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Not good, she’s burning up.
Circe replied almost right away.I’m coming over.
I wanted to protest, to tell her not to go out of her way, but I needed the company, and Circe had always known when I needed a shoulder to cry on or just another body in the room, sitting with me while we were silent.
I’d only been in Portland for about six years. When I’d fallen pregnant with her, and I hadn’t been able to find her father, I’d left Vegas and come here to start over. Vegas had only held pain for me.
Portland had been a strange place, terrifying. I hadn’t known anyone. The only reason I’d come here was because a great aunt had passed away and left me a small house I could call my own. If it hadn’t been for that—a place that the bank couldn’t repossess no matter how bad things got—I wouldn’t have come here at all.
Circe LeDoux had found me in the aisle of her pharmacy the first week we’d been here, when Emmie had been sick, and I hadn’t known which way was up. Emmie had only been a couple of weeks old back then, and I’d been in way over my head with a new baby and no family or friends as a support network. There was just something different about my best friend who’d attached herself to me, and I was pretty sure that if I believed in fate, fate had sent her to me to help me through the tough times.
I walked through the small two-bedroom home, picking up toys and empty food cartons, throwing them in the kitchen garbage and the toy bin, respectively. I worked full-time to afford our lives here. Now that Emmie was in school, it was easier, since I didn’t have to fork out cash for daycare anymore, and it was getting easier, but too many things still slipped through my fingers that I wished I could take care of.
When the doorbell rang, Circe let herself in.
She came to me and hugged me.
“How are you holding up?” she asked.
“I’m okay.” At least, as soon as Emmie was better, I would be. I kept all the balls in the air in my juggling act, except when something went wrong. “I hate it when she’s sick like this.”
“It gets better as they get older,” Circe said. She pulled her curly hair into a ponytail and picked up a few of Emmie’s toys to help me clean up.
“I thought it would be better by now,” I said. “She’s almost six, and I figured she wouldn’t pick up every sickness that did the rounds at school anymore, you know? I just can’t figure out what it is this time. She’s never been this sick, and the meds just don’t work the way they should.”
I sank onto the couch with a sigh before I looked at Circe and forced a bright smile.
“How are you?”
“Oh, you know me,” Circe said with a grin. Her gray eyes were the color of mercury, and her smile always came easy. “I’m doing just fine. The pharmacy was crazy busy today, but nothing I can’t handle.”
“You had a long day, and you’re still here, taking care of me.”
“Hey, you know how it works. Your troubles don’t feel like troubles at all, because they’re not mine. They distract me.”
I smiled. Circe always said that to make me feel better, and itdidmake me feel better. Thank God for friends like her, who came out of nowhere, heaven-sent.
“I’m not a total charity case,” I pointed out.
Circe snorted. “Of course not. We all go through tough times, though, and it’s totally okay to not be okay. You know that.”
I hadn’t always known that, but Circe had been teaching me that it was okay to ask for help and okay to not know how to do it all when I was just one person.
“Mommy?” Emmie called again.
“I’ll be right back,” I said and walked to Emmie’s room. When I switched on the light, Emmie had kicked off all her blankets, and her cheeks had bright red spots on them. Her dark blonde hair was a tangled mess, sticking to her cheeks and forehead, wet with sweat. Her blue eyes were watery and drooped when she looked at me.
“I’m right here, honey,” I said.
Emmie sat up, and I cradled her against me. She was hotter than ever. It was alarming.
“Baby, we’re going to have to put you in a cold bath if you keep burning up like this.”
“No,” Emmie cried. I knew she hated the cold bath, but it was the only way I could think of to get her temperature down.
Emmie shivered against me.
“Did you know Auntie Circe is here?” I said. “Can she come in and say hi?”
