Page 18 of Undeniable You

“Sorry. We’re having a rough morning,” she said to me as she let me in.

“Hey, Juniper, how are you doing?” I asked as she sat at the table and swung her feet back and forth, her mouth in a thin line.

“We’re struggling a little bit today, aren’t we?” Larison said and Juniper glared. It was cute seeing a very serious expression on someone that young.

“Okay, why don’t you do what you need to do. I’ve got this.”

Larison glanced at Juniper and then sighed. “Thanks.”

She vanished into the bathroom and I went to see what was up with Juniper.

“Hey, Princess Juniper, how’s it going?” I asked, sitting down in the only other chair. The table was only built for two.

Juniper grunted, which was something. She looked tired, her hair a tangled mess that I guess Larison hadn’t been able to tackle yet. No big deal. She also still had her pajamas on. Looked like today was going to be the kind of day where we maybe spent a little bit of time at the park and the rest of the time watching movies or reading on the couch or did some simple projects. I had puzzles and coloring books and clay in my bag if she wanted to use any of those. I also had a deck of cards and hoped she’d let me teach her how to play Go Fish.

“It’s okay if you’re not having a good day. Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked her as she stared at her half-eaten plate.

“No,” she said in a firm voice. Okay then.

Larison came out of the bathroom with her hair up and different clothes.

Any luck? She mouthed at me.

Not yet, I mouthed back.

“I’ve got to go to the bookshop, baby. I’ll be back later today, okay? You have a good time with Jo.” Larison kissed Juniper on the head and Juniper got up from the chair and threw her arms around Larison’s legs, burying her face into Larison’s belly.

“Oh, baby. It’s okay.”

Muffled sniffing came from Juniper.

“She’ll be fine. I’ve got this,” I told Larison. She picked up Juniper and hugged her tight, swaying gently back and forth.

“Listen, baby. We can video chat later. And remember we got ice cream at the store so we can have some tonight. Maybe Jo will let you have some earlier.”

That didn’t seem to help, but I reached out and Larison managed to pass Juniper over to me without much fuss. She clung to me like a baby koala and I had the feeling a nap was in the near future. Let her get some rest and hit reset on this day.

“Have a good day,” I said in a low voice to Larison. Her eyes were shiny, and I could tell she was choking back tears. I rubbed Juniper’s back and nodded to Larison as she gathered her stuff to leave.

She waved sadly and closed the door softly.

“Hey, how about we have a little couch snuggle?” I asked Juniper.

She just clenched her surprisingly strong arms around my neck and that seemed like an affirmative answer.

I’m sosorry for dumping her on you like that. She doesn’t have bad days often, but when she does, they’re doozies. I hope she’s not getting sick.Larison sent me a message while I was stroking Juniper’s hair. She’d crashed out on the couch and I’d wrapped her in a blanket and set Mozzarella right next to her so he could watch over her while she slept.

I’d also checked her temperature and made her tell me if she had any tummy problems or anything else. No fever, no aches, no runny nose or anything else. Unless things changed, I wasgoing to say she was just having a bad day. Those were always allowed.

I sent Larison back a picture of Juniper while she slept.

She’s out right now. Hopefully when she wakes up she’ll be back to her regular self. If not, we’ll just spend the day being grumpy on the couch. I’ll let you know if anything changes.

My fingers kept getting tangled in her hair, but I did my best to comb through without waking her or yanking on any knots.

Carefully, I moved away from Juniper and went to clean up from breakfast. Looked like Larison hadn’t been able to. If she were here, she’d probably tell me to leave it, but I wasn’t going to do that.

Juniper continued to sleep while I found other ways to occupy myself, including looking at Larison’s bookshelves. She had a smaller one for all of Juniper’s books, of which there were dozens and dozens.

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