Page 58 of The Baby-whisperer and the Brute
“It’s croup. Go start the shower—as hot as it’ll go—and shut the bathroom doors to keep in the steam. I’ll bring her in.”
Chapter Eighteen
So Much for Keeping It Professional
Sully
“Is it bad? I mean, is croup dangerous?”
I’d never heard a cough like that in either one of my girls. It was terrifying, especially when I saw how much difficulty Claire had drawing breath in between coughs.
The worst part was the scared look in my baby’s eyes, as if she was begging me to make it better, to help her breathe normally again.
“It’s not great… but it’s common,” Angelina said, her voice ultra-calm. “It makes the rounds at the preschool every year. Most kids get over it pretty quickly.”
She sat on the edge of the tub in the bathroom that connected my daughters’ rooms.
Claire was in her lap, stripped to her Elmo underwear, her tiny body racked with another round of convulsive coughing.
She’d vomited twice already. Angelina told me it wasn’t from the virus itself but from the force of the coughing.
She rocked the little girl, rubbing her back, and looked up at me with worried eyes. “The steam doesn’t seem to be helping. Want to get Skyla dressed? That way she’ll be ready if we need to go to the hospital.”
“The hospital?” I could hardly think now over the panic. How did Angelina look and sound so calm?
“We’ll give it a few more minutes. But if she doesn’t get some relief soon, I don’t think we should take chances,” she said. “You hear that whistling sound when she breathes in? It’s called stridor. Her air passages are swollen and constricted. Steam is supposed to help but…”
“Let’s go now.” I strode forward and plucked my child from Angelina’s lap, cradling her close to my body. “Can you grab some clothes for her and bring Skyla down? I’m going to start the car.”
Within minutes, we were on our way to the closest hospital, but Claire’s coughing had seemed to subside the minute the night air hit her. Still, I drove like Dale Earnhardt while Angelina sat in the back seat between the girls.
I met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “What’s going on? Is she breathing?”
“Yes,” she assured me. “It’s actually a lot better now. I read this happens sometimes. We probably should have just taken her out into the yard and walked her around a bit.” She hesitated. “Do you want to turn around?”
“No. I want to take her to the emergency room—just to be safe. Her airway’s gotta be about the size of a sippy cup straw.”
“Okay good. Me too.” Angelina resumed murmuring reassuring words to Claire while Skyla slept in her booster seat, worn out from the busy day and oblivious to the tension that filled the car.
By the time we reached the hospital, Claire was breathing easily and acting almost normal. Skyla had woken up, and the two girls were using silly voices to talk to each other in the back seat.
Angelina looked much more relaxed now. I also noticed she had on mascara for the first time since I’d met her and the barest trace of lip gloss too.
Was that for me? Or had she just decided to get all dolled up for her bowling date?
Wait—it hadn’t been a date-date, right? I wasn’t really surewhothey’d met up with. Just as quickly as it had occurred to me, I dismissed the notion. Angelina would never take my girls along on a personal meetup with a guy—not without mentioning it to me. I didn’t think she even went on dates.
Though her official work hours ended at seven-thirty when the girls went to bed, I couldn’t think of a night when Angelina hadn’t stayed in.
Now that I thought about it, that might be kind of strange—a twenty-three-year-old woman who stayed home every night.
Maybe it was just what she was used to living with her mom. From the minimal information she’d shared about her personal life, I gathered the woman was a little odd—maybe a lot odd.
Angelina noticed me looking at her and gave me an apologetic smile, lifting her narrow shoulders and letting them drop.
“She seems fine now. I guess I overreacted. I’m sorry I scared you. I just… love her so much.”
My heart shot up into my throat then fell back into place where it pummeled my sternum. There was a stinging in my nose and behind my eyes. I blinked hard. “It’s okay. Believe me, I understand.”
