After a little bit more thought about it, I decided to accept she was just in love with the whole franchise and was an ordinary little girl, and I rinsed out my mouth and put my toothbrush down, hoping they wouldn’t throw it out. I liked that I had a toothbrush at their house now, even if it was because I’d been sick.
“Bond?” Heidi called through the door. “Are you feeling better?”
Now that was embarrassing. There was poor little Nemi, genuinely sick, and she was checking up on me because I was a sympathetic puker. Awesome!
Opening the door, I smiled as hard as I could, but it dropped almost immediately when I saw how pale Nemi was as she held onto her mom.
“You still feeling bad, pumpkin?” When she just nodded, I tried hard to think of something that’d make her smile. I wasn’t used to a quiet, pale Nemi. “I love your toothpaste and toothbrushes, by the way. I need to get some for my place.”
“You can come and live with us and share mine,” she whispered weakly. “I don’t mind.”
Then, not giving either of us any warning, she lunged toward me and did some sort of mid-air maneuver that transferred her from her mom’s arms to mine. Fortunately, I caught her before she could drop to the ground, but it’s unlikely she would have, given that she’d already hooked a leg around me and had clamped her arms around my neck by the time I realized what she was doing.
“You want to brush your teeth before you get into bed?” I asked her softly, staring wide-eyed at Heidi with shock over the top of Nemi’s head.
“It never ceases to amaze me how fast kids can move when they want to,” she snickered.
Rubbing her face into my shoulder, Nemi mumbled, “Yeah,” so I took her through to the bathroom and put toothpaste on the toothbrush sitting in a holder on the side.
“That might be the first time she’s ever brushed her teeth without making a fuss first,” Heidi said as Nemi went to town doing it. “The toothbrushes and toothpaste went a long way to getting her to do it, but she’s never once done it without even a little bit of argument first.”
“You better keep me around, then.” I winked and grinned, only partly joking.
By the time she was done with her teeth, Nemi was almost asleep on her feet, so I carried her through to her room and left while her mom tucked her in and made sure she was okay.
I would have stayed to help, but there was a worry niggling at the back of my mind over whether it was overstepping the boundaries, or even if it was okay for a man who wasn’t a relative to be in a little kid’s bedroom. Was I being too wary and paranoid about that? I just didn’t know what was right and what wasn’t when it came to things like that.
Given that she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, I went downstairs to see the others.
As I walked into the living room to join my brother, Jacinda, and Mom, I came to an immediate stop, all worries about the situation instantly going in the ‘think about this shit later’ file.
Canon was on one side of the room, staring across it at Jacinda, who was glaring back at him, while Mom stood in the middle, looking between them like a referee.
“What did I miss?”
“Not much,” Mom admitted. “They’ve been doing this since you went to help Nemi out and got sick.”
Joining her, I frowned. “You mean, they’ve just been doing this the whole time?”
“Words are unnecessary when just breathing can be irritating,” Jacinda growled.
Looking unfazed by it all, Canon smiled at her. “Admit it, you love me.”
“This is untrue.”
Tilting his head to the side, my brother said, “I’m not expecting the declaration this early on in our relationship, baby. Just breathe if you mean yes.”
I swear the stubborn woman held her breath until she couldn’t anymore and choked out, “Eat shit.”
Jacinda didn’t say the words maliciously, they came out more like a mumble than anything, and they amused Mom enough to make her choke on the laugh that burst out of her at them. Yeah, she was a mother who adored her boys, but that didn’t mean she thought any of us shat rose petals. She knew precisely how irritating we could be when we wanted to, that’s why she found it funny.
Breaking the stare-off, Jacinda’s eyes moved to where I was biting my lip and trying not to laugh. “How’s the munchkin?”
That sobered me back up. “Pale and tired. Heidi’s just putting her down for a nap to see if that helps.” Turning to Mom, I asked, “I don’t know jack about kids. Is it normal for them to get sick like that? Should we take her to the hospital? What if she’s dehydrated? She’s so tiny, and she was really—” I broke off at the memory of her being sick, feeling my stomach twist again.