As soon as I opened my office door, I found Ava there holding onto the doll that Mel had brought her. I glanced down at her then peeked out the door to see if I saw her mother. When I didn’t, I turned my attention back to her.
“What’s up, baby girl? Where’s your mom?”
“Sleep,” she answered softly then turned her iPad toward me. It was A Charlie Brown Christmas movie playing, but she had it paused. “Snowman,” she pointed.
I nodded and studied the screen. “Yes, it’s a snowman.”
She reached for my hand and led me down the hall to the kitchen then to the double doors that led to my backyard, pointing and repeating, “Snowman.”
It was then that it registered to me that she wanted to go out and build a snowman, but I still asked, “You want to build one?”
Her little face lit up as she nodded. The joy all over her face warmed my heart instantly and had me wondering how anyone could turn her down or walk away from her. She was such a sweet kid. She was quiet most of the time and kept to herself, but she’d started to warm up to me, and that made me feel good.
“Alright, we can go out, but you need your coat, some boots and a hat,” I let her know. “Let’s go get your mom.”
“Mommy, sick.” She pointed then latched onto my hand and pulled me toward the den area where Leila was balled up on the couch under a throw blanket. I noticed the box of Kleenex that was lying next to her on the couch and an opened ginger ale can on the floor.
Walking over, I pressed the back of my hand to her forehead and immediately noticed how warm she was. I grabbed the remote to turn the T.V. off then gently shook her to wake her.
“Leila.”
She stirred a little before her beautiful eyes fluttered opened. It took a few seconds for her to get it together, but she stretched some and sat up on the couch slowly.
“I’m sorry for sleeping on your couch. Ava and I were watching a movie, and I drifted off.”
I waved her statement off and said, “You’re not feeling good.”
“I’m fine. I’m just a little tired.”
“I wasn’t asking,” I said, standing to my full height. “You have a fever, and ginger ale isn’t going to fix it. You need meds and rest.”
She shook her head, tossing the blanket from over her body. My eyes traveled the length of her toned legs down to her pretty feet. I had to hurry to close my mouth afraid that I might drool at the sight because I found every detail about this womanextremely attractive when I shouldn’t have been focusing on that. “I just?—”
“You’re just going to go get in bed and let me take care of you.” I cut her off, reaching for her hand to help her up. “You’ve been running around here doing everything for everyone else, but now you need to rest. I’m going to take you upstairs to get in bed then I’ll make you some soup and get some meds.”
“I can’t leave Ava…”
“I have Ava, Leila,” I cut in again. “Let me worry about that while you focus on getting some rest. She wants to go out to play in the snow, so I’m going to take her out back.”
I didn’t allow her a chance to have a rebuttal, I just led her up the stairs toward my room. I’d just tossed my bed, so it would be good for her to lay there so I could do the same to the one in the room that they were staying in.
“Kiyan, I can’t put you out of your bed,” Leila argued, standing on the side instead of getting in after I tossed the cover back.
“You’re not putting me out. I’m putting you in,” I countered. “Now go, so I can get you something to eat.”
It was a little frustrating having to repeat things to her over and over again, but I remembered my father’s words and decided to practice patience. Someone taking care of her was a foreign concept, so I needed to understand that, but I was still standing firm in my decision. She was getting in bed and getting the rest that she needed.
“I’ll rest for a little, but?—”
“You’ll rest for as long as you need to.” I cut her off and swooped her body into my arms so that I could physically put her in bed. I had to ignore the surges of electricity that coursed through my body due to the closeness and just pull the cover up over her. “Ava, show your mother some love so we can go out and play.”
Baby girl climbed up on the bed and gave her mother a tight hug then Leila kissed the top of her head before releasing her to get back down. I let her know that I’d be back before Ava and I went outside. When we got to their room, I had her find her hat and coat as well as the boots her mom had picked out for her while I took the sheets off the bed.
Once we had everything, the two of us went downstairs where I put the sheets in the washing machine then helped Ava get her things on. I wanted to get her mom squared away, so I sat her at the counter with a bag of goldfish and a juice while I hooked up some chicken noodle soup. I hated that I only had the canned kind, but it would have to suffice until UrbanEats delivered the food I’d just ordered from Stack & Ladle.
“Ava, stay put until I get back. I’m going to take this to your mom,” I said as I put the bowl of hot soup on the tray with a water and another ginger ale. I walked over to the cabinet I’d kept the medicines in and poured some Theraflu in the cup then made my way upstairs.
She’d moved over to the middle of my bed, and I couldn’t lie to myself and say I didn’t feel a way seeing her laying there wrapped in my cover. Her hair wasn’t in her usual bun, so it was sprawled across my pillow with one of her arms thrown across the top of her head. It was then that I noticed she wasn’t wearing her wedding band anymore. My mom had told me about the conversation they had when they were cooking and her plans to get Kayla to help her. I didn’t want her to think that my goal was to interfere with any of that and have her thinking I had an ulterior motive to get her away from her husband or to persuade her to leave him any quicker than she planned to.
