Page 132 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

“Oh, we are getting serious,” he said. “I think my head is hurting.”

She gave him a playful shove. “Now who is joking? Or does it hurt?”

He laughed and then yawned. She could see he was tired again and had been told he should nap often.

“It doesn’t hurt any more than it has been,” he said.

“Do you want an ice pack?” She knew he didn’t want to take too many pain meds, even if it was just Tylenol.

“Maybe in a bit,” he said. “The food is helping already.”

“There is plenty of water too,” she said. “I know you drink a lot. There are cases in the pantry and a filtered water jug in the fridge.”

“I’ll use that more than the bottled water,” he said.

“Whatever you want or need, just get it.”

“You can stop watching over me,” he said. “I know I’m going to be difficult, but it will be worse if I think I’m pulling you away from work. I know you’ve got things to do.”

She cringed. “I do,” she said. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” he said. “I’m going to have some more food and then shut my eyes. Lucky and I can take a nap together.”

“Will I bother you if I’m writing in here? The pounding of my fingers on the keyboard?”

“No,” he said. “It might put me to sleep. If it bothers me, I’ll go into the living room or bedroom, though I don’t want to spend a lot of time lying down either.”

“You know where everything is,” she said. “Make yourself at home.”

“Really?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, walking over to kiss him.

He reached his hand up and wrapped it in her hair, and gave her more than a peck on the lips.

He wasn’t anywhere close to okay, but she could tell he was trying to get her to think he was.

She retrieved her laptop from where she’d left it charging in her office and returned to the sunroom. She’d been taking notes for days on this story and others she wanted to work on, then putting them in a shared file syncing to her computer from her phone.

Last night it came to her it’d give Warren something to do. She knew he’d be listening to podcasts or watching TV, but his brain was going to need some activity at some point.

He got into it on the one book he helped her with, why not see if they could do another? Or something different.

She saw him pushing the plate of food aside. Most of the fruit was gone, but not the veggies. “Didn’t I cut them the right way?” she asked, crossing her eyes at him.

He wanted to see that funny side of her, so why not let it loose again?

“The crunch hurts my head,” he said.

“Oh,” she said. “I didn’t realize that. I’ll put them away for you. I don’t eat raw veggies. I only have them to cook or put in a salad more than anything.”

“I thought you didn’t eat anything healthy.”

She pursed her lips. “I don’t know how you got that impression. I met someone recently who convinced me that thebetter things I put in my body are, the better things come out of it. I know it happens in the bathroom.”

He laughed. “Okay, the old Emma is back.”

“She never left,” she said. “I think you’ve just had me worried for days.”