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The soiled school clothes were already gone, so I just carried the bucket back in to Josh. Jeremy already had him set up in bed with a tray over his lap. I shook my head at the television. The kids didn’t have them in their rooms, but we did have one we could roll in when they were sick.
Their “shared” television was in the larger rec room. There they could watch movies, shows, or play video games. But we could also restrict it when necessary. Unsurprisingly, the Transformers movie was already on. I set the bucket down next to the bed.
“Will you stay and watch with me, Daddy?”
That was an impossible invitation to turn down. “Sure thing, bud. Jeremy can you let them…”
“Absolutely, Mr. Jake. Would you like anything to eat?”
“Probably not right now.” Especially since Josh was still pale. “But thank you.”
“Of course.”
Then he left us alone. Josh nibbled on a cracker and sipped his Sprite, but he didn’t rush through anything. I sprawled next to him and when he wanted to cuddle up, I wrapped him up and held him. We didn’t even make it to the halfway point and his eyes were heavy.
I eased him down and moved the food tray so he could lay comfortably. The door pushed inward and Frankie peeked in, worry plain on her face.
“He’s alright,” I said softly, I’d gotten him settled and I eased off the side of the bed as she crossed the room. She’d changed clothes and looked more comfortable. With gentle fingers, she brushed the dark hair off of Josh’s forehead.
“He’s still warm.”
“Yeah, low-grade fever now. Let’s get a little more food in him and keep it down and we can go for the kid aspirin if we need too.”
I slid my arms around her and settled my hands on the steadily firming bump. The arrival of a new bump was something we all enjoyed. Rubbing my cheek against the top of her head gently, I gave her a squeeze.
“I hate it when they’re sick,” she admitted. Not that she needed to remind me. Every single time one of them suffered, Frankie’s empathy poured out of her.
“I know, Baby Girl,” I whispered. “I hate it when you get sick too. So let’s ease out of here. If you haven’t already gotten it, I’d like to avoid you getting sick if we can.”
She rubbed her hand against the back of mine where I cradled her bump. “Izzy wants me to come cuddle, but Coop almost had her asleep too.”
“Good.” I pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Come on, they will be fine and we can turn on the intercom so we can hear him.”
Her soft sigh tugged at me as I drew her out of the room, just before I closed the door, I pressed the intercom to open it to downstairs. It meant we would be able to monitor. Before Izzy was born, we’d reworked the whole system so we could switch to broadcast and listen in different areas.
Down the hall, we peeked in on Izzy. Coop glanced at us from where he was tucking a sound asleep Izzy in. Like Josh, Izzy had a pail next to the bed. A television had been rolled into her room too. The movie was Fellowship of the Ring. She’d seen it so many times in the last year. It was her favorite.
Coop turned on her intercom before he closed the door. “Josh?”
“Fever still, low-grade. But he’s sleeping,” I told him.
We both looked at Frankie. “Charlie?”
“He seems fine so far, he’s outside playing with Archie. Jeremy was going to fix something light for lunch for all of us. Ian called, he’s coming back early.”
“He was meeting with the new producers, right?” I asked as we headed downstairs.
“Yep, we need a new tour manager and the producers were bringing in a few for Ian to meet.” Frankie smothered a yawn as she followed Coop down. He just took the step ahead of her like we’d practiced it. Then again, we kind of had. “But he doesn’t want to get stuck in Manhattan late, and he’d rather be here helping.”
“Sounds good.” The upcoming tour had been decided on before Frankie got pregnant, but it wasn’t like we were unaware of the attempts. We’d even tracked ovulation for a while.
“I’ll be serving lunch outside,” Jeremy told us pointedly.
“Do you want some help bringing it out?” I offered before Frankie did, but Coop was already herding her out the door to where Charlie’s laughter floated on the breeze.
“I’ll take care of it, Mr. Jake. Half of it is already waiting. I can also hear Miss Izzy and Mr. Josh if they need anything.”
“Thanks, Jeremy, seriously.” Having a lot of adult backup was amazing, but more kids meant more likelihood they all got something and shared it around.
