“What if her temperature spikes before then?”
“We monitor it. Take her clothes off to cool her down. Give her water if she’ll take it.”
Griffin immediately started unbuttoning Hazel’s sleep suit, his movements careful despite his obvious panic. His large hands worked the tiny buttons with infinite gentleness.
“There,” he said. “Better?”
Hazel did seem slightly more comfortable in just her nappy. Still too warm, but not quite radiating heat the way she had been.
“What else?” Griffin asked, his green eyes fixed on mine with desperate trust. “What else can we do?”
The way he looked to me for answers, like I was his anchor in the storm.
“We wait.”
“That’s it? We just sit here?”
Griffin’s leg bounced with nervous energy, and without thinking, I reached out and placed my hand on his knee. He tensed under my palm.
“I should research infant fevers,” he said, his voice rougher. “Figure out what else we might need to do.”
“You should stay calm.”
“I am calm.”
I raised a brow, letting my thumb trace a small circle against his kneecap. He drew in a deep breath.
“Fine, I’m not calm. My daughter is sick and I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Griffin, she’s going to be okay.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
“But what if it’s not? What if I’ve already failed her?”
The anguish in his voice cut through me. “You haven’t failed anyone.”
“I don’t know how to be a father. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“You called a doctor. You’re monitoring her temperature. You’re here.”
“That’s not enough.”
“It’s everything.”
He looked at me like he wasn’t sure whether to believe that, his eyes searching mine with an intensity that made my mouth dry.
Julian never nursed me through a fever. He had staff for that. To my father, I was nothing more than a project to be managed. But Griffin looked at Hazel like she was precious, irreplaceable. Like losing her would break him completely.
What would it be like to be loved like that? To know someone would move heaven and earth to protect you?
“I don’t know how to be what she needs.”
“You think I do? I read textbooks, but I’ve never had a baby spike a fever in my arms before. I’ve never been this terrified that I might lose someone.”
“But you’re calm?—”
