Page 47 of Mountain Men’s Nanny

I touched Lexi’s face. She was much warmer than she had been, lethargic and drowsy. If we didn’t help her, it would become dangerous.

Gideon hurried away, and before I knew it, he was back with a box full of bandages, pill bottles, and medicine. I rummaged through it and brought out a bottle of ibuprofen. Of all the medical supplies, it was the only thing that might help us, and still it wasn’t enough.

“Is there anything else?” I asked desperately. I scratched around the box a bit more, hoping to find a miracle. It wasn’t there.

Gideon looked down at his boots and shook his head. “I… I bought what I thought we’d need. I didn’t know.”

The living room was quiet. I gave Lexi the medicine and just sat there.

Gunner paced the room, searching the bookshelf and the box of board games. He was antsy, panicking in a way I had seen many parents act at the hospital. He wanted to do something, help in someway even though he knew there really wasn’t anything he could do. There was nothing there for him to find. No one tried to stop him. We all felt the same way. We just had to wait it out and hope the ibuprofen would be enough somehow.

Lexi was falling asleep on the couch, exhausted from the long walk and waiting to be found in the snow. I imagined what she had gone through, tried to remember if I might have been too preoccupied to hear her shouting for help. I hadn’t heard a thing. I hadn’t imagined Lexi could have been gone until we all realized she actually was. I walked away to the kitchen. I didn’t want to cry in front of everyone, especially not in front of Lexi.

I stood by the sink, looking out into the woods; evening was creeping into the sky. I was grateful Lexi had been found quickly. It could have been worse, but I was still afraid. She was burning up.

“Hey,” Tobias wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me into him.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, burying my face in his chest. “I should have been watching her. I shouldn’t have let myself get distracted.”

Tobias rubbed my back in comforting reassurance. He held me for a while, quietly comforting me until my shoulders stopped shaking.

“I’m so glad you were there. I don’t know what we would have done without you here to help Lexi,” he said quietly. “We didn’t even know what medicines we needed in the medicine box, but now that you’re here…” He kissed my forehead.

I looked up at Tobias, searching his face for the blame I had already prepared to have fired my way. It wasn’t there. All I could see in his eyes was gratitude and pleading.

Gunner came into the kitchen, car keys in hand. “We can still make it to the 24-hour pharmacy if we leave now,” he said dryly. “I can take Brie to make sure we get everything we need.”

I nodded solemnly and made to follow Gunner out, but Tobias pulled me back.

“I’ll go too,” Tobias said. “Gideon? Can you watch her?”

Gideon agreed. He was already sitting next to Lexi, pushing her hair away from her forehead.

We walked out behind Gunner into the cold evening air. The sky was growing dark fast.

“I can’t raise her on my own,” Tobias said, holding my hand.

I looked up at him. He was pleading.

“Gunner and Gideon love Lexi almost as much as you do,” I assured him.

“I know,” he sighed. “But you do, too. I can’t do this without you. None of us can.”

Gunner started the car, ready to go as soon as we climbed in, but Tobias wouldn’t budge.

“We need you,” he said.

23

Emergency Supplies

~

Gunner

Brie slid in next to me with Tobias squeezing in to the front next to her. It had become the natural order of things: Brie sandwiched between us.

This was a different kind of trip, though. I couldn’t think of a single thing to make the mood lighter, so I stayed quiet. We all did. I threw the car into gear and pushed it as fast as it could go through the snow. I navigated the sleet and the snow, along with the debris that had blown onto the road. No one else knew these roads like I did; they didn’t know this car like I did either. This was my one thing. I could contribute too.