My smile fades as I stare up at her. Holly is not the nursing type. I suspect she’d rather gnaw off her foot than play nursemaid, yet she’s here. While we’ve agreed not to see other people while we explore our connection, this goes above and beyond that. This thing with Holly has become something deeper than I planned, but I don’t find myself objecting.
I start to think about what that could mean for us, but I stop myself. I don’t have the mental energy, and I don’t want to set myself up for future failure.
“You stink,” she says. “Go take a shower, and then you get to spin the roulette wheel and see which of the ABCs you get to eat first.”
I stand to do as she says, and throw a glance at Jane, who is sitting at the table, spooning applesauce out of a small plastic container. “She’s not lying,” Jane says, bobbing her head. “She really made one with a paper clip and a folder.”
Holly makes an aw-shucks expression. “It was a slow day at work. It was either make one for the kids, giving them options to create weapons of mass destruction for their avatars, or do the ABCs for you two. You won the coin flip.”
I turn my back to Jane and catch Holly’s gaze, whispering, “Liar.”
She grins. “Be sure to washeverywhere.”
I shuffle to the bathroom and shower, trying not to think about showering with Holly. When I emerge from behind the shower curtain ten minutes later, I’m surprised to see a pair of sweatpants, boxer briefs, and a T-shirt folded on the bathroom counter.
After I dress and brush my teeth, I walk into the living room and find Jane sitting on the sofa with pillows piled around her. She’s watching the Disney Channel, and there’s no sign of Holly.
My heart squeezes, and I force out, “Did Holly leave?” She shouldn’t really be here in the first place, not with Jane here and definitely not when she can catch this from us, but a zing of panic hits me at the possibility that she might be gone.
“In here,” she calls out from my bedroom. A few seconds later, she walks out with an armload of bedding. “You now have fresh sheets and bedding.”
“Holly…” I can’t believe she’s done this.
She shoots me a glare. “Stop. It’s not that big of a deal. I can’t have my star pupil laying in sweat-soaked sheets.”
I nearly tell her she hasn’t taught me anything yet, but I bite it back. She’s talking about Jane, of course, and my daughter probably already thinks it’s weird that Holly’s here. I’m not sure how I’m going to explain it.
“I let Jane spin the wheel for you,” Holly says as she heads toward the laundry room closet. “You won bananas.”
“It’s true,” Jane says, keeping her attention on the cheesy sitcom she loves.
“I’m not eating a banana,” I say, my tone more forceful than I’d intended.
“Calm down,” Holly says nonchalantly “I cut it up into bite-size pieces. It’s on the coffee table.”
Sure enough, there’s a bowl with banana slices and a fork. I sit down next to my daughter, grab the bowl, and take a tentative bite. After the first couple of pieces go down and seem to settle, I eat a few more.
Holly walks back into the living room, her hair askew and a stain on her T-shirt. I’m not sure what it’s from, but I hope it’s not from something in my room. As hard as Jane and I tried to make it to the toilet, we had a few misses that mostly hit the bowl.
“Well,” she says, sounding uncertain as she twists her hands in front of her stomach. “Now that you two seem to be back in the land of the living, I’m going to take off.”
“No,” Jane protests, breaking her gaze from the TV and turning to face Holly. “Do youhaveto?”
“You need to go to bed soon, and so does your dad. I’ll check on you two tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay,” Jane says, sounding dejected.
“Cheer up,” Holly says. “I’ll be back to give you your private tutoring lessons.” She holds a finger up to her lips. “But don’t tell the other kids. It’s our secret.”
“We’re not supposed to have secrets,” Jane says, sounding serious, but there’s a playful glint in her eyes. She’s trying to play Holly.
Holly stops to consider Jane’s statement. “True, but what they don’t know won’t hurt them.” Then she walks out the door without a backward glance.
Funny how she’s only been here twice and the apartment feels emptier with her gone.
Jane looks up at me. “Why did Holly come over to take care of us?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly, because it really is the last thing I expected from her.
