“Here’s a tip. Wash your stinking hands,” Becky said, looking around and pointing at a few people in the room. “Treat your fever with Tylenol. If you’re a big dude, you can take six to eight pills at a time. For a normal-sized person, four will probably do you. Be aware of how much you take in a day; you shouldn’t take that high a dose more than once or twice.
“Drink some Gatorade or some water; I don’t care. Get the fever down and hydrate. Last, cover your nose. You don’t need to share it with everyone else. What do you do if you sneeze on your hand?”
“Wash your stinking hand,” Roc called out.
Becky touched her nose and pointed at Roc.
“We have a winner!” she exclaimed and turned the meeting back over to Coach Hope.
It sounded like I needed to pull the little ones out of daycare for the next couple of weeks. I swear that every time I stopped by to pick them up, there was some new creeping crud being shared. This flu was especially hard on children and the elderly. Maybe my grandma would watch them. That way, they’d be protecting each other—or at least that was how my lazy-but-evil mind justified it.
◊◊◊
I shambled into the training area and did my ice-bath therapy. The trainers told me I was progressing well. They said I could take the sling off and start using crutches, but warned me to take it easy. The hope was that by next week, they could start working on the next phase of my treatment. I’d made it clear that I was going to be ready to play in two weeks. I suspect they just agreed with me to appease me. But I was determined.
I had dinner with my parents and Peggy, where I floated my idea of Grandma Dawson watching the boys.
“No, I’m not risking your dad’s mom. I’ll take time off and watch them,” Mom volunteered. “I’ll call Angie and see if she wants to drop hers off too.”
That was unexpected. I blinked at my mom and glanced over at Dad. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be anywhere near her after a day with all five of them.
“Why don’t we see about getting you some help?” I suggested.
I’d seen my two wear out both my mom and Peggy without even trying. As I envisioned the chaos, I gave my mom half a day before she hauled them all back to daycare and let the chips fall where they may. So what if we lost one or two? It was like culling the herd when the state said we had too many deer. Five children under the age of three was a lot more work than I wanted to admit.
“Caryn called me,” Dad said to change the topic. “She talked to the PR team, and it sounds like the studio is shutting down Halle’s movie for now. She said that the insurance company wouldn’t continue to cover them until an internal investigation is done. It seems that the director, producer, and several studio execs have to answer for not acting on Halle’s complaint.”
“What about Zander? Did he make bail?” I asked.
“He was charged with a violent felony and denied bail for now.”
That put a smile on my face.
◊◊◊
Talking to Dad had made me realize that I should call Halle and see how she was doing. She answered on the first ring.
“What did you do to Bandit?” she complained. I heard him meowing in the background.
“What’s his problem?”
“I have no idea. He goes to the sliding glass door and throws a fit. He never did that before.”
“No wonder he was such a wimp when he moved in with me,” I said, realizing that he’d only been inside when he was with Halle. “I did you a favor and toughened him up. Bandit wants to go outside.”
“He might get hurt or run away,” Halle worried.
“Bandit’s not stupid. He knows where his food and ear-scratches come from.”
I heard the door slide open.
“He seems to like it. He stopped complaining. Oh, my God, he is such a boy!” she then exclaimed.
“Why, what did he do?” I asked.
“I need to go save him. He took off running and fell in the pool. I’ll call you later,” Halle said and hung up on me.
I would have to talk to Fritz and see if he could get me the video footage of Bandit’s first adventure being free in Halle’s back yard.
While I waited for Halle to call back, I called Zak.
“If you didn’t call me today, Bec was going to make me call you tomorrow.”
All I could do was laugh at him. I never expected I would ever see the day that Zak Verwood would have a steady girlfriend who bossed him around. I would have bet he was destined to be a Hollywood playboy for the rest of his life. It went to show what a good woman could do.
“I wanted to thank you for throwing the party. Everyone said they had a good time.”
He wanted an update on how I was feeling—another question from his girlfriend.
“Is she there?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Put her on. Believe me when I tell you that you won’t ask all the right questions or get enough information.”
“I’m starting to figure that out. Let me put you on speakerphone so we won’t have to repeat anything,” Zak suggested.
