Jana exhaled. “Thanks.”
Nicole shrugged. “Like I said at the sangeet…sometimes it’s hard to tell that you’re in your element…but everyone else around you can see it crystal clear. Get some rest, okay? Call me if she gets worse. I know you’ll worry, but to put you at ease, we’re notactuallyin the middle of nowhere. There are excellent medical clinics a half-hour drive from here and a hospital only two hours away. Your daughter’s got a hell of a lot of people looking out for her.” She glanced at Anil, who was tucking Imani into the cot. “Seriously. Lucky girl. Lucky mama, too.”
Nicole said goodbye to Anil and told Imani again to try and get some sleep, then left the tent. Jana stood by the bed. Anil was rubbing Imani’s back, the same way Jana herself did when Imani was having trouble sleeping. Because of course he knew all the tricks to get Imani to calm down just like Jana did.
It was so strange. They had joint custody. He’d spent as much time with Imani as she had. Jana had never doubted that Anil was a dedicated and devoted father. As Nicole had said, Imani was thriving because of her father as well as her mother.
But joint custody meant one of them or the other. Notbothof them. For more than a week now, they’d been parenting Imanitogether.
Imani shifted, getting more comfortable in her small bed. “Both stay?” Imani said weakly. Like she was afraid to ask for it.
Anil looked up at Jana. Okay…this was awkward. It was a very small tent, and there was only this one queen bed and Imani’s cot. Not even a chair. “We’ll stay if you want us to, baby,” Jana said.
“Okay,” Imani said softly. Jana squeezed in and sat next to Anil on the bed and put her hand on her daughter’s head, gently running her fingers through her daughter’s curls in a way that she knew would relax her.
“Sleep, baby, okay?”
Anil and Jana stayed like that, each with one hand on their daughter, until Imani stilled, her gentle breathing filling the small tent.
The night was so dark. No matter what Nicole claimed, it really did feel like they were in the middle of the wilderness. Anil’s phone light was still on—the only light in the small tent. Even outside, Jana couldn’t see or hear anything. She could only hear the soft breathing of her daughter.
They had been like that for a while, maybe twenty minutes, when Anil whispered, “I think she’s asleep.” He turned off his phone flashlight.
Jana moved her hand to her daughter’s back. “I’m sorry she freaked out on you,” Jana said. “I swear, for Imani, her emotions about being sick are always worse than the illness itself.”
“You don’t have to apologize, Jana. I’m her father. I know,” he whispered. He shifted, straightening from being crouched over Imani. “That is not a comfortable position for so long. This place is amazing, but it’s tight for three of us.”
Jana took the hint. “You’re right. She’s asleep—I’ll go.” She started to get up.
A hand on her knee stopped her. “Youcan’tgo. You promised her you’d stay. What if she wakes up and you’re not here?”
“I didn’t mean all night!” Jana whispered. “Where am I supposed to sleep? In the shower?” Jana couldn’t see him, and it was very strange to have a whispering argument in the dark. She couldn’t sleep in the same tent with Anil. Not when her past feelings for him were crashing back like a tsunami.
He turned his phone flashlight back on. “Jana, you’re being ridiculous. The bed is plenty big enough for us. I can even put one of my bags between us. Let’s get some sleep, okay?”
He tossed the Groom’s Platoon backpack to the middle of the bed. Jana wondered if he’d taken the box of condoms out of it.
Jana sighed. He was right, of course. This was the perfect test of the new truce between them.
“Okay. Fine,” Jana said, standing. “I’m going to use your bathroom.”
When she came out of the bathroom, she saw that Anil had gotten the bed ready, removing the bedspread and turning down the blankets. “Do you really want the bag between us?” he asked.
“It’s fine. We’re not twelve.”
She heard him snort under his breath. “Okay. Do you want to be on this side closer to Imani?”
“Yes.”
When Jana got into bed, she turned toward her daughter and stretched her arm out so she could rest it on Imani’s back. She tried her very hardest not to pay attention to the feeling of someone sliding into bed behind her. At least it was dark. She wasn’t forced to have any visual confirmation that she was once again sharing a bed with Anil Malek.
She didn’t think she’d sleep, though. Because what was once an eerily silent night suddenly got very loud. She heard a shrill cry from outside.
“What the hell?” she said, rubbing Imani’s back so she wouldn’t wake.
“It’s a bush baby,” Anil said. “I was chatting with Nelson earlier, and he said we would definitely be hearing them tonight. They live in the trees on the grounds, and their cries carry in the night. They’re called bush babies because they sound like a baby crying.”
“Wow. I’m glad I’m with you, because I would definitely have thought that was Imani crying if I were in a different tent.”
