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He startled, arms and legs flailing about. He raised up and looked around then he felt her forehead. “My temperature broke. Move it mister or you’re going to be cleaning up the bed. I need help going to the bathroom.”
“Come on.” Josh climbed over Sophie causing her to snap at him. Then he lifted her to her feet. He guided her to the bathroom. She was so weak she didn’t know if she could stay on the toilet. “You haven’t eaten in forty-eight hours, Sophie. You need to eat something. Soup? Mom’s oatmeal?”
“You have some?”
“I’ll make it.”
“How?”
Her voice was froggy and her face pale. He brushed his hand across her cheek. “Oatmeal and applesauce. We have that.”
“It won’t be the same, but I’ll eat it.”
He put her back in bed and wandered through the living room. Kai was outside shivering in the cold watching the puppies. She saw him and hurried them inside.
“How’s Sophie?”
“Temperature broke. She’s agreed to eat oatmeal and applesauce. She wants fresh water.”
“Oh, thank God.”
“Him and you for bringing Father Paddy over. I swear he has a direct connection to him,” Josh pointed up.
She laughed at him. “If he does, Sophie will be healthy when this stuff is over.”
“She will, Kai. I’m feeling good about this.”
Chapter 19
Sophie
On Wednesday, Ally decided to finally come home. She had left her father and Jagger high and dry. Sophie was doing pretty, well except for being weak so she was out of bed, freshly showered and able to be on her own so Josh could be at the office helping Jagger.
Her daughter strolled in at two o’clock in the afternoon. She didn’t want to hear how irresponsible she was being. She wouldn’t see Brian now until after the playoffs and possibly the National Championship if they made it that far.
Sophie didn’t care about the football game. She had wanted her daughter to stay in Columbus at Camden. She could have been with Brian if she had, but she didn’t. She came home, and she had a responsibility to her job that she had shirked. Just because she was Josh’s daughter didn’t give her the right to come and go as she pleased.
“Maybe I’ll just go back to Columbus, Mom.”
Sophie frowned at Ally. She didn’t like the attitude she was developing. The freedom that Ally thought she should have should be earned whether she was eighteen or not. Sophie shook her head.
“Maybe you should then, if you have no more respect for your father or I than this. Jagger too. He’s had more to pick up since you weren’t there, and he’s had a lot on his plate with the town’s proposal.”
She got out of the recliner and grabbed Delilah. Cleo followed her down the hall. Sophie slid into bed and cuddled with the puppies after shutting the door. Shutting out Ally, not wanting to argue with her anymore.
She hadn’t even asked if she was all right. If Joshua was okay after his bout with the flu. How her brother or sister-in-law were doing? If anyone else had come down with it. Ally was wrapped up in Brian Wilkes and nothing else mattered.
Sophie took a nap resting with the dogs. She was still weak, so it was easy to fall asleep snuggled up with her babies.
**
Josh woke her when he got home. She rolled over and faced him. “Ally’s home,” she told him.
“She said you two had a disagreement.”
“What did you say to her?” Sophie asked.
Josh laid his hand on Sophie’s hip. “The same thing that you did, Soph. She made a commitment to us that was important. She had let us down. She should have been home Monday afternoon at the latest. Jagger and I really needed her this week while we were trying to put together the new proposal for the mayor.”
