Page 42 of Small-Town Secrets
"Good." I ruffled his dark hair. "Get up then. Breakfast will be ready soon."
Tyler nodded and hopped out of the bed, making his way to the bathroom with a yawn. When Tyler deserted the bed, I scooched closer to the kid still remaining in it, surprised that our little exchange hadn't woken my other son.
"Hey, sleepy head." Gently, I nudged Chris' shoulder until he turned to me. He looked at me out of tired eyes. "You okay, sweetheart?" Same as I'd done with his brother before, I rested my hand on his forehead. He was a little warmer than Tyler and I was pretty sure I'd identified the source of the coughing. "Did you catch a cold, little man?"
"I'm good," Chris said, but as soon as the words left his mouth, they were followed by a sneeze.
I chuckled, carding my fingers through his hair. "Are you sure about that?" I asked, trying not to let him notice how inconvenient this cold was to me. If he had to stay home from school, I couldn't go to work and if I didn't go to work I wasn't gonna get paid.
Chris sat up. "I promise I'm good," he insisted.
I eyed him skeptically. "We're taking your temperature."
"It's pizza day at school!"
"You can have pizza when you're feeling better." Shaking my head at my son, I left the room to get the thermometer. It was only when I stepped into the bathroom that I realized I had no idea where Aaron kept these things. I went down to the kitchen to ask. Tyler was already sitting at the table, happily munching on a strip of bacon while Sarge watched him carefully, waiting for the boy to drop some of his breakfast into his open mouth.
I found Aaron working the coffee machine, wearing the same clothes he'd worn the day before. No lie, I kind of wanted to take them off him again, piece by piece. It was a crime to hide a body like his from the world—or at least, from my eyes.
God, I wasn't a lovesick teenager anymore. Why did I still have to crush like one?
I needed to focus. "Do you have a thermometer?" I asked, remembering my sick child waiting for me upstairs.
"A thermometer?"
"Chris caught a cold. I'm trying to decide if I have to keep him home or not."
"Oh. I think I have a thermometer in the medicine cabinet. Watch the stove for a minute."
"All right." I took over the skillet from Aaron. Up close, the smell of the eggs and bacon was even stronger, but I didn't even care, becauseAaron'sscent lingered in my nose now, giving me an appetite for a different sort of breakfast altogether.
I cursed myself, watching the bacon sizzle in the pan.
"Here it is," Aaron said, handing the thermometer to me when he returned to the kitchen. "You know I can watch him for you, right? If he does have to stay home."
"What?" I shot Aaron a puzzled look because I hadn't expected anything like that at all. "You don't have to. He's my responsibility."
"But you have to go to work and I'll be home all day."
"But you're working too."
"True, but I can keep an eye on him. It's no trouble. I can train the puppy in the old family room and have Chris sleep on the couch in the living room. Keep the doors open."
The living room was on the opposite side of the family room. It wasn't a bad idea. "Can I really ask you to do that?"
"Sure. Why not?"
Because I really didn't like to leave my babies in the care of other people. Especially when they were sick. But I needed to learn how to trust Aaron with the twins, didn't I? Sooner or later he was going to find out that they were his, either through my mouth or someone else's. The way I knew him, he wasn't going to back down from that responsibility, no matter what he might think about me by that point.
So I needed to work with him.
"Thank you," I made myself say. "But make sure that he doesn't run around too much, okay? He needs to rest. And he needs to stay hydrated. He likes soup when he's sick and..." I stopped myself from adding that Chris liked it when I read to him. I could hardly demand that from Aaron, could I? He already had enough work to do and I was starting to sound like a paranoid parent.
"I got it." Aaron chuckled. "Don't worry, we'll be fine."
"All right." I gave Aaron a smile and hoped for the best.
What else could I do, really?
