“The older boys are big enough to take care of themselves, but sometimes…” Chris trailed off and looked meaningfully at Beth.
“Why don’t we babysit tonight? Give you and Dale a chance to get some rest?”
Chris smiled. “Would you mind?”
“We’d love it.”
Chris kissed his cheek. “Thank you. I’ll drop her by at six. Love you, Josh. You’re still a good egg.” Then Chris was gone, his long hair blowing out behind him and his skinny ass swishing back and forth like a broom. Beth waved goodbye over Chris’s shoulder, and Joshua blew her a kiss.
Sometimes he was sad that he and Lee had never made a family together. They’d talked about adopting early on, but Lee had been resistant to the idea. After a small argument, the truth had come out. Lee admitted that he felt too guilty to have a child of his own when he still blamed himself for his sister losing hers. No matter how irrational the guilt was, it lingered, and Lee couldn’t escape it.
Joshua understood that. He still felt guilty that he hadn’t been there that morning when Magic jerked free of her leash and darted into the road. Hadn’t been there to stop Neil from following her…
As he headed toward his car, he called Lee to let him know about the change in their plans and his agreement to look after Beth that night. Even though Lee didn’t want kids of his own, he loved babies, and Joshua knew they’d enjoy Beth for the night.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” Joshua said when Lee picked up the phone still sounding groggy. “Time to wake up!”
Lee groaned gently.
“I ran into Chris. He asked us to look after Beth tonight.”
“Mmm, ’kay.”
“Make sure Sam gets to school on time.”
Lee grumbled under his breath, but Joshua could tell he was getting up. “Weren’t you helping your grandpa run Stouder Lumber by his age? Can’t he get himself up?”
Joshua laughed. “Not quite. I was a little bit older. Besides, you know he’s a night owl.”
“Yeah, well, whatever. I’m exhausted this morning.”
Joshua frowned. They hadn’t done anything strenuous the night before, not with Sam by the bed. It seemed like Lee was complaining lately more and more often of exhaustion.
Joshua chewed on his bottom lip.
Lee had been one of the first to receive the original prototype nanite treatments, and there had been quite a few unknowns associated with those early trials. On the surface, everything appeared to be fine—the nanites had repaired his scars. But some patients who’d undergone the same nanite therapy with the same early prototypes were beginning to show indications of problems. The nanites hadn’t behaved as they were supposed to. The tiny robots, instead of doing their work and then dissolving, had become ‘overzealous,’ as some reports described it, sticking around to ‘repair’—aka destroy—perfectly healthy tissue elsewhere in the body. This often led to sudden collapse and, in several cases, death.
Joshua hesitated. They’d argued about whether or not Lee needed to see a doctor just a few days before when he’d been too tired to go to work. Lee had insisted he was fine, and it wasn’t big deal. He claimed he was just rundown from work, and that Joshua was worrying too much. While Joshua was starting to have his doubts, he also hated to start their day with another argument.
Deciding to talk about it over dinner, he said instead, “Well, should I cancel on watching Beth tonight?”
On the other end of the connection, Lee moaned, gasped, and made a strange sound.
“What’s wrong?” Joshua abandoned his resolve to wait until dinner and turned on the car, pointing it toward home. “Are you okay?”
“It’s fine,” Lee said, still gasping a little. “It’s nothing. No worries, oh-husband-of-mine.”
Joshua felt a nagging doubt. Suddenly, the dream of Neil seemed like an omen. “Was it that pain again? In your chest? Did you ask the doctors about that, Lee? You said you would.”
“It was nothing. I pulled a muscle working out. That’s all.”
Joshua swallowed and kept driving toward home. “Last time you were in for a checkup, didn’t you ask them to do a blood test? Did they make sure the nanites had dissolved the way they’re supposed to? Those early prototypes—”
Lee cut him off. “I’ll drop by the doctor’s office and ask them when I go into Bowling Green on Monday. All right?”
Joshua wanted to push for him to call about it now, but he knew Lee was stubborn and an agreement to go in on Monday was better than expected.
“Babe, I’m not blowing it off,” Lee said gently. “But I know my body, and I’m fine.”
