Her hands tremble as she lifts it to her mouth. I keep a hand underneath it in case she loses her grip.
Watching the simple task of Greer drinking calms so many of the worries I’ve been carrying.
“What happened? Why am I here?”
“Your power went out,” Creed explains from where he’s sitting cross-legged on the bed facing her. “It got colder than the weather forecasted. You couldn’t get the generator on.”
“I kept pushing the button like Rothswyler showed me. It would light up, but nothing went on.”
“When nothing went on, why didn’t you come over here?” That question feels more like an accusation than an actual question, but it’s more on me than her.
“Because both of you were acting so weird. It was like you went from hot to cold in the flip of a switch, but Creed went too. I don’t know. It seemed like suddenly you didn’t want anything to do with me. So I just added a few logs into the fireplace and got into bed to wait it out. The power was only supposed to be out for a few hours.”
“It’s still out. According to the emergency weather station on the radio, the blizzard stalled out on top of us. Instead of two feet, we’re going to get four or five.”
“Five feet?” She lifts the cup to her mouth and drinks. “Has it stopped yet?”
“No, but it should soon. As soon as conditions clear up, we’ll get a doctor out here to check on you.”
“The baby! How is my baby?” One of Greer’s hands falls away from her cup and goes to her abdomen.
“We don’t know. You don’t have any signs of frostbite. And you didn’t get ‘that’ cold. The baby is probably fine. But we won’t know until Leech gets here.”
Tears fill her eyes.
They make me want to risk these conditions to find out for her, but the best thing I can do is what I’ve been doing.
A bell chimes quietly on Creed’s phone. “Time for a new towel.” He hops off the bed and dashes out of the room.
“Why don’t I have clothes on?” she whispers.
“It’s safer to warm you up without them. Yours were covered with sweat, and a warm towel on the center of your body helps to get you warmer faster.” I reach over for the thermometer and swipe it across her head. “You’re up to ninety-seven. We can probably put a light blanket on you, but you need to tell me if you feel at all sweaty.” There are several blankets waiting on the foot of the bed for when she’s ready for them.
Gently, I place the blanket over her and kneel back down.
“Here’s your towel.” Creed hops up and folds himself up as he sits back across from her.
“Let me do it. We don’t want your hands to get too warm yet.” With my eyes averted, I removed the old towel and replace it with the new one before recovering her.
“Mmmm. That feels so good. Thank you. Both of you for taking such good care of me.”
Creed nods. “Greer, why didn’t you tell us about the baby?”
Subtle. Really subtle.
Though that isn’t really Creed’s thing. Or mine.
She shrugs. “I thought about it a dozen times. And every time, nothing came out. I’ve had a hard time believing he exists myself. How do I explain him to others when I can’t always do it to myself?”
Creed reaches out and takes her hand. I wish I could do the same, but Greer isn’t mine. And pretending she is would only hurt more.
“You could have trusted us.”
She glances down at the blanket and my hand sitting there inches from hers. “Was I imagining things? Or were you two acting weird all weekend?”
Creed looks at me. I guess it’s time to have that conversation. “We saw you.”
Boo
