Nothing But Trouble by Lindsey Pogue

Author:Lindsey Pogue [Pogue, Lindsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book Two
Published: 2016-12-16T05:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Nine

Mac

My eyelids fly open and my heart’s racing, though it takes me a second to realize why. The front door rattles in its hinges and banging reverberates through the living room, jarring me from sleep.

“Hey, Nick!” a male voice calls through the door.

I struggle to move, wrapped in my blanket cocoon on the couch I can’t escape. My mind is swirling and my heart is hammering as I try to place the voice.

More knocking. “Nick, I need your help.”

“Colton?” I rasp and half fall off the couch, clumsy on sleeping limbs. “I’m coming,” I call, brushing my hair out of my eyes so I can see. I fumble with the deadbolt, like my fingers don’t remember how to move, until I finally open the door. “What’s wrong—”

Colton’s eyes are wide. He’s frightened. Fear tiptoes in as I notice he’s disheveled, his hair falling in his eye and moisture darkening the chest of his gray thermal shirt.

“What’s wrong?” I scan the rest of his body, making sure he’s physically okay. “What happened?”

“I need someone to watch Casey for me while I run to the drugstore. She’s got a fever and I don’t have anything at the house—not for something like this.”

I shake the sleepy haze from my mind. It’s the middle of night . . . I glance inside at the microwave clock. “Um. Nick’s still at work,” I finally realize, but that doesn’t matter. I slam the door shut and walk toward Colton’s apartment. “I’ll stay with her.”

He hurries past me and into his apartment, down the hall toward Casey’s room so fast my eyes are still adjusting to the change in light. I blink a few times, registering Casey, sitting up in bed, her body glazed in sweat, hair dampened to curls matted around her sniffling, red face.

“Daddy,” she’s crying, calling for him.

“Shhh, Casey baby,” Colton coos.

My heart stutters as the wretched, sick child in front of me truly registers. Casey’s clearly got a fever and my big-sister gears immediately kick into overdrive. I run over to her.

“I’m going to get you some medicine,” Colton says. “It will make you feel better.” I hear him speaking, but I’m too busy assessing her body temperature. She looks at me as I gently place my hand on her arm—her forehead—her cheek. “I already know she has a fever,” he says, calm, but it’s a façade. I can tell by the thin inflection in his voice that he’s scared, just trying to hold it together for his daughter. It’s obvious she’s never been sick like this before.

Her skin is hot—burning. “What was her temperature at?”

“A hundred and three.” He hands me the thermometer.

“When did you take it last?”

He shrugs and shakes his head with bloodshot eyes, like there’s too much running through his head to think clearly. “Ten minutes ago?”

I try to ease the thermometer into her mouth again to make sure her temperature isn’t still climbing. “Come on, sweetie,” I urge. “I know you don’t want to, but it will help us make you feel better.

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