Brady promptly gave a report, explaining that I was hot but shivering, and dwelling on the fact that I’d already gone through a box of tissues.
Sometimes, I wished the child came with a mute button.
“Do you want anything for the fever?” Ivan slid his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants.
It wasn’t fair. He wore a fitted grey tee that showed off his god-like physic, while those lounge pants hung dangerously off his hips. His long hair, tousled from sleep, hung in coils and waves around his face making a dark halo before falling in a silky black curtain to dust his shoulders. He’d just been sleeping but looked good. Damn good. Not that I thought he was handsome.
No, that hadn’t crossed my mind. Not last night on my knees, gazing into his mask of terrible beauty, and not right now, as he stood watching me.
I refused to notice.
Meanwhile, I probably looked as bad as I felt.
“The fever isn’t high, so I need to let it run its course,” I explained. “Thanks, though.”
Ivan frowned. “We have medicine. Why won’t you use it?”
I was too tired to explain. But he wasn’t letting this go. “I’ve been drinking tea. That’s what my body needs.”
“She’s got her garlic too. And honey!” Brady chimed in.
Ivan rubbed his chin. “My grandmother used those things.”
The comment was spoken softly, as if he were talking to himself.
“Your grandmother was a wise woman,” I offered and then coughed into my elbow.
Ivan’s gaze darkened. “She did what she had to because we didn’t have medicine. You have medicine and yet you won’t use it. You call that wise?”
“I do.” His skepticism wasn’t something I wanted to deal with right now. But I felt the argument rise within me, so I gave him the short version. “Everything we need is in nature. And our bodies are resilient. There’s something toxic in me that the fever is trying to purge. The body knows what to do, and we should help it, not hurt—”
More coughing racked my frame.
Brady pressed himself close to Ivan. “Tatko, is she going to be okay?”
Ivan roused himself, leaning down to pick up his son. “You’re a good doctor, and you’ve taken good care of your patient. She’s going to make a full recovery.”
“And then we can go to the zoo!” Brady beamed. “You’ll come too.”
Surprise flashed through the mobster’s savagely handsome face.
Not that I thought he was handsome.
But if a sculptor ever wanted inspiration for a god of old to be carved from marble—
Stop it. You’ve got to stop it.Those trails of thought were dangerous.
“I’ve never been to the zoo,” Ivan admitted softly, speaking only to the child.
But my heart seized tight on instinct. I loved the zoo as a child. We went at least once a month.
“You haven’t.” Brady’s eyes were wide. “Is it because you’re poor?”
“Brady!” I squeaked. If I wasn’t flushed already, the rise of heat to my face did the trick. Embarrassment swirled inside me. “Brady, we don’t talk about those things.”
“But you do.” He gave me a pointed look.
Heavens, why were children so damn oblivious. Just because they hadn’t learned social cues yet….
