Feels like Rain (Lake Fisher #3) - Tammy Falkner Page 0,66

see if I can get her an appointment,” Katie tells me. “I’ll text you a time.” She turns to face me again after she settles Abigail under the covers. “You’re okay with taking her?”

“Well, I’m not sure what Jake has for me to do today,” I prevaricate. But deep inside I know if I don’t get to take her, I’m going to be pissed.

“Nothing critical. Take care of her. That’s your number one priority. Everything else can wait.” She brushes Abigail’s hair from her forehead and lingers there for a moment, testing to see if she has a fever. “She’s still pretty warm.” She picks up the rolling thermometer and runs it along Abigail’s forehead. “One-oh-two-point-four. It’s never fun to be sick when you’re all alone,” Katie says quietly, more to Abigail than to me.

I carry the little TV tray that I’d set up to the bed. It’s one of the same trays that Abigail and I used to eat from when her grandmother would let us eat on the couch. It’s a metal tray with Loony Tunes characters on it. I open the legs of the tray, set it across Abigail’s lap, and pick up the spoon.

“I can do it,” she says. I hand her the spoon.

“Well, I’m going to go call the doctor,” Katie says. “I’ll text you in a little bit, Ethan.”

“Sounds good,” I say. “And thanks.”

Abigail is still sitting there holding the spoon but not eating, and she looks like just sitting is wearing her out. I take the spoon back and load it up. I open my mouth as I get the spoon close to hers like I did with Mitchell when he was a baby. She rolls her eyes at me, but she eats. And then she eats a couple of toast points and about half the soup by herself.

Her jaw starts to quiver. “I’m so cold,” she says. She starts to pull the covers up under her chin, but it makes the tray rock so I quickly pick it up and move it off the bed. Then I force some more fever reducers on her, while she complains the whole while, but she finally takes them.

“What can I do to help you?” I ask.

“Nothing,” she whispers, her voice hoarse.

“Want me to get in with you?”

Her eyes meet mine. “Would you?”

Every survivalist magazine ever written has touted the benefits of sharing body heat. Like I needed that excuse.

“Of course.” I walk around the bed, and she rolls to face away from me. “How close do you want me?” I ask her, unsure about how intimate she wants this to be.

“As close as you can get.” Her teeth chatter.

I practically wrap myself around her, one arm over her waist as I pull her back against me.

“Can you take your shirt off?” she asks quietly.

“Yeah.” I pull it over my head and pull her back against me again. She hums out a sigh of contentment.

“That’s so much better,” she says. Her jaw is still quivering, and although she feels warm to me, I can tell she’s not. I reach down and lift the back of her shirt so that we’re front to back, and she lets out a sigh. “Even better,” she whispers.

My phone dings from its place on the nightstand. I roll over, pick it up, and look at it. It’s just Katie telling me the address and that the appointment is at twelve-thirty. I text her back really quickly so she knows I got it. Then I wrap myself around Abigail again.

“We have to go to the doctor at twelve-thirty,” I say quietly.

“Okay.” She lifts her head about an inch and stares at the sheets. “Did you change the sheets?”

“The other ones were gross.”

“I’m going to owe you big time after all this,” she says quietly and settles down again.

I smooth her hair down between us so that the curly strands aren’t going up my nose. “You don’t owe me anything.” I lean forward and press a kiss to her shoulder, lingering there long enough to smell the lemon scent of her. “This is the most fun I’ve had in a really long time.”

“Your life must have been shit for the past few years then.”

Yeah, it was. But it’s not right now.

After a minute or two, her teeth stop chattering. I try to lift my arm from around her and roll away, but she grabs my arm and whispers, “No, please stay.”

So I stay. I stay so long that I fall asleep holding her.

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