Her Texas Family by Jill Lynn

Author:Jill Lynn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“It still hurts.” On Wednesday night, Mattie sat on the couch gripping a white blanket in her hands, lower lip protruding in an adorable pout.

Graham deposited a mug of warm milk on the coffee table in front of his daughter and held the back of his hand against her forehead. Still a low-grade fever.

“What hurts?”

“Everything, Daddy.”

He sank to a sitting position on the coffee table, facing her. She might as well rip out his heart while she was at it. He might be a doctor, he might be able to deal with everyone else’s medical problems, but when it came to Mattie, he was a mess.

He hated seeing her sick or in pain—just like he had Brooke. He knew Mattie had a virus that was going around. She had a temperature of 101, aches, pains and a runny nose. But even with that knowledge telling him that in a few days she would be fine, his feelings of helplessness continued to grow.

When Mattie had arrived at the clinic after school today, she’d looked a bit pale. At first, he’d thought it was a midweek thing. Sometimes she was exhausted on Wednesdays, especially going to full-day kindergarten. Plus, the previous weekend had been busy with him being gone all day Saturday and her sleeping over at his parents’.

He’d hoped she was just in need of a lazy movie night and pizza ordered in. But since that time a few hours ago, she’d spiked a fever and seemed to be heading rapidly downhill.

What was he going to do with her tomorrow? She wasn’t showing signs of bouncing back overnight and he had to work. It wasn’t as if he could cancel his patients for a day.

Graham got out his phone and texted his mom. She would watch Mattie—she always did. But that didn’t make it any easier to see his girl sick.

“Do you want orange juice instead of milk? And we can put on Frozen.” For the millionth time.

Her head swung back and forth.

“Do you want me to make soup?”

“Mommy’s soup?”

When Mattie was younger, Graham had called chicken noodle soup “Mommy’s soup,” and the name had stuck. Not that he made it like Brooke used to. She’d made it from scratch—or at least partially homemade. She used to add dumplings and vegetables. Now Graham bought it premade. He wasn’t even sure he had any in the cupboard.

“Let me check if we have some.” He went into the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards, sighing in relief when he found a package. After getting it started on the stove, he returned to the living room. He started the movie and then turned back to Mattie. “I’ve got the soup going. What else?”

When Mattie’s eyes filled with moisture, Graham sank next to her on the couch, scooping her onto his lap. “Honey, I know you don’t feel well. I’d do just about anything to make you feel better.”

She toyed with her blanket. “I want Lucy.”

Graham stiffened. He must have heard her wrong.

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