Page 49 of Let It Be Me
“Riley?” She croaks out in a whisper.
“Hi, baby. What’s wrong?” I ask as I pull her closer to me.
“Migraine,” is all she says. And she must be out of it because she doesn’t question why I’m here. She just burrows herself into my curled arms and lets out a pitiful whimper that hits me right in the chest.
I run my hand along her back and massage her head and neck. She doesn’t push me away or tell me to stop. After a while, her body goes boneless as she falls asleep. I continue with my ministrations until sleep takes me as well.
Hands runningup and down the side of my torso arouses me from my nap. I turn my head to Sarah’s blue ones and my lips lift in a small smile. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“How’s your head?” I ask.
She winces as I speak but I don’t take offense from it. “Still pounding.” Sarah whispers and breathes deeply.
“What’s wrong?” I’m instantly on alert and search her face for more signs.
“I get really bad nausea too.”
“Sounds terrible,” I joke.
She does a short laugh then stops. “Don’t make jokes.” She tells me and buries her face back in my neck.
“Do you want some food? I can make chicken noodle if you have the stuff for it.”
“I don’t have any food.”
I kiss the top of her head and untangle myself from her. “Okay, then. You go back to sleep and I’ll run to the store. Soup makes everything better.”
I leave her with a soft smile on her face and a pang in my chest where she belongs.
The steamand mouth-watering aroma from the chicken noodle soup invades my senses. I didn’t bother going back upstairs when I got back from the store. My plan is to take a bowl up to her room and feed it to her. Because I doubt she’s had much of anything today if evidence of the bags under her eyes were any indication.
I’m scooping her soup into a bowl when I hear a noise from the hallway. Sarah’s lifeless body trails into the kitchen, surprising me.
“Hey, sleepy. I was gonna bring your food to you.”
She shakes her head gently and drops into a seat at the kitchen table. “I wanna eat down here with you.”
“Okay.”
I sit next to her with a big helping in my bowl and a smaller helping in hers. Her movements are cautious as if she’s scared to move too fast to aggravate her head. She looks so fragile in this moment. It makes me remember that underneath the shark-like persona she presents at work, she’s still just a girl. Well, a woman.
When I finish my soup, I push my empty bowl away and pull hers in front of me. Her protest dies on her lips when I drag her onto my lap. I hold the bowl in my far hand and scoop up some soup with the other and bring the spoon up to her lips. We continue like this. Me feeding her and her willingly letting me help her. When her bowl is empty, her body sags against mine and I stand up, carrying her to the couch.
I cover her with a blanket and wait for her face to relax. “I’ll be right back.”
“Hey, Riley?” Sarah asks.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I kiss her on the forehead, out of comfort and to see if she’s got a bit of a fever and head into the kitchen to clean up. Once I’m done, I check on Sarah before heading back out to get my bag and to call Momma.
“Hi, Riley. What’s up?”
“What do you do for someone who has a migraine?” I snag my bag off the passenger seat and head back inside at a brisk pace. We’re told we won’t get snow, but I highly doubt that as the temps have dropped faster than usual. Back inside, I set my bag on the landing and go over to Sarah’s front room to continue talking with Momma without disturbing her.
