Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
We spend ten minutes getting things ready. The big bowl, a cold compress, and fresh pajamas on hand. When everything is as ready as it can be, Brady pulls me against him and kisses me, long and slow.
“You’ll never apologize to me again for being a mom.”
“It’s just such bad timing.” I drag my fingers down his cheek, enjoying the way the stubble feels on my skin, imagining the way it would have felt in other areas. “Rain check?”
“Rain, snow, sleet, hail…you name it.”
I laugh, and he kisses me again, and then I see the headlights through the window, and Brady pulls back from me.
“Let’s go get her,” he says.
The back passenger door flies open, and Daisy leans her head out and upchucks all over the snow, then immediately begins to cry.
“Oh, baby,” I hurry to her and scoop her up. She’s not a baby anymore, and she’s gotten heavier, so I’m grateful when Brady hurries over to take her from me. “Did she get the inside of your truck?”
“No,” Rem says, shaking his head. “She held it in until I pulled in here. I’d better head back. I’m pretty sure I have a mess waiting for me to help clean up.”
“Thanks for giving her a ride,” I say and notice the way Rem eyes Brady’s truck. Brady’s already inside with my daughter. “You’ll have to talk to him about this.”
“Plan to.” He grins at me and gets back into his truck. “Good luck.”
When I get inside, I hear Brady cooing to Daisy in the bathroom, where I hear her throwing up again, so I grab the cold compress and join them, placing it on the back of her neck.
“Mama,” she manages to get out as I kneel next to her.
“I know, baby. I’m so sorry. Do you need to throw up some more?”
Brady appears with a wet cloth and wipes her little face and lips, and Daisy shakes her head no.
“I don’t think so.”
“Okay. Let’s go snuggle on the couch.”
Brady lifts Daisy and gives her a ride to the living room, but Daisy shakes her head.
“I want to rock,” she says, her little voice weak.
“She’s always been a rocker,” I say with a small smile. “You can give her to me, and I’ll—”
But he’s already sitting in the chair, Daisy curled up against his chest, and they’re rocking back and forth.
“What else can I do?” he asks me, his voice hushed as Daisy starts to fall asleep.
“Will you just…stay?” I bite my lip, hating how vulnerable I sound, but he smiles at me over Daisy’s head.
“Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while,” he replies as he brushes his hand down her long hair.
“I’ll get some things, just in case.”
I bustle about, gathering the puke bowl, wet cloth, and cold compress and then pour a sports drink from the pantry—on hand for just these occasions—into a bottle with some ice so it’s cold, and set everything on the table next to Brady and Daisy, and then I lower myself onto the couch and rest my elbows on my knees, watching them.
Brady kisses the top of her head, rocking gently back and forth, back and forth.
“She’s already asleep,” he says in surprise.
“Throwing up’s hard work.” I offer him a half smile and then rub my hands down my face. “Hopefully, she’ll stay that way, but she’ll probably be in and out. Oh, I need to check for fever. I’ll be right back.”
I rush upstairs to Daisy’s bathroom and grab the thermometer, then return to them and point it at her forehead.
“One-oh-one,” I mutter. “Damn. We’ll keep an eye on that, and when she wakes up, I’ll give her some Tylenol.”
“Does she get sick very often?”
“Thankfully, no, but schools are cesspools of germs, so it happens a couple of times a year. I just hope that you don’t get sick.”
“I’m fine,” he says as I return to the couch and sit, then relax against the cushions, watching this handsome, sexy, sweet man rock my daughter. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
“Sure.” I bite my lip, hoping that he doesn’t ask something that I’ll have to lie about.
“Where’s her father?”
Nope. Don’t have to lie. “He passed away.” I pull my legs up under me and sit crisscross. “She wasn’t quite two yet, and her dad contracted pneumonia, and it got really bad. The infection spread through his body, and they couldn’t help him.”
Brady scowls and shakes his head. “That’s not what I was expecting. I thought you’d say that he took off at some point and hasn’t paid child support in years.”
I smile and shake my head. “No, Nate wouldn’t have done that. He was a good guy. Loved her to pieces. He was…comfortable.”
Brady raises an eyebrow at that, and I feel myself squirm.
“I don’t usually talk about him. In fact, I haven’t talked to Erin, Millie, and the others about him. They know he passed away, but that’s all.” I frown at the coffee table and then decide to just let the words come out. “Nate and I were best friends in school. I always wondered why he liked me so much. We were from opposite sides of the tracks, you know? His family was wealthy, and I didn’t have a family at all. I was in foster care. Maybe he thought he could help me or save me. Either way, we were really close, like I said. But never romantically. I was absolutely not Nate’s type of girl.”