Page 58 of Loving Kai

When Kai ran a car over Abe’s injured leg, he hissed and moved it out of Kai’s reach.

Allie shook her head. “I want to take a look at that, honey.”

“It’s fine, Mom. I took care of it last night.”

“Have you changed the bandage today?”

“No.”

“Come to the kitchen. Luke, you’re on Kai duty.”

“I have him.”

Abe followed Allie to the kitchen, then sat down in a chair. She moved another one in front of him, and he pulled up his pant leg, then rested his foot on the chair.

Allie scowled at the fluid that had seeped through the bandage. “You’ve got to keep on top of this, honey.”

“I’ve been a little distracted today, Mom.”

“Of course. I know.” She unwrapped the gauze, then carefully removed the pad. “Oh my goodness! Abraham, this looks bad.”

Abe looked at it. “I’ve had worse.”

“I doubt that. Let me see what I have in the bathroom.”

She left the kitchen, and Abe checked out the wound. It was bad, but he’d hardly thought about it today. The shoulder had given him more trouble, what with carrying a baby around and such.

Allie returned with a clean bandage and more gauze. She also had a tube of antiseptic cream and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. The sight brought back painful memories from his childhood, and Abe dropped his foot to the floor.

“You’re not putting that on it.”

“It doesn’t hurt, honey.”

“It’ll hurt, Mom. Water hurts. That stuff certainly will.”

She sighed. “Fine. I’ll put the antiseptic on the bandage. You shouldn’t feel it.”

“Shouldn’t?”

She lifted his foot back onto the chair, then dabbed at the abrasions, which hurt quite a bit. She covered them with the new bandage, then said, “See, that wasn’t so bad.”

“Which of us kids had the most injuries growing up?”

She looked up at him. “You really need to ask that question?”

“No. I guess not. But I remember Luke getting hurt an awful lot, too.”

Luke came into the kitchen holding Kai. “Yeah. Mostly at the hands of my five older brothers.”

Abe grinned. “What a great childhood we had.”

Chapter fourteen

“I feel so special.”

Abe awoke with a start. It had taken a while to fall asleep, but once he did, he’d slept soundly. What the hell was that sound? He rolled toward the sound. Kai was standing in the crib, bouncing up and down while holding onto the side, clearly enjoying the creak, creak, creak. He gave Abe a smile.

“Papa.”