“Emma, it’s me. It’s George.”
“Oh,” she collapsed with relief right back down to his chest, and over the sound of their heavy breathing he listened to see if they’d awoken the whole house.
“Never scare me like that again,” she whispered. Her heart was pounding, and he felt it slow a little, to about the pace of his heart, though his was starting to pick up the longer she stayed on top of him.
Her head cocked to the side like a little bird. “Nobody’s crying.”
She was right.
They both squinted in the dark in the direction of the bedroom and saw two little people staring at them from the bed where they were kneeling at the edge.
Emmy giggled. “Are you two gonna kiss?”
Johnny covered his eyes.
“Well, that’s one way to stop him from crying.” Emma crawled off of George and rubbed her chin. “That rattled my jaw pretty good. How’s your head?”
He hadn’t noticed the throbbing with his attention elsewhere, but when he felt the top of his head, there was a nice goose egg, painful to the touch, from where his head hit the hallway baseboard.
Emma reached up and felt his head, too. He froze, not wanting to even wince. The last time she’d tried to touch his hair he’d pulled away from her, and he had seen the hurt it caused. He couldn’t give her any more mixed signals. It wasn’t good for either of them. Being this close to her was its own special kind of torture, but it didn’t change that they couldn’t be together. His head knew it, even if his heart was having trouble accepting it.
“Back to bed, you two,” George said as soon as Emma stepped away from him. He exaggeratingly lifted his knees and tiptoed into the bedroom with his arms out like some cartoon villain, stalking the kids until they giggled and slid off the bed, squealing and looking for places to hide.
“George, they’re never going back to sleep now.”
He lifted up a corner of the quilt covering the bed, pretending to look for them. “Probably not. What’s the plan?”
Emma yawned. “Johnny wanted water.” She squeezed her eyes shut and blinked. “That’s where I was headed when you clobbered me.”
George resisted the urge to pull her into a hug. She looked so tired. “I’ll get him water, and I’ll take them into the den and turn on a show. I saw you had a hot air balloon channel the other day. Did you know that? Nothing but scenes of hot air balloons floating by. They’ll love it. You go back to bed and try to get some decent sleep. At seven, we’ll switch.”
She was tired enough that she didn’t fight him on it.
***
Emma sat straight up in bed and covered her ear. What had just happened? A bad dream?
But then Johnny’s quiet giggling alerted her to his presence. He was crouching by the side of her bed, and she reached out a hand and felt his little head.
“Johnny, did you stick your finger in my ear? Where’s George?”
“Aseep.”
Of course he was. Emma threw back her covers and took Johnny’s little hand as they walked down the hall and into the den. Both Emmy and George were asleep, while the TV still showed images of hot air balloons flying over a meadow.
“How long have you been awake?” Emma whispered to Johnny. “Are you hungry for breakfast?”
“I ate.” Johnny tugged on her arm and led her into the kitchen. He proudly pointed to the open bread box and the stool he’d pushed over there to get up on the counter. He’d helped himself to the middles of several pieces of bread, leaving the crusts and the open bread bag half dumped out.
“What else have you been up to?” Emma asked. She glanced at the microwave clock. Six thirty. Depending on whether Johnny ever fell back to sleep at all, that was a lot of time for mischief.
“I was wet.” He pointed to his pajama pants. They were on backward, and he was sporting a bit of a plumber’s crack.
“Where’s your diaper?” Emma’s eyes widened.
Johnny shrugged. “I take it off.” He snapped the waistband of his pajama pants and grinned, clearly pleased he’d been able to put the pajamas back on himself after ditching the diaper.
Emma picked him up, relieved that his pajama pants were still dry, and carried him back to the den. She searched the large duffle bag John had brought in with the kids until she found the diapers. Mid-diaper change, she glanced at the couch and realized George was no longer there.
