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He closes his eyes in bliss as my cool palms rest on his cheek and forehead. He says, “Haha. You’re so funny you’re givin’ me a stitch. Goofball. ”
I thought I was bad when I was sick. Nik is even moodier than me when he’s sick and that’s pretty darn moody. But he’s adorably moody.
Poor baby.
I pull the covers off him and pull a sheet over him then go back to the kitchen to fetch some aspirin, cough syrup, and another sports drink then take them back to my patient.
I make him take the aspirin which he really doesn’t want and lets me know by sighing long and deep.
Smiling, I wipe his face with an ice cold wash cloth and run my fingers through his messy hair.
He whispers, “That feels nice, baby. ” And then he’s asleep, snores and all.
Wow. He’s sicker than I was yesterday. But he said he never gets sick so maybe this is years of sickness being drawn out of him.
The house needs a little tidying up so I do that then spend the rest of the morning checking on Nik, making sure he takes aspirin and cough syrup every three hours and wiping his face and arms down with cold water.
Early afternoon I get to work on the soup. I luckily find a soup pot; I’m sure this is Nik’s moms doing because I can’t see Nik or Max making soup.
I throw the meat and vegetables in, cover it with cold water, and turn the heat on high. I wait til it boils, then skim the top every ten minutes. After an hour on a high simmer, it looks the way I want it to and I switch it off. I strain the soup into another pot, peel away the fat from the turkey, chop the meat into little pieces and throw it into the broth. I take two of the boiled carrot and smoosh them up with a fork and add that, too. I turn the broth on to boil again. I add water, a little tomato paste, and season to taste then I break up the noodles and throw them in. That boils together for ten minutes. And Voila!
A cure for any illness…according to my mama.
Arms close around my waist and I yelp. I feel Nik chuckle into the side of my neck.
I shriek, “Every. Freakin’. Time!”
The man is as graceful as a panther, even when he’s sick as a dog!
I’m glad to see he has some of his color back. His forehead feels cooler, too.
Hooray!
I ask quietly, “Feeling a little better?”
He nods and looks into the soup pot. He pats his stomach and says, “That smells good. I’m a little hungry. ”
Yay!
His appetite is back, too. It must’ve been a twenty four hour virus just like mine was.
I tell him to sit on the sofa and I’ll bring him some soup. He sits and I ladle two bowls of soup.
All this caretaking has made me hungry.
Carefully as I can, I bring both bowls over to him, I sit and we eat.
Nik’s reaction to my soup is funny. He makes noises when he likes something he eats. All I hear are groans of approval and mmmm. I smirk into my bowl.
He has no idea how adorable he is.
Suddenly, I straighten.
Tell him.
Hesitation works its way into me.
I fight it hard but its winning and just when I think it’s won, I blurt out, “So…I had a daughter. ”
