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the door. Clayton busted up, laughing loudly, causing my little Emma to jump.
    My momma shushed him and smiled over at Emma. She came over and brushed the hair back from her face. "Are you sure you're okay to work, sugar?"
    Emma nodded and loosened her grip on me.
    "Alright, we're all right here. You know we’d never let anything happen to you."
    She seemed to frown for a moment but nodded yes, appeasing my momma, who quickly went back to cooking.
    Instead of words of encouragement, Clayton decided to make a bad joke. “You can get all the milk you want from Vivien without ever having to buy the cow. That’s why Devin’s never been interested in marrying her.”
    I kicked Clayton in the knee and was smacked in the arm with a spatula in reprimand by my momma. She did not tolerate horseplay in the kitchen. We had learned the hard way about that one, too. There were some places you just didn't want crawfish on your body.
    Emma and I finished with the dishes quickly, and I had to say, she probably would have gotten them done a lot faster if I wasn't helping. I think I slowed her down.
    "You're really good at this," I said, and she looked up at me and smiled widely.  I couldn’t help but smile back, happy to see her fitting in so well with my family.  I just hoped I could keep her smiling, despite whatever it was that had happened to her.
     

Chapter 9 - The Husband’s Job
     
    We had gotten into a routine. Emma would have breakfast ready when I woke, and then we would go downstairs and work with my momma. We had been doing this for almost two weeks, so I was surprised when I woke up and didn't find Emma in the kitchen. The only other place she would have been was the bathroom, so I quickly knocked on the door and leaned my ear against it, only to hear crying.
    "Emma, are you okay? Do you need something, Little One? Are you sick?"
    She didn't answer me, and the door was locked. I started to panic, so I did what any man did when he didn't know what to do with his upset wife. I called my momma. I told her what was going on, and she came right upstairs and sent me out of the bedroom, so I couldn't hear what was going on. When my momma came out of my room, she gave me a shopping list.
    When I looked down at it, I felt like an idiot. Of course Emma was a girl, so she would need this stuff.
    Feminine pads
    Feminine pain reliever
    Heating pad
    She was having her period and was obviously miserable. I looked at my momma dumbfounded. "You're a husband now, that's part of your job." I nodded and headed outside to my motorcycle to hit the closest drugstore.
    I scratched my head, when I stepped inside the store. I was only familiar with the liquor aisle here. A woman stepped up and looked over at my list. "Do you need some assistance?" she asked.
    "Yeah, my wife needs this stuff," I said handing her the list, and she smiled knowingly.
    "This way, Sir." She led me through the feminine products aisle, and I had never seen so many choices for handling one bodily function in my life. I was lost in a jungle of super versus ultras, maxis versus minis, and god help me, scented or unscented. Who thought of this stuff? Of course, right next to all of this was the display of condoms and such. I felt my ears getting hot, as I thought of needing any of those.
    I was relieved and ready to get out of there, when we were finally heading to the register. The clerk surprised me by stopping and grabbing a tub of cookie dough ice cream and some chocolate bars. She set them next to the other items. "Trust me, she'll be thrilled you bought these," she grinned, and I smiled and thanked her, as she rang up my purchase.
    I found Emma lying on her bed, curled into a ball, with my momma rubbing her lower back. I walked in and showed her what I bought, and my momma got up and kissed my cheek. "It looks like you can handle it from here. Good job, sugar."
    I quickly grabbed a bottle of water and gave her the pills she had requested. As she took them, I plugged in