I shot him the most reassuring smile possible and angled away, focusing on my phone. When I heard him leave the room, I hit my mom’s number and headed to my walk-in pantry so Eddie wouldn’t figure out how out of my depth I was.
“Hey, beautiful boy. You were so amazing last night.”
The sound of my mom’s voice relaxed my shoulders and had me releasing a steadying breath. “Hey, Mom.”
“What’s wrong?”
I huffed out a laugh and shook my head, not for the first time wondering how she did that. “I think Lottie has an infection maybe, and I don’t know who I’m meant to call. Like, do I just take her to the hospital, call Doc Mathius, find a pediatrician, what?” As I spoke, my words became gradually faster, anxiety pitching them higher than usual.
Fuck, just this morning Eddie said he fell for me because I was all cool and collected or some shit, yet here I was beginning to freak the fuck out. If he saw me, would he change his mind, figure out I wasn’t the man he thought I—
“Hey, Pearce, take a deep breath for me.”
I did so, only wincing slightly that I had to call my mom to get me to sort my shit out. So much for fucking adulting.
“Why do you think she has an infection?”
“Eddie said her wound from surgery is all red. Plus she’s sore and was in pain last night. She had a nightmare, and from the state of her bedsheets, I think she’d been wrestling an alligator or something.”
“Does she have a temperature?”
“I don’t know. We haven’t checked.”
“Okay, well before doing anything, check that first. You have a thermometer, right?”
She knew I did since when I left home, she and dad had hooked me up with a mammoth-sized first aid kit. Not that I blamed them from the years of mischief and minor scrapes I’d been getting myself into. “Yeah.”
“Okay, get that first, then call your doctor’s office. But if she has a fever and is in pain, more than her normal soreness, perhaps skip all that and take her to urgent care.”
Releasing a breath, I rubbed a hand over my face. “Okay. I can do that.”
“I know you can, Pearce. Do you have training today?”
“Yeah. In a couple of hours.”
Silence filled the line for a few long moments. “It’s important you go to training. You have your next game coming up.”
My jaw locked, hating she was right and wanting to argue. If Lottie had to go to the hospital, then how could I just train and behave like everything was okay?
“I can hear your brain thinking overtime there, but Pearce, this is your job. Lottie has her dad, which means she’s going to be just fine.”
But what about Eddie?The question swirled around my brain. Who’d be there to make sure he was okay?
I sighed heavily, pissed that I was getting way ahead of myself. Lottie may not even have a temperature, let alone an infection. “I know, Mom. It’s just hard.”
Mom’s voice gentled—she’d pretty much figured out how I felt about Eddie and Lottie, without her ever asking or me ever confirming. “It is, but trust him to do his job, and you focus on yours, okay? Eddie is the last person who’d want you not to be ready. Actually,” she said with a quiet chuckle, “make that Lottie. If you don’t play your absolute best game, she’ll make her feelings known.”
The truth of her words tugged a smile from me. Mom was a big Lottie fan, having met her a handful of times over the past few years.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Anytime, honey. Just call if you need me or your dad, okay?”
“Okay.”
“And let me know how she gets on.”
“Will do.”
