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He walked over and climbed into the bed with me. I inhaled his scent and closed my eyes—for some reason, Nolan always smelled slightly of autumn fields.
“What’s wrong, Janey?” he asked into my neck, where he had nuzzled his face.
“I’m just worried about Liam. If I don’t make it, he’s going to have a very hard time. I don’t want him to blame himself. Especially when there’s nothing he can do about it,” I confided.
“What makes you think you’re going anywhere?” he asked, tightening his grip around my waist.
“Nothing really. I just… if anything happens, will you please look out for Liam and Stella? They’re both going to be destroyed.”
“Promise.”
I intertwined my fingers with his and turned my face to look at him. He was looking at me with a sad smile and I leaned over and kissed him softly.
“Thank you.”
“Can I ask you something?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Who’s going to look out for me if something happens to you?”
Truth be told, I hadn’t thought about that. I figured he was an adult and he’d be able to mourn and move on.
“Not to sound callous,” I started slowly, “But you’ll forget about me eventually. They won’t.”
He let out a scoff and rolled onto his back. He pulled his arm away from me and stared at the ceiling for a moment before speaking again.
“Speaking of forgetting about you,” he said, slightly bitterly, “I have something I want to do for you. Or should I just leave now and start ‘forgetting’?”
I turned on my side and looked at him.
“Nolan, they’re children. All I meant is that it’s going to be way harder on them than anyone else. Including my parents. And this is even if I go anywhere, which I have no plans of doing,” I said, becoming frustrated.
“Promise me that you won’t,” he said suddenly.
I stayed quiet. That wasn’t something I could promise because I wasn’t sure about it.
“Janey. Promise me,” he said again.
I nodded. “Promise.”
He sat up and began to fish around in his pockets until he found what he was looking for. When he found it, he stood up and went to the other side of the bed and carefully sat me up.
“Rabbit! Nugget! Come here please!” he called out.
Stella came running in with fresh flowers from Mom’s garden and Liam, still red faced, came in holding a big box.
Nolan grinned at them, and they sprang into action. They climbed the bed, and each stood up behind me to help me sit up without feeling much pain and held their gifts on either side of me.
“Ready!” they said together.
I looked at them suspiciously. They both wore big grins on their faces; even Liam.
“MOMMY! DADDY! COME ON!” Stella bellowed.
“You’ve got quite a set of lungs on you,” I said, wincing.
She giggled and I smiled.
