Sitting the tray on the nightstand, I leaned over and shook her gently. Just like earlier, she stirred awake, and I swore I felt my heart skip a few beats when she smiled at me. Unlike any other time, the gesture actually met her eyes. The light had beenmissing from them for the last few days, but I was noticing it shining more and more as time passed.
“I didn’t even realize I’d dozed off again and that quickly.” She giggled softly.
“I didn’t want to wake you, so my apologies for that, but I need you to at least take the medicine.” I grabbed the small, plastic cup and handed it to her. She tossed it back quickly then gave the medicine cup back to me. “Can you at least take a few bites of the soup and drink the water?” I asked. “You need to stay hydrated.”
She smiled as she nodded. “Yes, Dr. Kiyan, I can eat a little and drink the water.”
“Good,” I said then stepped back. “Ava asked me to build a snowman, so we’re going to go out for a little.”
She was stirring the soup but paused the motion to peer up at me. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know I don’t,” I said, making my way to the other side of the room to get a hoodie and my coat from the closet. I pulled the hoodie over my head first, then layered it with the coat before going to find my gloves in the drawer of my nightstand. “She asked me to, so I’m going to take her out. Where’s your phone?” She grabbed it from the other side of the bed and held it up. “Put my number in it in case you need to get in contact with me while we’re outside.”
“It’s off,” she announced, her flushed cheeks turning red from embarrassment, and I frowned.
“What do you mean off?”
“Aldrick disconnected my service,” she clarified. “I’m going to get another, but that will be a lot later. For now I’ll just have to connect it to Wi-Fi and communicate with Ava’s doctors and teachers through email.”
“It’s fine,” I let her know, taking it from her and keying my number in after seeing she was already connected to my Wi-Fi.She could still text me or FaceTime her daughter if she woke up and needed to check on her. “Just hit me up if you need us. We can get you a new phone when you get better.”
I turned and hurried out of the room because I didn’t want her to protest. She had a daughter who had special needs, so she needed a reliable form of communication. I also couldn’t stand to hear another fucked up thing that her husband had done because I might have got in my car to go find him. I was fed up with him.
When I got back downstairs, Ava was still in the same place where I left her at the bar on her iPad. I asked if she was ready to go outside and she let me know she was by hopping down off the bar stool and running in my direction. We made a detour to the coat closet by the front door to grab one of the scarves I never wore and we grabbed a carrot from the fridge before going outside.
I got started on the first ball of snow then let her finish it up. She didn’t want me to help with the next one, so I sat back and watched her do her thing. Ava was a very smart little girl. She canvased each ball of snow that she rolled and made sure that it was nice and smooth. I explained that she couldn’t make them all the same size while she worked then let her know when she’d made each ball big enough. It was just a snowman, but I was impressed watching her mimic what she’d just seen me doing and essentially perfect it.
When she was done, I helped her stack them on top of each other, then the two of us set out on a journey to find enough rocks to use for his buttons, smile, and eyes. Once we’d gathered enough, we went back to her snowman, and I helped her place them by pointing to where she should put them. She’d nod and focus on getting them in the perfect spot. After that, I handed her the carrot then lifted her so she could place it and helped her wrap the scarf around it.
I placed her back on her feet and she pointed. “Hat.”
I glanced up and realized that we didn’t have a hat for the snowman, and I didn’t think I had one in the house we could use for it—unless she wanted it to wear a White Sox hat.
“I think I got you covered, baby girl,” I heard my father’s voice behind me. Ava glanced around me, and I looked over my shoulder to see him holding one of his Kangol hats in his hand. She sprinted around me to go get it, then when she made it back to me, I lifted her to put in on the snowman’s head. “Now he’s perfect,” my father commented. “Great job, guys.”
Smiling, I placed Ava down on her feet again and stepped back. “She did most of the work on her own. I just showed her how to get started.”
“Well, you did great, Ava,” he tapped her cheek with his gloved hand, “and you’re a great teacher son.”
“Appreciate that, Pops.” I smirked then looked past him. “Where’s Ma?”
“Heating up the soup you left on the porch for Leila.” He chuckled as I palmed my forehead. I’d completely forgotten that I ordered soup from Stack & Ladle for her. I was too preoccupied with baby girl and getting her snowman done before it got colder or dark.
“Damn, I forgot I ordered that because I heated up some of the cans I had then came out with Ava.”
“Your mama has it covered,” he assured me.
“I knew she would,” I chuckled and shook my head. “I hope you didn’t rush back because of that.”
“Naw, we didn’t,” he waved me off. “But if we did, I’d be thanking you because you know your mama knows how to spend some money.”
We shared a laugh.
“You’re the one that has her spoiled like that.”
“Least I can do,” he continued laughing. “She gave me more than I could ask for in a million lifetimes. A good home… love… even a couple of bad ass kids,” he teased. “Can’t put a price on all of that. You’ll understand one day.”
I nodded, keeping my eyes on Ava who had started to make smaller snowmen to put around her big one. “We’ll see.”
