to class when she needed the extra emotional support.
But he thought it was getting better. Maybe it was.
Until now.
“Shit.” What a mess this was.
“I told you to buy a second one,” his mom said, her voice light.
Yeah, but he’d known that Delilah would never be convinced by a brand spanking new giraffe, even if he’d been able to track one down.
“She’s probably at the dance school,” he said. “I’ll call them tomorrow.”
“Well, good luck, sweetheart.”
He smiled grimly. “I’m going to need it.”
It was another twenty minutes later before he couldn’t stand it anymore. Not because Delilah was openly wailing but because she was trying so hard to get to sleep but she couldn’t stop the sobs from coming. It hurt him to the core.
She was such a good kid. She didn’t ask for much. Just one damn giraffe to sleep with when she got a little scared or upset.
Fuck it.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” he whispered to her. She nodded, her face turned to the side.
Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he walked into the hallway and dialed the one number he never touched. But there was nobody else that could help, he knew that. Not until morning when the school was open.
And it was a long damn time until morning.
“Hello?”
He swallowed hard as he heard Cassie’s soft voice. The band had all exchanged numbers a few weeks ago. At the time, he’d thought it was a bit much, but he was glad now.
