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He leaned back in the chair. “I’m staying here with you.”
“That’s fine.”
Skylar wasn’t planning to spend the whole night with Ava. She just wanted to be sure she wasn’t going to throw up. Her temperature spiked an hour later. She had to run Ava to the bathroom. Luka was right behind them as Skylar sat on the side of the bathtub and held their daughter’s hair back while she threw up. He stood in the bathroom door; his face a mask of despair.
She glanced up occasionally. “Luka, she’s just got a bug. Grab a washcloth from the linen closet and wet it for me.”
He did so reluctantly. She could see that he didn’t want to leave them. Ava was sitting on her bottom between Sky’s legs with her cheek resting on her Momma’s knee. He squatted in front of her and wiped her face.
“How’s my baby girl?” He asked.
“Shitty,” she replied.
“Ava,” Skylar scolded her.
“It’s the truth,” she declared.
He continued to wipe her face. Her hair was soaked from her temperature breaking. “Are you going to be sick again sweetheart?” Skylar asked.
“I don’t think so,” Ava replied.
“Want to carry her back to her room?” Skylar asked.
He lifted her against him. She still felt warm to him. He placed his hand against her back. She might be ten, growing up too quickly but to him he had just found her so she was still his baby. He held her tight then he got to her room and laid her on the bed. He covered her and started to move away.
“Sit by me Daddy.”
He perched on the edge of the bed. Skylar started to leave.
“Momma, you on the other side,” she demanded.
Skylar went around the bed and sat beside Ava. She caressed her cheeks which were flushed with a low fever. “Stomach still hurts?” Skylar asked. Ava shook her head no.
“Good.”
The three of them slept in Ava’s bed. Skylar was sure that they would both have what Ava had but only Sky caught it two days later. Luka opened the door to see why she hadn’t gotten out of bed to do her morning chores and found her running a temperature and feeling sick to her stomach. “Let me die Luka,” she told him when he tried talking to her. “Just close the door and leave me to die.”
He sat on the edge of the bed. He felt her forehead. “Do you need anything?”
“No. Just take care of Ava. She has soccer practice tonight at five.”
“I’ll take care of her.”
She laid in bed all day. She ate very little. By evening Sky was sitting up. Brett came over and went to practice with Luka and Ava. Ramona knocked on Skylar’s door.
“Come in,” Skylar called out.
“You look like hell,” Ramona told her.
“Thanks,” Skylar replied.
Her hair was a tangled mess and starting to get oily from the temperature spiking and breaking. Her cheeks were flushed. She was more pale than usual. She felt like shit to be blunt about it.
Her sister sat across the room on a window seat hoping she wouldn’t catch the bug too. “He’s pretty handy to have around,” Ramona told her.
“Really?”
“Yeah, he washed Ava’s linens. Remade her bed. Fixed her hair for practice. I thought I was going to have to braid her hair. Ava had already talked him through it.”
