Layla

A smile slowly grew on Jacinda’s face. “Knackers as in nuts?”

Cyn nodded. “Big bugger he was as well and mean. It was an accident! I didn’t know the pointy end was going to hit him or that I could kick that hard.”

All the men aside from Rockie winced and did variations of a leg wiggle and a body jerk at the thought. Rockie, though, gave himself a high five.

“Now that’s the stories we need every time we go out. Layla, next time we do this, you need to bring the rest of your family along. Jacinda, bring your— No, wait, don’t bring your sisters. They’re crazy as fuck.” Jacinda nodded understandingly. “Sayla, where’s Heidi? She should be here.”

“Likely feeding Kingston from her boobies. He’s the cutest!”

Someone cleared their throat next to us, and my eyes slid to the side where Kapono was still glaring at Jacinda. “That’s it? You crushed my nuts, and that’s it?”

“Damn it,” Cyn pouted. “I missed it. Hey, do it again.”

His eyes narrowed on her. “You and me need to have a chat, Cynthia, don’t think I’ve forgotten about it. Do you want to add this into it, too?”

“Nah, no need to chat. Text me, and I’ll get back to you about it all.” She waved her hand dismissively and looked around the bar. “Hey, when did all these people get here?”

I couldn’t keep up with it all anymore, my head just wouldn’t let me, so I leaned down to rest it on my hands and closed my eyes, filtering out the bickering going on around me.

I felt my hair being pulled away from one side of my face, and then a hand rested on the back of my neck. “Baby, are you feeling okay? You’re really hot.”

There was a chorus of sighs followed by, “Aww!”

“I ache,” I rasped. There was so much more to it than that, but after getting those two words out, I just didn’t have the energy to list the rest.

“Okay, guys, I’m going to take Layla home. She’s not feeling well and is burning up.”

Fortunately I was asleep by the time Mark managed to get me out of the chair and into his SUV, otherwise, I’d have freaked out about the potential of me breaking his back.

Mark

“Is it a hangover?” Colette asked, looking at the screen on her thermometer. “I’ve never known alcohol to give someone a fever of a hundred and three, but I’m not a doctor, so it could be possible.”

“No, she said she wasn’t feeling great on Friday and looked pale and like she wasn’t feeling well when I got to the bar last night, so I’m thinking it might be a virus.”

She looked over at the Gatorade I’d set out next to Layla. “Has she managed to drink anything?”

“Only little sips. I tried giving her some pills to get her fever down, but she spat them back out again.”

Colette rolled her eyes and pulled her phone out.

“Jack, can you bring me the kids' medications out of the medicine cabinet, please? No, it’s not for any of them.” She crossed her eyes this time at whatever he’d asked. “No, it’s not for Cole, either. He has his own.” Her eyes dropped to her daughter. “Layla’s not well. She’s burning up and won’t swallow the pills Mark’s tried to give her.”

I left her to update Jack and went to rinse out the cloths I’d been pressing against Layla’s head and the back of her neck.

“Jack’s just going to bring the stuff over as well as the Pedialyte popsicles from the freezer. Hopefully they’ll rehydrate Layla and cool her down, but I think we should call the doctor and see if they have any recommendations.”

She didn’t have a freezer to keep them in, but we managed to get her to have one before Jack took them back and promised to come back later with a cooler full of those frozen blocks in it, too.

Given that she was a mom of five and a grandmother of a thousand, I followed Colette’s recommendations. Sadly for Layla, the doctor decided to come out and check her over, meaning she got poked, prodded, and her throat was swabbed, making her choke and gag.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I moved out of sight so she’d blame her mom and not me when she cracked her eyes slightly open. Listen, we might not have been around each other during our marriage—and didn’t that sound weird—but that didn’t mean I hadn’t picked up life hacks from my family on how to survive situations like this.

“I’ll deal with you when I’m reborn,” she choked out, then promptly passed out again.

After talking to the doctor, making a note of what I had to do, and promising to get her prescriptions filled, I dropped down onto the couch and leaned back on the cushion behind me.

“You’re doing a good job, you know,” Jack said, surprising the shit out of me.