Page 122 of Love Notes & Lifelines
Emmy’s strength vanishes and her face falls. “My ear hurts,” she wails as Daisie nudges her chest with her nose.
I freeze. Her ear hurts. Okay. What does that mean? Temperature? Do I need to call someone?
“Stella?” She’ll hear me through the monitor. I want to remain calm but I’m twenty decibels past it already.
Thank God she walks through the door before I’ve finished saying her name.
She drops to her knees in front of Emmy, and I stand to the side as she presses the back of her hand to the little girl’s forehead.
“Oh boy. You’re feeling pretty warm, sweet pea. We need to take your temperature.”
Stella looks over her shoulder to confirm that I’ve got Ruby before she whisks Emmy from the room. I hurry to change Ruby’s diaper, then follow them into the girls’ Jack-and-Jill bathroom.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
STELLA
“She has a fever,”I tell Beck when he enters the mint-green bathroom with baby-pink ballerinas dancing across the walls. Ruby is in his arms and…oh no. “Beck?—”
Too late.
Ruby opens her mouth and projectile vomits, first on Beck’s cheek, then he spins and covers me in it too.
And all hell breaks loose.
Emmy bursts into tears. Beck gags. Ruby cries for a heartbeat, then laughs before crying again.
I place Emmy on the floor, take Ruby from Beck, usher him out of the room, and turn on the faucet in the bathtub. “Go get showered,” I order when he continues to retch.
He doesn’t need to be told twice.
Sitting Ruby on the floor beside her sister, I remove my T-shirt, thankful my bra is only slightly damp with vomit. It doesn’t help the shudder that rolls through me though. No one, and I meanno one,enjoys this smell.
“Why are there so many bodily fluid malfunctions with mini humans?” Beck grumbles from the other room before his voice fades away.
With my hands on my hips, I take a deep breath through my mouth and assess the situation. Emmy sits slumped forward, looking miserable, and Ruby can’t decide if she’s sick or if she’s going to make a run for it.
Taking Ruby’s temperature is first on my list, so I grab the forehead thermometer I just used with Emmy and run it across the little girl’s skin. It flashes red instantly.
“Poor babies,” I coo. “I’m sorry you’re both sick. Let’s stick you in the bath to help lower your temperatures and I’ll give you some medicine.”
I have no idea if taking room-temperature baths is still a thing, but my mom used to do it with me when I had a fever, and I’m running on instinct and memories at the moment.
Carefully, I strip both girls out of their clothes and place them in the tub. Neither is happy about it, but after a few minutes, Ruby splashes while Emmy sits looking utterly miserable.
I start with her, gently pouring water down her back, over and over again.
“I don’t feel good, Stella.” Her voice is so pitiful it breaks my heart.
“Oh, sweet pea, I know. I’m so, so sorry.”
Ruby’s next, and I give her the same treatment, but I use extra soap with her to rid her body of the scent of bile.
When the water cools, I lift Emmy out first, draping her with a towel, then reach back for Ruby as Beck enters the room.
His gaze hits my skin like a wildfire spreading through the forest, fast and unrelenting. Hot.
Securing a second towel around Ruby, I hand her to her uncle, and the second he holds her to his chest, she stops moving.
