“Do I have to go to school?”
Nick laughed and tickled his son’s foot. But James didn’t react, which was strange because he was usually very sensitive to tickle-torture. He must really have been feeling ill. Nick tussled his hair instead. “We’ll see how you’re feeling tonight, buddy, and then decide. So, what’s happening in Family Guy?”
“Brian and Stewie are trapped inside a bank and Brian just ate Stewie’s nappy.”
Nick screwed his face up in disgust. “Lovely. Well, you can carry on watching until dinner, but then it’s going off, okay?”
He was about to get back up again, to go find Deana, but he paused when he spotted the thick Beano plaster on his son’s finger.
“Hey, buddy. What happened to your finger?”
“Jordan bit me at school. I didn’t even call him a name or nothing. He got in lots of trouble with Mrs Tanner, though, so it’s okay. Mommy had to kiss it better for me and put a Dennis the Menace on it.”
Nick didn’t like the coincidence. Paul had been bitten, too. But what did that mean? Surely an unruly child biting his son was nothing to worry about? It was the type of thing that happened at first school all the time.
Still, it was weird.
“Jordan bit you? Were you feeling ill before that, or afterwards?”
James shook his head. “I didn’t feel poorly until Mommy picked me up. I started to feel sick in the car and got a headache.”
Nick patted his son on the leg and gave him the reassuring smile of a worried parent. “Okay,” he said. “You just rest here and I’ll call you when dinner is ready. Anything in particular you’d like?”
“Fish fingers.”
“Anything else?”
“Fish fingers.”
“Okay, fish fingers it is.”
Nick got up from the sofa and headed out into the hallway. Deana was in the kitchen, already starting on dinner.
“His lord requires fish fingers,” he said to her as he approached from behind and squeezed at her hips.
“Right-o,” she said. She was already rummaging around the fridge freezer so it was easy for her to come out with a large cardboard box full of Cod sticks. She set them down on the IKEA breakfast table, next to a basket of laundry, and brushed off a layer of frost. “Did he ask for anything else? Or just fish fingers?”
“Just fish fingers with a side of fish fingers. I suppose you could force him to accept some chips and beans with them.”
“That wouldn’t be because you want chips and beans, would it? You’ve got fillet steak in the fridge, you numpty.”
“I know, I have.” He perched back against the table. “But I’m too tired to eat it tonight. It would just be wasted on me. I’ll just have whatever James is having.”
Deana moved up close to him, tiptoed on the tiles, and gave him a kiss on the mouth. “You’re not coming down with something as well, are you, babe? Because I can’t be doing with nursing you both back to health. I am in no mood for man-flu.”
Nick shook his head. “I’m fine. Just tired. Really, really, really tired. I don’t know how much longer I can take working at that bloody place.”
“Find something else, then. I don’t want you to be miserable all the time.”
“I’m not miserable. Just…unfulfilled. Anyway, don’t worry about it for now. I’m just glad to be home early for a change. Shame we can’t go out, but never mind.”
“James show you his battle wound?” Deana asked him.
“His finger? Yeah. What happened?”
“Another kid bit him about an hour before I picked him up. It wasn’t too bad. Still bleeding a little when he got home, so I put a new plaster on it.”
“And kissed it better?”
“Of course! What kind of mother do you think I am?”
Nick giggled and then checked his watch. It was almost half-five. “I need to get ready for the conference call,” he said, giving his wife a quick peck on the lips. “I’ll try to get away as quick as I can.”