“Mais,” I warned, taking a careful step forward. Then I heard Emma answer in a strained voice.
“Not feeling so hot, Maisie-doodle. I have a migraine.”
Shit. “I’ll be right back,” I said. “Hold on.”
I went to the bathroom to wet a washcloth with cold water. When I returned, Maisie was sitting on the futon beside Emma. After hesitating a moment longer, I crossed the small room. Emma blinked up at me, hair spread over her pillow and her blankets pulled up to her chin. She looked too pale in the daylight bleeding through the blinds of her window.
“Thought you could use this.” I held out the cold washcloth. With a grateful sigh, she took it and draped it over her forehead.
“Thanks.”
“Are you nauseous?” I asked.
“Yeah. Trying to lie still.”
“We have saltines.”
“I can get them.” Maisie jumped up and ran for the kitchen. I hovered there, contemplating what else I could do.
“How’d you know about the cold compress?” Emma asked. “Do you get migraines?”
“Lori used to. When she was stressed.”
“That’s a trigger for me too. Also crying. Did plenty of that yesterday.”
“Need to cancel your music classes this morning?”
She grimaced. “Ugh, yeah.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can handle it. You use that sign-up app, right?”
Emma unlocked her phone, and I navigated to the app to send a cancelation message to everyone who’d registered. Bythen, Maisie had returned with a small plate of saltine crackers, and also a glass of orange juice that was precariously full.
“Thank you both. I just need a little quiet and dark and rest. I’ll probably be doing better this afternoon.”
“Don’t worry about going anywhere until you’re well.”
Maisie tugged at my shirt. “Daddy, shouldn’t we stay with Emma today?”
I was feeling the same thing. But there wasn’t much we could do for Emma except let her rest. I’d been through this same thing with Lori.
Maisie had day camp this morning. I had a training session with Elias.
Emma bit the corner of a saltine. “I promise I’m fine.Pleasedon’t cancel your plans because of me. That’ll make me feel even worse.”
That settled it. “Come on, Mais. Let’s get ready. Stella will be here with her. We’ll be back this afternoon.” I steered her out of the room. Maisie pouted as she got dressed and sat down for breakfast.
Just before we left, I brought Emma a cup of hot tea. She was asleep, so I left the mug on the table by the bed.
“We shouldn’t have left her,” Maisie said with a dramatic frown, little arms crossed in the backseat on our way to camp drop-off. Yep, she was mad at me.
“Sometimes grown-ups have to take care of themselves.”
“But you helped Emma when you brought her to live with us. ’Cause her partment was leaking. That was taking care of her, wasn’t it?”
“I was trying to. Yeah.”
“Then why won’t you take care of her now?”
