Suddenly, Gavin was exhausted. “What did your mom tell you about shoving things in your body that don’t belong there?”
Molly choke-coughed.
“She said don’t put things in myself,” Kellan said, somberly.
“Do you know why she said that?” Gavin asked.
“So he wouldn’t stick a Skittle up by his eyeball?” Brady oh-so helpfully supplied.
“Exactly.” Gavin stared at his phone, considering briefly Googling How to Remove Skittles From a Nostril, but deciding that Dr. Google probably wasn’t the best line of defense. Usually, it just made things worse.
“Maybe you should do the Heimlich thingy?” Brady
suggested.
“He’s not choking,” Gavin said, turning the idea over in his head. No, pressing on the kid’s sternum wouldn’t dislodge something in his nose. “That won’t work.”
“Can I give you some advice?” Molly asked, and at least she didn’t sound like she was going to rub salt in his wounded fatherly pride.
He heaved a breath and gritted his teeth. “What would you advise?”
“Urgent care.” She lifted her eyebrows and gave him a gentle look, like he’d given it his best shot and shouldn’t be too hard on himself. “You’re gonna need someone with a license to pry that candy out.”
“Does that mean I have to get a shot?” Kellan asked, clearly not okay with this scenario.
“What if the Skittle seeps into his brain and it starts the zombie apocalypse?” Brady asked, eyes huge.
Ollie gave Brady a high five. “That’d be awesome.” Kellan looked like he was about to have a stroke. “Am I going to be a zombie? I don’t want to be a zombie. I’ll just get the shot.”
“No. No shots.” Gavin made a nix it motion to Brady with his finger and his throat. “And the Skittle won’t bother your brain.”
His ability to smell long term? That was yet to be determined.
“What’s going on?” Agnes asked, her date by her side. The man introduced himself as Charlie while Molly gave Agnes the briefest of rundowns. Turned out Molly was excellent at condensing a situation down into a seriously bite sized information chunk.
“Why would you do a fool thing like that?” Charlie asked Kellan, his fluffy eyebrows pulling together in a remarkably effective scowl.
Kellan pursed his lips and pointed to the other boys. “They dared me.”
“We didn’t think he’d actually do it,” Brady said. “Twice,” Ollie added. “The first one came out.”
Oh, yes, Gavin was getting tired. Fatherly fatigue was definitely setting in.
“If I did everything someone dared me to do, I’d have one testicle and half an ear,” Charlie said, gruffly.
Molly did not seem to like that. “Charlie?—”
“Make your own choices in life,” Charlie finished.
Apparently they were doing life lessons, Skittles edition. Gavin should probably take notes for later. Life lessons were always a good thing to record.
“I’m going to need a napkin,” Charlie announced, taking command like he was a general and they were ready for battle.
Gavin wasn’t sure what the guy had in mind, but he was pretty certain he didn’t have one of those license things Molly was going on about before.
“Dad.” Kellan gripped Gavin’s hand. “What’s he gonna do?”
Honestly? Gavin didn’t know. But he was probably willing to give whatever the napkin thing was a solid shot if it meant staying out of the urgent care.
