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“Stop yelling at Mommy,” Leo says.
“I’m not yelling,” Erin snaps. “And I am not sleeping in this bed with you,” she tells her mother.
“I’ll sleep with you,” Leo offers.
“What?”
“Heidi can have my room.”
“There,” Erin says. “It’s settled. Problem solved.” She marches from the room.
“Are you sure, sweetheart?” Maggie asks her son.
“Yeah. I like this bed.”
Maggie smiles. “Okay. Thank you. That’s great. Go get your pajamas.”
“Can I bring Mario?” he asks, referring to the plush toy he sleeps with every night.
“Absolutely.”
Leo turns and runs from the room, colliding with Heidi in the upstairs hall.
“You’re sleeping in my room,” Maggie hears her son say.
Seconds later, Heidi appears in the doorway. “I’m so sorry….”
“Please stop apologizing.”
“I didn’t mean to cause you problems.”
“You didn’t.”
“I can sleep on the couch.”
“I am not letting a pregnant woman sleep on my couch, and that’s final. Leo has very graciously offered up his room. End of discussion.” Maggie goes to her closet and brings out a white cotton nightshirt, then guides Heidi into the hall. “This should fit. And there are some extra toothbrushes in the drawer to the left of the sink,” she adds as they pass the bathroom, stopping in front of Leo’s room.
“I don’t know what to say,” Heidi says.
“How about ‘good night’?”
“It hardly seems enough.”
“It’s all that’s necessary.”
Heidi collapses into Maggie’s embrace. “Good night. And thank you.”
“I left you Toad and Squirrel Luigi,” Leo announces, joining them in the hall and pointing to the two stuffed toys lying on his pillow. “So you’ll have company.”
“That’s so sweet of you,” Heidi says through her tears.
“If you don’t like them,” Leo says quickly, “I can leave Mario, too.” He offers up his favorite plush toy.
Maggie is so proud of her son that it’s all she can do to keep from bursting into tears of her own.
“No,” Heidi says. “I love Toad and Squirrel…”
“…Luigi,” Leo says. “He’s in disguise.”
