Page 70 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

Be strong, Iris.

‘Goodnight, Archer.’

The muscle in his jaw ticked.

‘Night, Iris.’

He held steady, but she felt the heat of his stare the whole way back to her room.

* * *

Olive was home sick the next day, of course. She obviously needed more time to rest, and Iris was not about to break the twenty-four-hour fever-free rule and piss off that school nurse. But she had convinced Archer that he could go to work today and she would man the sick kid. Now that she was armed with plenty of over-the-counter fever reducers and a working knowledge of Olive’s names for various symptoms (‘eyeballs hurting’ meant she had a headache and the fever was on the rise, a ‘scratchy neck’ meant a sore throat), she was feeling slightly more confident than yesterday.

That, and Archer had assured her multiple times before he left this morning at the ungodly hour of 5am that he was just a phone call away and Iris could call at any time and he would come home regardless of what was happening at the diner.

She had to admit, that did make her feel better.

‘How are we feeling so far this morning?’

Olive was curled up on the couch with her trusty narwhal stuffy and a cup filled with OJ. Turned out the trick was ice and a straw to get her to actually drink it.

‘Better,’ she said, taking a sip of juice. ‘Can I go to school?’

Iris plopped down on the couch next to her. ‘Nope. Not today.’

‘Why?’

‘You’re still sick.’

‘I don’t feel sick today.’ Olive’s face was too pale with dark circles under her eyes.

‘You’re definitely still sick. Sorry.’

Olive’s mouth turned down in a pout. ‘But it’s library day and now I won’t get new books.’

Iris glanced at the stack of unread books littering the coffee table. ‘You have a ton of books.’

‘But I want new ones.’

‘Well, if I send you to school they will just send you back. That’s the rules, kid. You don’t want to get all your friends sick, right?’

Olive shrugged like she didn’t really care if she got her friends sick, she just wanted new books.

‘How about this,’ Iris said, doing her best to avoid a meltdown from her or the child. ‘Once you’re better, I’ll take you to the public library and you can take out as many books as you want.’

Olive’s face lit up at that promise.

‘Really?’

‘Yep.’

‘Can I take out one-hundred and fifty?’ One-hundred and fifty was Olive’s current favorite number.

‘Can you carry one-hundred and fifty?’

Olive thought about that for a minute before declaring ‘Probably.’

Iris smiled. ‘I like your confidence. Now drink your juice.’