I was off the bed in a second.
“I’ll keep an eye on her. Get dressed.” I waved to the closet as I pushed past him and rushed over to where Charlotte was sitting on the couch with her shoes already on. “Hey, kid, how are you—” I started, then trailed off as my hand met her scorching forehead. No longer clammy. Just way too hot.
She looked off, too. A little unfocused, her face too flushed.
“Oh, Char,” I said, running my hand over her hair.
“I don’t feel good.”
“I know you don’t,” I said, sitting down next to her.
“Can I have a hug?” she asked, sniffling, her eyes filling with tears.
“You don’t have to ask,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. “You’re going to be okay. Your uncle is going to get the doctors to fix you all up, okay?”
She sniffled and nodded.
“Probably not right away. But you’ll feel alittlebit better once the doctors check you out. And then we’re going to spend a few days waiting on you hand and foot until you feel better.”
“You too?”
“Absolutely.”
“You’re not going back to your apartment?”
“No way. My girl needs me.”
Christopher moved in front of the couch, giving me a soft smile. “Ready, honey?” he asked.
Charlotte let out a whimper but got to her feet.
“Just a couple of hours and it will all be over,” I assured her. “And then we can eat ice pops and watch that show you were talking about earlier. Here,” I said, folding up Charlotte’s blanket and handing it to Christopher. “She’s always chilly.”
“Thank you.”
“Liam…”
“He’s got me.”
Christopher leaned forward, pressing his forehead to mine for a second. “I will text you when I know something.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you in a bit, okay, kiddo? What flavor ice pops should I order?”
“All of them,” Charlotte said, leaning into her uncle’s side.
He wrapped an arm around her, and the two of them made their way out of the apartment.
Alone, I was surprised by the way my stomach twisted and my heartbeat fluttered.
Worried.
I was worried about Charlotte.
Christopher and Liam told me that she spiked dangerously high fevers when she got sick, once so bad that when they walked into her room to check on her, she was hallucinating and didn’t even respond to them until they got her to urgent care and got her fever down with medication and fluids.
I grabbed my phone and camped out on the couch while adding ice pops, cough drops, medicine, electrolytes, orange juice, menthol rub, and a heating pad for her body pains. Plus some soup in case she was hungry before Christopher got a chance to make it from scratch.
Then I did something that my sister said she did every single time the kids were sick.
