Where Promises Must Glide

33 - Juliette

"My tummy was hurting and Grammy told me to drink soda and I threw up after," she whimpered. 

"Shh, it's okay baby. Does your tummy still hurt?" I question, picking her up and sitting on her princess bed. 

She shakes her head. "A little." I see her fidgeting with her hands, and I grab them to calm her down. 

"Want to take a little bath to cool you down, and take the yummy bubble gum medicine?" I try speaking in a soothing voice to make sure she doesn't freak out again. She must have had a stomach bug or whatever she had for lunch probably didn't agree with her. Thankfully it wasn't too bad. 

She nods slowly, and I lift her and take her into the bathroom. When we get inside, I start the water and put her favorite pink bath bomb inside. "Pick out the toys you want to play with, while I talk to Grammy." She nods again before I walk back into her bedroom. 

"I got it from here Mom, if you want to head back to Dad," I explain knowing she probably is as worried about my dad as I am about Ophelia. She rarely leaves him alone, and when she does, she has the neighbors check on him. 

"Are you sure you are fine?" 

"Positive," I reply, which is probably the biggest lie. I've never been sure of anything when it comes to being a mom, I have no clue what I am doing. She kisses me on the cheek before leaving, and I realize Theo was standing in the corner of the room the entire time. "Bath time?" I try saying with a tired smile. 

He walks over to me and just holds me. His arms are so big they wrap around my whole body, and I just sit there for a second, breathing in his scent. Then he lets go of me and I head over to the bathroom to check on Ophelia who was still busy picking between if she wanted the Spider-Man toy or her Batman one. 

"Both," I say causing her to jump not expecting me. I throw in the ducks and toy boats she picked out before getting her ready for a bath. I sit there simply watching her play and relax in the water, her skin turning back to its normal color. She already showered, so this is only to help her relax and cool down. 

I put my head against the tub, taking a deep breath. "You okay, mommy?" Ophelia questions, her wet hand petting my hair. 

"I'm fine, baby," I respond, lifting my head up to face her. She points at something behind me, and I turn around to see it is Theo leaning against the doorframe. God the things he makes me feel, how my body reacts to his eyes on me. 

"I made this drink my mom used to make me when I was sick as a kid, it should help," he explains to me rather than Ophelia, but it is her who reacts. 

"Thank you," she says and usually when it comes to Theo, she is jumping and hyper. Right now I can notice how weak she is, and my heart breaks into a million. 

"Let's get you changed," I explain, trying to distract myself from the shattering feeling in my chest. I'm already holding back tears, but I need to be strong for a little more. I wrap her in her favorite pink towel and lay her on the bed while I find her clothes. Before I can search, I already see a matching PJ set that Monique got her for her birthday. It had become her favorite and I don't recall laying it out. 

"I changed her sheets as well," I hear and turn to see Theo by the door with a drink in his hand. It was white and looked to have coconut and walnuts on top. I grab the pajama set and put it on Ophelia while Theo is cooling down the hot drink. I notice her whole bed was a different color, instead of princesses it was unicorns but the pillows were blue with baseballs and footballs. "I couldn't find the matching pillowcases." 

I laugh. "The laundry machine likes to eat up my pillowcases, so it's fine." I sit down on the bed, brushing through the curls on Ophelia's head, putting them in two small braids after drying it slightly. Theo sits kneeling by the bed, putting the drink on the nightstand next to the pencil lamp that we painted red to add to the bipolar theme in her room. 

"What is that?" Ophelia asks curiously when Theo tastes the drink to make sure it isn't too hot. 

He picks up the spoon to show her. "Have you had a horchata? It tastes like a warm version with coconut." She immediately is excited and is asking to taste it. He brings the spoon to her mouth and feeds it to her. 

"Mommy you try," she tells me, pointing to the drink that she is loving. 

"I will, darling, but I need to get you medicine first," I explain, getting up to grab the medicine from the fridge. I choose now to break down. I've held it together long enough. I have no clue what I am doing. I feel like I've been working on autopilot for the past four years. They don't talk about these parts of motherhood. I wish they taught me how to handle caring so much for a small human that you'd die for them in school. That information would have been more useful than the Pythagorean theorem. 

As I'm wiping away my tears, I see a hand reach over my head, grabbing the pink bottle that has the medicine for Ophelia. I turn and see Theo towering over me. "You are doing amazing, Jules." And those words may have put me back together. He kisses me tenderly on the forehead before kissing my cheek where my tear was running down. His thumb swiped the next one before it could fall any farther, and the touch felt like fire on my skin. 

"She finished the drink?" I question, noticing the empty cup in his hand. 

He laughs, shrugging. "It is literal magic." 

"Well, your magic potion plus this medicine will have her knocked out in about five minutes. Thankfully I have no practice tomorrow or I would have called sick," I sigh in relief, finding the small cup that I use to measure the liquid medicine. It was somewhere in my drawer of junk. Theo hands it to me before I can even go searching as if he truly is a magician. I see the small grin on his lips growing, and I can't help and reciprocate it. He snakes his arm around my waist, guiding me into Ophelia's room. She was watching her comfort movie, The Dark Knight while resting in her bed. 

Theo helped me give her the medicine and she was out cold in seconds. I lowered the TV but didn't turn it off in case she woke up at some point. Finally, I could unwind and settle on the couch. Theo comes over with the largest glass of my favorite wine and something else hidden behind his back. 

"Since we didn't get our romantic dinner, and you don't have escargot or whatever fancy shit was on the menu, I made us dinner," he explains, and behind his back were two wine glasses full of mac and cheese with a dino nugget garnish on the rim. I can't hold back the laughter that erupts when I see what he made. "Do you like it?" He asks nervously. 

"Are you serious? I love it!" I exclaim, grabbing the fork that he put in his pocket and digging in. He goes back to the over and grabs the rest of the dink nuggets and puts them on a plate. "You have truly outdone yourself with this one, Callahan." 

He kisses me before digging into his own cup. "Had to make tonight special somehow." 

"Having you for an entire night is enough," I reply with another kiss. I was never this lovesick, touchy person in any of my other relationships. But right now, I can't get enough of Theo's rough hands that feel instantly soft when connected to my skin. Or his kisses that make me melt in an instant. 

This wasn't exactly how I planned my evening, but life is unpredictable and Theo knows how to make any unanticipated situation turn out sufficiently. "Thank you for the date, Theo," I whisper, leaning into his side. I rest my head on his shoulder, enjoying the comfort he brings me. 

"Thank you for accepting to go on one," he chuckles, before putting on a show. "Next one will be more promising." 

We ended up falling asleep after I finish my cup of wine and he ends up having a beer with our dinner, watching Brooklyn 99 together. It was the most perfect night possible. 

IMPORTANT A/N: Hello my loves! I'm sorry for the delayed updates, but I've been working hard on finishing the physical version of Racing Hearts. I will not be publishing many updates for that story on Wattpad, but to finish it, I will most likely put the story on Kindle and KU, as well as show ways to read it for free to those who can't access it easily. I will also be looking for Beta readers once I am done with it. I will work on completing WPMG along with everything else. 

Hope this is a helpful update and if there are any questions please feel free to comment!!