“I expected her to wake us up early to open presents, not the contents of her stomach,” Rowan agreed. Jordy snorted in his ear. “It’s fine, hey? We’ll improvise. Turkey soup instead of a roast.” Though if he was going to make stock, he’d better get to roasting.
“There’s just three of us,” Jordy said. “I bought a chicken.”
“Even better.”
While Jordy went to check Kaira’s fever, Rowan spatched the chicken and put it in the oven to roast. He might as well; chicken soup was a cure-all whether it was ten in the morning or seven at night.
He would’ve liked to curl up on the couch next to Jordy, but with Kaira sleeping on it, there wasn’t room, so he made himself comfortable on a pillow on the floor and leaned back against Jordy’s legs to read a book while Jordy scrolled on his phone.
“Emma says Merry Christmas,” Jordy murmured sometime later.
Marking the page with his finger, Rowan looked up from his book and smiled. “Tell her I say it back.”
“She also sends her condolences for the demised cheer,” he added as he tapped out Rowan’s answer.
Rowan snorted. “Kind of her. But I don’t know, could be worse.”
Jordy groaned softly. “Why would you say that? Don’t tempt fate.”
“It’s not tempting fate. I just think some people are having a worse holiday than us. There’s bound to be someone, right?”
Jordy shook his head and regarded Rowan with a bemused smile. Then he leaned forward and kissed Rowan’s nose. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too.” Because Rowan wouldn’t rather be anywhere else this Christmas, vomit and all. Though he’d really been looking forward to the magic of secondhand delight and watching Kaira tear into her presents.
When he voiced this sentiment aloud, Jordy snorted. “She’ll still do that. We’ll know she’s feeling better when she starts ripping wrapping paper.”
They were watchingIt’s a Wonderful Lifeon very low volume—thank goodness for closed captioning—when Kaira woke up a second time. They were able to get some Tylenol, Pedialyte, and a banana into her easily enough, since her stomach seemed more settled. She snuggled between them and watched the last half hour of the movie, by which point her fever had subsided enough that she almost perked up.
“Should we see what Santa left in your stocking?” Jordy asked, and she perked up even more, though not enough to get off the couch.
Jordy fetched the stockings from the fireside and brought all three over. Rowan wasn’t surprised to find his just as stuffed as Kaira’s, since no six-year-old would understand Santa forgetting one of her adults. Still, he hadn’t expected this lapful of gifts.
Kaira’s eyes nearly popped out as she took in her overflowing stocking. “That’s all for me?”
“Yup, all for you, poppet.” Rowan snuck a kiss to her head because he could.
Jordy was apparently a traditionalist when it came to stockings, as it was full of small necessities as well as toys—Disney toothbrush and toothpaste, animal-shaped Lip Smackers, armadillo socks (which Rowan was amazed existed), unicorn underpants (which didn’t surprise him), rainbow barrettes, crayons and a coloring book, stickers, and some candy. Kaira marveled over every new find, but the best part was undoubtably the brand-new Bilbo the Armadillo book—Bilbo the Armadillo Hosts Christmas. Naturally, both Rowan and Jordy had to read it to her immediately.
After one read-through each, Kaira noticed their untouched stockings and demanded to see what was in them, so Rowan let her pull out each item and inspect it. If Jordy wanted to give him something not child-appropriate, he wouldn’t have given Rowan the stocking in front of Kaira. She pulled out pairs of fun socks, lip balm, some nice pens, a travel notebook, toothbrush and toothpaste, and an array of packaged snacks and candies not usually for sale this side of the pond. Rowan was delighted by the Hobnobs, but he’d found those here before.
“Where did you find Twirls and Flakes?” he demanded. “Or the Branstons?” He waved the jar of pickle at Jordy, who shrugged like it was no big deal.
“I found a local shop that stocks British food.”
“I,” Rowan said magnanimously, “am not going to think about how much this stupid jar was marked up, and instead I’m going to eat every delicious bite before I fly out of town.”
Jordy’s smile twitched and dimmed a fraction, but only for a moment. He rallied with a laugh. “I’ll remind you of that next week, if and when you fail.”
“I won’t!”
“What is it?” Kaira asked, curious.
“Pickled vegetables. It’s a type of relish.”
“Gross,” Kaira said with feeling, pulling a face.
“Yeah, you probably wouldn’t like it. Me, on the other hand? I’m going to eat so many cheese-and-pickle sandwiches.”
