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“Baby,” he whines desperately.
“Shut up!” I say again, closing my eyes to focus. “Something is wrong. I have to go.”
I go for the door, but he’s close behind and puts his hand on it, stopping me.
“Don’t leave,” he breathes into my ear. He feels so good against me.
Fuck, this is why I can’t leave him. We’re too good together. Not that he needs to know that. But right now, my brother needs me. I have to put my lust aside to go find out what’s wrong.
“It’s Pocus,” I explain, turning around to look him in the eye. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him quickly on the lips.
“To be continued,” he murmurs, removing his hand from the door and letting me go.
I race out of the clubhouse and head toward my brother’s house. The closer I get, the stronger his anguish is. I have no idea what’s wrong, but whatever it is, it’s bad. I run as fast as my feet will carry me. I burst into the house without knocking. He’s nowhere to be found, but when I get to the kitchen, I see him outside, cradling a crying Daisy.
I open the back door and run to them. He’s on the ground, absolutely helpless. He looks up as he hears me approach. His eyes are filled with unshed tears.
“I don’t know what to do, Coco,” he tells me, his voice thick with emotion. “I don’t know what to do.”
I crouch down in front of him and look at my niece. Her face is pressed against Pocus’s chest. She’s cradling her arm in a funny way. I look up past Pocus to see Charlie standing at the base of the big oak tree, pale and terrified. I’ll get answers later, but right now, I need to help Daisy.
“You’re okay,” I whisper calmly to Daisy. Someone needs to maintain their composure in this situation.
Daisy keeps crying, pushing herself further against Pocus. She won’t let me anywhere near her.
“Pocus,” I say firmly while maintaining a calm, gentle tone. “I need to see Daisy’s arm so I can help her.”
He looks up at me with a frantic expression and nods. He coaxes Daisy to hold her arm out so I can get to it. I immediately place my hands on it. I feel the pain seep out of her, and she slowly stops crying.
“Auntie Coco, how did you do that?” she asks, completely awed. “Mommy always kisses my booboos, but it never works that fast.”
“I have magic kisses,” I say, pulling her into my arms and kissing all over her face until she giggles. She’ll need to have her arm looked at, but at least it won’t hurt her.
She runs into the house, turning to call to Charlie. The girl stays by the tree and shakes her head. Pocus follows after Daisy on shaky legs while I walk over to Charlie. She’s shaking like a leaf.
“Why don’t we go inside?” I tell her kindly. “You look like you can use a bowl of ice cream.”
She looks up at me with wide, terrified eyes and shakes her head again. Instead, she runs to the front of the house. I chase after her, but she goes in through the front door and up the stairs. I hear the sound of a door slamming before I can get to her.
I sigh and pull out my phone, calling Abigail to let her know that Daisy got injured and needs to go to the doctor. I go to the kitchen to find Daisy dipping cookies into a large glass of milk with her good arm and Pocus watching her, looking shell-shocked.
“Abigail is on her way,” I tell him. “She’s okay, Pocus.”
He shakes his head and stares at his daughter. “She fell out of a tree,” he whispers. “She could have died.”
I feel the panic radiating off him. I know he’s spiraling out of control. He seems to forget how resilient kids are. After all, if we hadn’t been resilient, we wouldn’t have survived our childhood.
“She’s fine.” I sit in front of him so I can look him in the eye. “Things like this happen all the time. Kids play rough.”
“No,” he growls. “My daughter isn’t supposed to have a broken bone!”
I roll my eyes and put my hands on his shoulders, forcing him to look at me. “If it didn’t happen now, it would have happened some other time. Kids get hurt, it happens. When Abigail gets here, you guys will get her checked out and everything will be fine.”
“Can I have more cookies?” Daisy asks sweetly behind me.
I look over at her and smile. “See?” I tell Pocus, shooting him a knowing look. “I think she’ll pull through.”
He looks annoyed, but Abigail comes through the door at that moment and finds us in the kitchen.
