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“It’s okay. I’ll worry about it later.”

“Cass?”

“No. Or I don’t know. Maybe.”

Bri climbed over Ash and then stood up on her tiptoes, trying to reach his phone, which was still sitting on the bed. She wasn’t quite tall enough, however, and she made a few sounds of frustration before climbing back on top of Ash this time and using his leg to stand on. He groaned.

“Bri, get down.”

“No.”

“Bri.”

“Da!” she declared, plopping back down into Ash’s lap with the phone now held tightly in both hands. She let go with one hand and started tapping one finger against the screen. “Da, da, da!”

Ash just closed his eyes and let her play with the phone, knowing she couldn’t unlock it or really use it. She made cute little noises and bounced in his lap every once in a while.

Then the phone buzzed again.

And Bri continued punching on the screen with her finger.

A muffled male voice came through the speaker. “Hello?”

“Da!” Bri said happily. “Da da da!”

Ash’s stomach dropped, and he opened his eyes just as Bri jumped up out of his lap and squealed, taking off toward the other side of the room. She stopped by the door and spun around to look at him as she lifted the phone up to her ear.

“Da, da, da? Da!”

“Bri, please come back here,” Ash begged, but Bri shook her head and laughed. Whoever was on the other end of the line was talking, and Bri’s eyes went wide as she listened. She nodded.

“Ah. Da. Da, da.” She paused again as though listening, and she nodded, almost all serious like. “Da. Da-da-da-da-da-da. Da da da!”

Her babbling continued as Ash inhaled a short breath and then tried to push himself to his feet. But the whole room seemed to slip downward, tilting dangerously, and he staggered sideways and quickly grabbed onto the edge of the bed to steady himself.

“Bri, please.” Ash clenched his jaw against the splitting pain in his head and slumped back down to the floor. He was utterly exhausted. And this migraine certainly wasn’t helping. Bri had stopped babbling and was now watching him, only a few feet away. He tried to smile at her as he shifted to sit cross-legged. “Bri, who’s on the phone? Can I have it now, please?”

She frowned quite dramatically and shook her head, holding the phone tight to her chest. “No. No, me! Me da-da-da!”

Normally, she wasn’t like this. Normally, if she did get like this, it was very short-lived. And normally, he’d have plenty of patience and energy to deal with it, talk to her in a way that would work.

Nothing about today, however, was normal.

He lowered his head into his hands, giving up completely, and Bri went back to her conversation with whoever was on the other end of the line. Hopefully not a random stranger or someone else she really shouldn’t be talking to. Her Da-da-da-das were occasionally punctuated by a gleeful laugh or an excited squeal, which cut right through Ash’s skull like a knife.

Eventually, she became quiet, and Ash forced himself to look up. Bri had come over to him and was now sitting on the floor right in front of him, holding the phone out.

“For me now?” he asked, trying for a smile.

She grinned. “Da! Un-ca Ash. Cass talk Un-ca Ash,” she stated so matter-of-factly that Ash almost laughed.

“Thank you,” he managed, and with effort, he took the phone from her. Then he closed his eyes as he heard her get up and walk over toward her crib. A moment later, there was a clatter as her box of toys was dumped out onto the ground. Ash took a deep breath and lifted the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Hey.” The voice was soft and unmistakably kind, as always.

Shame and guilt immediately bubbled up inside Ash, and he swallowed hard. “S-sorry about Bri, she had my phone when you called.”

“She’s fun to talk to, actually.”