Slowly We Trust (Fall and Rise #3)(60)
Author: Chelsea M. Cameron

“Well, come on, get over here. I’m a hugger.” She hugged him, too, even though he was taller than she was. He froze for a moment and then hugged her back.

“How was the drive? Was it good?” she said as we walked back toward the house. This was it.

“Good,” I said and Eddie nodded. We stopped right in front of the door.

“Are you ready?” Maria said, her arm around me.

“No,” I said, being honest.

“It’s okay. You can do this. You ready, Eddie?”

“Shi-shoot, I forgot the presents in the car. Hold on a second.” He ran back to the car and got the giant bear, the balloons and then the bag with my present in it.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Maria said. “But she loves balloons. I have to buy them for her all the time. She always has a fit when they lose the helium and then they sink to the floor. You’d think we’d tortured her.” She stared at the balloons for a moment, watching them as they bobbed in the wind.

“Anyway, come on in.”

She opened the door and I stepped inside.

26

“I’m dying,” I moaned.

“No you’re not, you gigantic baby. My God, what it is with men and being sick? You all regress to infants. Here, finish your soup.” She held the bowl in front of my face. I very much did not want to eat the rest of it, but I’d rather feed myself than have Lottie forcibly pour it down my throat, which she wouldn’t hesitate to do.

I finished my soup while Lottie put a damp towel in the microwave to warm it and then started rubbing VapoRub on my chest. Disgusting, that stuff. It burned my nostrils with the smell, but protesting would only make it worse.

Lottie had obviously picked up on everything Mom did when we were sick. I knew the list too, since she’d done it for us so many times. Lottie and I shared a lot of things, and one of those was germs. It was inevitable that if I got sick, she would too and vice-versa.

“You know, all this taking care of you has given me so much mom practice. Now when I get sick, you’d better do all this for me.” She pulled the now-steaming towel out and laid it on my chest. Then she wiped the rest of the VapoRub from her hands onto the soles of my feet and began rubbing them. Oh, that felt good.

“Why don’t you get Zan to do it?”

“Because he doesn’t know how to do it like Mom. You do. I guess I could teach him. But I’m still a little reluctant to have my boyfriend see me puking in a bucket and being all gross. I can’t put that off forever, but I’m scared he’ll see me like that and then not want to have sex with me anymore. Shut up, I know it’s stupid.” I’d opened my mouth to tell her just that, but she beat me to it.

“You could puke all over that boy and he’d quote poetry and ask you to do it again,” I said and she made a disgusted face.

“Anyway. I’m predicting the creeping crud you have will hit me around Tuesday, so you might want to go shopping now and be ready. I’ll have everything else set up at my place.”

I closed my eyes and tried not to choke on the VapoRub fumes as Lottie kept rubbing my feet.

Her phone went off and she got up to get it.

“Hey,” she said, and by the tone of her voice I knew it was Zan. “No, he’s fine. I’m fine . . . No, you don’t have to do that . . . You’re so sweet, but I’ve got this . . . I don’t know . . . Maybe tonight? Okay . . . Okay . . . Love you, too. Bye.”

“How’s the boyfriend?” I kept my eyes closed. It was easier that way. The hot soup had made its way down to my stomach, where I hoped it would stay without coming up again.

“He’s fine. Asked if I needed any help. Said to tell you he said hello and get better.”

“Thanks.” She started moving around the room, cleaning things up.

“Why don’t you try and sleep again? I’m going to clean and disinfect everything.”

I nodded and let my body drift off into a sick and exhausted sleep.

My heart pounded so loud as I walked into the house that I thought everyone could hear it. The entryway was cluttered with shoes and toys and small coats.

“Sorry, it’s usually controlled chaos around here,” Maria said, steering us to the left and into a small living room.

“If you just want to sit, I’ll go get her. She just had a nap.”

“Oh, don’t wake her if she’s sleeping,” I said.

Maria shook her head and started up the stairs.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” She jogged up the stairs and I sat down on one of the couches. The armrest had marks on it that looked like they’d been drawn with marker by little hands. Eddie kept taking deep breaths and shifting in his seat.

“What if she doesn’t like me?” he blurted out.

“She will.” There were no guarantees. We were both strangers to her.

Maria came down the stairs carrying a little girl with black curls, who had both her hands in fists, rubbing her eyes.

“Here we are,” Maria said in a soft voice. “I had Leo take the other kids to the park so it would be just us.” She sat down on a chair across from me and moved Emily’s hands from her face.

It was like looking at a picture of myself as a child. With the exception of the curls, she was a mirror image of how I’d looked at her age.

“Can you say hi to Audrey?” She shook her head and buried her face in Maria’s shoulder.

“Sorry, she’s a little shy.” A lump formed in my throat and I knew that I was teetering on the edge of losing it. Nothing could have prepared me for this. There weren’t even words for the feelings clamoring inside me right now.

“Audrey came to visit you and so did Eddie and they brought you presents. Wasn’t that nice of them?” At the mention of presents, she lifted her head and stared from me to Eddie. The second she saw the balloons, her face split into a smile and she made a grabbing motion at them.

“Boon! Boon!”

Maria laughed.

“She can’t quite say balloon yet. It’s a hard word, isn’t it? Do you want to see the balloons? Can you ask nice?”

“Pwease?” That word, said in her little voice broke something in me. I almost got up and had to run to the car, but I stayed frozen in my chair as Eddie got up and brought the bundle of balloons over to Emily, pulling the strings taught so the balloons were down at her eye level.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Eddie said. Emily just stared at him, a little knot of concentration on her forehead, as if she was trying to figure out who this man was who had brought her the balloons.