Patting me on the arm, Mom nodded understandingly. “Kids get sick quickly and bounce back even quicker. She’s probably just picked up a stomach bug from daycare. Heidi will know what to do, and she’s probably got some rehydration stuff around or will tell you what you need to pick up from the store if she needs any. If Nemi keeps being throwing up, that’s when I’d say to get her checked out by the doctor or take her to urgent care.”
“What exactly quantifies as ‘keeps being sick?’ One more time? Two?”
Smiling gently at me, Mom replied, “Heidi will know.”
I was opening my mouth to ask more questions when I heard Heidi behind me. “Bond, can I borrow you for a second, please?”
She didn’t even need to ask. Spinning around, I followed her into the home office.
Seeing her wringing her hands together, I panicked. “Is Nemi okay? Do you want me to drive you to the doctor?”
“No, no,” she flapped her hands at me, almost like she was trying to cool me down, which was amusing. Almost. “It’s just, I’ve run out of the rehydration stuff I always keep, and I hate to ask you to do this, but could you go and get some more, please?”
Then lowering her voice to a whisper and leaning in close to me, she added, “I’ve got a wedding cake I need to finish off for tomorrow, and I didn’t have the heart to say no to spending time with your mom and Jacinda when they came over, so I’m behind.”
Only a few months ago, she’d rather have chewed her arm off than ask me, let alone trust me, to do something like this for her. It was remarkable how far we’d come, and it was all thanks to one little human being.
“Of course I can. Canon can also deal with the restaurant for one night on his own, so do you want me to keep an eye on Nemi while you work?”
Heidi started gnawing on her thumbnail while she thought it over. Finally, she came to a decision. “I can’t ask you to do that. Kleins is your business, and me asking you to leave it behind so I can work on my business isn’t right.”
I knew I was frowning hard enough to get one of those forehead asses between my eyebrows, but what the fuck? How was that an issue for her?
“Um, you’re not asking me to do it. I’m offering to do it. And I’m also offering to keep an eye on a poor little kid who yacked her guts up so you can finish a cake for the most important day of someone’s life. When I put it like that, does it make you feel better?”
Her eyes narrowed as she stared back at me. “Damn, you’re good.”
“I’m the best.”
Huffing out a breath to hide how her lips twitched at what I’d said, she nodded. “If you’re sure Canon won’t mind and that Kleins won’t fall to the ground without you, then, yes, please, could you look after Nemi while I finish the cake.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny either of those assurances you’re asking for, but I will say that I don’t care about either. Canon owes me, and we’re insured, so that’ll be enough.”
She burst out laughing as I slung my arm around her shoulders and gave her a side hug. “Now, write down what shit the little pirate needs and whatever you need for the cake that you’ve no doubt run out of, and I’ll go and pick it up.”
Peering up at me, Heidi admitted bashfully, “Not long ago, I’d have called you an egotistical twat and would have done anything I could to juggle Nemi and this cake instead of asking you for help, you know.”
“Oh, I know it,” I snickered. “And now you know you can’t live without me and that I’m the best guy in the world, so your sanity’s intact because it’s all true.”
Rolling her eyes, she pressed her shoulder into me and then moved out from under my arm. “Don’t ruin it, Klein.”
“I’m not. I’m just stating facts. You can’t get pissed at someone for being brutally honest.”
Rubbing her face with her hands, she groaned into them. “What have I done?”
I could answer that for her. She’d opened her eyes and finally seen me like no one else had.
I’d lived under the shadow of my name my whole life, and instead of seeing us all as individuals, people tended to band us together as one. When one of us did something, like go on a date with a chick and not call her, the rest of us were guilty of it. If one got caught speeding, all of us were reckless drivers. In high school, if one of us skipped class to go and do something with our friends, all of us were delinquents.