AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Right, Bob Barker. I had a fever. Or threw up—or both. I can’t remember, but Mom laid on the couch with me, and someone won, and she rubbed my head until I fell asleep. She smelled like vanilla. Like a cake.” She closed her eyes, sighing heavily against my chest. “It felt nice. Like maybe we were a normal family. Like maybe, that time, she’d stay.”
Her breath went steady as the bakers on-screen struggled to make a Boston cream pie. I picked up the blanket that had fallen off her shoulders, pulling it up again and setting my hand on her head, kneading her scalp with my fingertips.
“Just like that,” she sighed, her shoulders relaxing and her bandaged wrist resting on my lap. I worked my fingers through her hair, back and forth. “You make it hard to stay fake married to you.”
I stilled, wondering if I’d misheard her.
I hadn’t.
The words had a wistfulness to them—wanting. Or maybe that was the drugs. Or perhaps I made it up. I waited for her to say something else, but her steady breath assured me she’d fallen asleep.
The baking show continued playing on the television; a dozen bakers dwindling down to eight, and then four, and finally a winner was crowned after completing a twenty-layer cake with fondant, caramelized decoration, and a gingerbread on top for good measure.
“Nora.” I shook her gently.
She moaned, rubbing her face against my chest before stilling. Her eyes popped open, traveling up my chest, a confused look on her face. “What time is it?”
“Just past ten. We should get to bed.”
She blinked slowly before lifting her bandaged arm. “I guess the surgery went okay.”
“It went great. You were a real trooper. Wait here for a minute, though. I’m going to get you one of your pills before I take you upstairs. The surgeon warned me that, once the anesthesia wore off, you’d be in a lot of pain.”
She sat up, rolling her neck and running her fingers through her hair while I found the bottle of pills in the kitchen. She took it, drinking nearly the entire bottle of water in the process.
“You think you can stand up?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m just a little woozy.”
I helped her up. When she stumbled over the leg of the coffee table, I wrapped an arm around her waist, steadying her as we walked up the stairs to her room.
She hadn’t done much with the nearly empty room. She definitely hadn’t touched the credit card and, besides a desk and dresser she’d brought from her apartment, hadn’t even unpacked. I kept telling myself she’d only been in my home for less than a week, but I couldn’t suppress a strange stab of regret that she hadn’t settled in—as if she wasn’t ready to make this her home.
I walked her to the bed, and she frowned.
“What is it?”
“Would you mind hanging around for a bit? While I’m getting ready for bed?” She ground out the words reluctantly, as if she were asking too much of me.
I didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely.”
I sat on the bed while she brushed her teeth, closing the door behind her while she changed into pajamas. As she emerged from the bathroom, I stood and helped her onto the bed. Her right wrist shook slightly, the bandages tight over her arm. She wore matching pink pajamas, the top button down and the bottoms long. The queen size bed enveloped her as she sunk into the plush mattress.
“Do you need anything?” I asked, scanning the bedside table where I’d set a glass of water, her phone, and her pills. “I could grab your slippers. I think I saw them downstairs. Or something else to drink? Did you want some tea before you go to sleep?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want to inconvenience you any more than I already have.”
“It’s not an inconvenience, Nora. Anything you need.”
She frowned, eyes darting to the open door. “Can I ask you a weird question?” I nodded. “Were you rubbing my head earlier?”
I laughed. “Yeah, I was, actually. You asked me to, said your mom used to do it when you were sick.”
“Once, she did it once,” she corrected me.
Unlike earlier, she sounded lucid, her words clear and bright. I didn’t wait for her to ask. “Did you want me to do it again? Just to help you fall asleep?”
She pursed her lips, weighing whether she should say yes. “If you don’t mind.”
