by Scott, Laura
“What?” Ty’s small head suddenly popped out from underneath the table. Jared’s breath left his lungs in a whoosh.
The boy was safe.
“Don’t do that to me.” His hands were shaking as he reached out to pull the boy close. He was flunking fatherhood 101. He’d almost lost Shelly’s son.
“Do what?” Puzzled, Tyler cocked his head and pulled back. “I dropped my fork, see?”
Belatedly, Jared noticed the fork clutched in the boy’s hand. By dropping his fork, the kid had nearly shocked Jared’s heart straight into asystole. Straight-line all the way.
“I was scared when I couldn’t see you—never mind. Are you almost finished? Your mom is ready for visitors.”
Tyler’s eyes widened with anticipation, and he eagerly abandoned his plate, the fork clattering to the table. “I’m all done.”
“Me, too.” Jared grinned. “Let’s go see your mom.”
SHELLY SHIFTED on the uncomfortable gurney mattress, blinking at the brightness of the overhead lights. Everything was fuzzy, confusing since the moment she’d awoken on the wrong side of a hospital bed. If her stomach didn’t hurt so much, she’d chalk the whole thing up to a bad dream.
But the pain was real. So was the nausea. Through her lashes, she could see an IV bag dripping fluid into a vein in her arm. Who had brought her here? And, most importantly, where was her son? She’d asked the nurse where Tyler was, and she kept saying he’d be there soon. But how could that be? Had she somehow left him home alone?
The thought of Ty had her struggling against the weakness, pulling herself upright on the gurney with supreme effort.
“Whoa, there, where do you think you’re going?” The nurse—Shelly thought her name was Erica—ran to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder to prevent her from sitting up too far. “Just take it easy and lie down. You’re not going anywhere yet.”
“Let me out of here. I need to find my son. He’s only five, do you understand that? I have to find him!” Shelly knew she sounded hysterical but couldn’t help it. How had she gotten out of her home and to the hospital? An ambulance? Had the paramedics left Ty home alone? Maybe he’d been sleeping in his bed and they’d missed him. Or he may have hidden from them in fear. Dear Lord, she had to find him. She shoved the nurse out of her way. She’d crawl out of there on her belly if necessary.
“Shh, I told you, your son will be here soon. He’s with Dr. O’Connor. They’re on their way from the cafeteria now.”
Dr. O’Connor? Exhausted by her efforts, Shelly dropped back on the gurney and closed her eyes. Why was Ty with a doctor? Had she collapsed at the hospital during Ty’s kidney testing?
“Shelly?”
Dazed, she squinted against the lights. A familiar blond-haired man stood at her bedside. The name finally sank into her shriveled brain. Dr. O’Connor was Jared. Slowly, pieces of the morning’s events came back to her. She’d called Lifeline for help. Jared had answered.
Jared had her son.
“Ty.” Shelly focused her gaze on her son holding Jared’s hand, standing beside him. Her throat swelled in relief. He was safe. Thankfully, he was safe. “Are you all right?”
Ty nodded, and Jared urged him farther into the room. Ty grabbed the side rail, apparently willing to climb aboard, until Jared intercepted him.
“Hang on, I’ll pull this down for you.”
Jared lowered the railing. Shelly reached over and wrapped her arm around her son, lowering her head until she could lay her cheek against his silky fine hair.
Tyler was fine. Still wearing his Avenger pajamas, sticky with a substance that smelled an awful lot like maple syrup, but otherwise fine. Better than fine.
“I’m so sorry, Ty. I didn’t mean to get sick.”
“Are you coming home soon?” Ty asked.
“I don’t think she’s ready to go home just yet,” Jared interjected.
“Yes, I’m coming home soon. I only need to rest.” Shelly didn’t hesitate to override Jared’s objections. She let go of Ty and relaxed back against the gurney mattress, sucking in a harsh breath when her stomach cramped again. The ER doc had reassured her that her appendix was fine. But, man, her stomach hurt. If this was just a bad case of the flu, she’d go home for sure. She needed a bathroom, and no way was she using a bedpan.
Uh-uh. No way, no how.
“Erica? I think Shelly needs help,” Jared called out to the nurse seated at the desk not far from Shelly’s cubicle.
The nurse hurried back. “What can I get you?”
“You can get me out of here,” she said firmly. “I need to go home. Where’s the doctor?” She wasn’t in the mood to be poked and prodded. Why didn’t they just let her rest in peace?
“Relax, I have some good news. We found the source of your problem. Seems you have food poisoning in the form of an intestinal staph infection.”
“Staph? From what?” Shelly wrinkled her forehead in confusion as she thought back to what she’d eaten after Ty had gone to bed. “The sandwich.”
Erica leaned closer, her gaze intent. “What sandwich?”
“My dinner last night. I bought a sandwich at the local gas station. I only ate half of it because it tasted awful. I threw the rest of it away.”
“Ah, that’s probably it.” Erica smiled.
Shelly felt like a fool. Ending up in the emergency department of Trinity Medical Center just because of a lousy turkey and mayo sandwich. How humiliating.
“Well, at least that’s one mystery solved,” Erica was saying. “We’re starting you on IV antibiotics.”
She pulled herself together. “Good. Give me the first dose, then I’m out of here.” She knew she was being stubbornly persistent, but she didn’t care.
“Not without twenty-four hours’ worth of IV antibiotics, you’re not.” Erica’s expression grew strained.
Shelly knew she wasn’t being a very cooperative patient, but then again, that wasn’t unusual. Doctors and nurses always made the worst patients. She didn’t care if she was only adding to the cliché. She steeled her resolve.
Ty needed her at home.
“I’ll go home with my IV. I’m a nurse, I can hang my own antibiotics.”
Erica threw up her hands in defeat. “Argue with the doctor, okay? Leave me out of it.”
When Dr. Feeney walked in a few moments later, he raised a hand as Shelly opened her mouth. “Hold on. Before you start nagging me, I want to ask Dr. O’Connor a few questions.”
Shelly snapped her mouth shut, then narrowed her gaze suspiciously. “Why? He doesn’t have anything to do with my care.”
Jared’s jaw tightened, but Shelly chose to ignore it. Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t be here without Jared’s help, but that didn’t give this Dr. Feeney any right to discuss her care with him. It was a privacy violation, wasn’t it? But before she could blink, the two men left her alone with her son.
“We had hotcakes and sausage for breakfast,” Ty chattered, seemingly not put off with her being a patient in the emergency department. “You should see how much food is in the cafeteria, Mom. There’s loads and loads of stuff to pick from. Like, you can ask for anything you want. Anything! Can we stay here for lunch, too?”
Shelly flashed Ty a tired smile. “I don’t know, we’ll see. I’m glad you enjoyed breakfast. It was nice of Dr. O’Connor to take you.”
“Is he your boyfriend?” Ty asked at the exact same moment the two physicians returned to her room.
Mortification burned her cheeks. Good grief, where had Ty gotten such a wild idea? And she didn’t even know what thoughts lurked behind Jared’s eyes. He raised a brow in her direction, but she was grateful he didn’t mention anything about Ty’s innocent question.
“Shelly, you’ll be glad to know Dr. Feeney is willing to allow you to be discharged, with an IV for your antibiotics. As soon as this dose is in, you’ll be released.”
“Good.” Shelly leaned back against the raised mattress of her gurney. “See, Ty? We’ll be home befo
re lunch.”
“There’s only one condition,” Jared added.
Her gut clenched. She should have known Dr. Feeney’s capitulation had been too easy. “And what might that be?”
“That you allow me to sleep on your sofa overnight to keep an eye on you.” Jared’s normally somber gaze twinkled in amusement as her eyes widened in horror. “Don’t worry, I promise to behave.”
5
Behave? Maybe she didn’t want Jared to behave. She gave herself a mental head-slap. Wait a minute, what was she thinking? Of course, she wanted Jared to behave. The man was too good-looking for his own good. A testosterone-laden complication she didn’t need.
The more she thought about it, the more she resented the fact that he planned on staying at her place. She didn’t want him hanging around, getting underfoot. Not when she looked terrible with her greasy hair and pale skin. She probably didn’t smell very good either.
She forced herself to look him directly in the eye. It was difficult to make a stubborn stand while lying supine on a hospital gurney, but she gave it her best shot. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I hang antibiotics for patients every single day. I’m sure I can manage. I’m not an invalid.”
“No one said you were.” Jared’s voice was calm. Reasonable. But she was so not in the mood to be rational.
Giving up on Jared, she turned toward Dr. Feeney. The older doctor stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a bland, almost bored expression on his face.
“Dr. Feeney, I need to go home. Surely you can understand my dilemma. My son can’t stay alone, and I don’t have any family to watch over him for me.”
“Not even Ty’s father?” Jared interjected.
She glared at him, wordlessly telling him to back off. “No.” She shifted back toward Dr. Feeney. “I don’t understand why this is such a big deal. What could possibly happen to me that would need Dr. O’Connor’s attention?”
“Let’s see, maybe you’ve heard of septic shock?” His condescending tone raked like fingernails down a chalkboard against her nerves. “A staph infection is serious. You have two choices.” He held up one finger. “Spend the night here in the hospital while your son stays with Dr. O’Connor.” He lifted a second finger. “Go home under Dr. O’Connor’s care. This infection isn’t anything to mess around with. If the antibiotics don’t work, you’ll get worse. You need to rest, which will be difficult enough with a five-year-old around. Your choice.”
Right. Some choice. She momentarily closed her eyes. Could this situation get any worse? Grimacing, she quickly realized she was being totally selfish. Yes, things could absolutely be far worse. Ty could be the one stuck in a hospital bed, seriously ill with irreversible kidney disease. She could be holding a sobbing child while they stuck needles into his arms. She would gladly be sick if it meant Ty would be healthy.
Abruptly she lifted her chin, accepting her fate. “You’re right. I choose to go home with Jared. I mean, Dr. O’Connor.”
“Good. I’ll see about getting your medications ready, especially your IV antibiotics.” Dr. Feeney grinned, although the thinning of his lips was more like a smirk as if he enjoyed the role of master puppeteer, manipulating people’s lives to his will.
“I’ll borrow an IV pole for Shelly to use at home,” Jared added cheerfully. “We’ll return it when we’re finished.”
Shelly scowled at both of them. Twenty-four hours. Thanks to Dr. Feeney’s infinite wisdom, Jared would be staying in her small house for twenty-four hours.
She was probably overreacting. How bad could it be? Surely, she could put up with anything for that long.
THE MOMENT the three of them entered her home, the magnitude of the situation hit hard. Shelly’s spirits sank. Her house only had two bedrooms, and while it was both affordable on her income and perfect for her and Ty, the interior shrank considerably with Jared standing in her living room. The sofa pulled out into a sleeper, but she knew from experience it would take up the entire living space. They wouldn’t be able to move without tripping over each other.
Resentment flared. She was so exhausted. The abdominal cramping had returned, forcing her to gauge the distance to the bathroom. The IV fluids had helped dramatically, but every muscle in her body felt as if she’d been tossed in the washing machine with the dial stuck on the highest spin cycle.
She didn’t want to deal with Jared. Not when she could barely stand, hanging on to the wall for support.
“Come on, bedtime for you.” Normally an order from Jared would have made the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight upright. But now, she didn’t have the energy to care, much less to fight.
“Mom’s room is over here.” Ty was no help, skipping down the short hallway and earnestly opening the door of her bedroom.
She scowled, wanting nothing more than to fall face-first into her bed and stay there for several hours. But what did Jared know about taking care of five-year-old boys? Nothing that wasn’t in his Merck Manual of Pediatric Diseases, she’d bet.
“I’ll rest soon.” She forced a smile, hoping it wasn’t a grimace. “Right now, I need to call the school to let them know why Ty wasn’t in class today.”
“I can do that.” Jared frowned. “Remember, you need to rest.”
“But Ty will need to have lunch soon and . . .” She lost her train of thought. For the life of her, she couldn’t think of another reason to stay upright. Although there had to be one, didn’t there?
“Shelly.” Jared leveled her a stern look. “Ty and I will be fine. Better, in fact, if we don’t have to worry about you. I need to get the IV pole from the car set up in your room before your next dose of antibiotic is due. The longer you stand there arguing with me, the longer it will take.”
Her vision blurred, her eyes nearly crossing with fatigue. Had she really been up most of the night or had it just seemed like it? Finally, she nodded. “You win. The sofa pulls out into a sleeper. Ty will show you where the school phone number is, and there’s food in the fridge.” She frowned and tried to remember the last time she’d visited the grocery store. “I think there’s food in the fridge. But maybe not.”
“Bed. Now.” Jared walked toward her, and she instinctively knew he’d carry her if necessary. Her fogged mind played tricks on her because she seemed to know exactly how it would feel to be held by Jared, his strong arms wrapping strongly yet protectively around her.
Her imagination? Or had that really happened? She frowned and moved away, ducking out of Jared’s reach, making her way down the short hallway under her own feeble strength. “I’m going. Just take care of Ty.” She couldn’t completely erase the wistful note in her tone.
Thankfully, Jared didn’t follow her all the way to her room. But when she glanced back at him, she noticed he was watching her intently, a puzzled expression on his face. He wasn’t a parent, so he couldn’t possibly understand how it felt to hand the care of your child over to someone who was almost a stranger.
“I will. I promise, he’ll be fine.”
Despite her exhaustion and cramping discomfort, Shelly nodded and entered her room. She changed into a clean pair of pajamas, then crawled thankfully into bed. A few minutes later, Jared brought the IV pole in, set it up, and then hung the IV bag on the hook. She wasn’t due for the next dose of antibiotic just yet, and he quickly left giving her time alone to rest. But even when she was surrounded by the comforts of her own home, she couldn’t lose herself in blessed sleep.
She heard the deep rumble of Jared’s masculine voice followed by the delighted peal of Ty’s laughter and wondered what Jared had said that was so funny. Ty was no doubt thoroughly enjoying the novelty of masculine attention. For a moment, uncertainty gnawed at her. Had she made the right choice all those years ago? Could she have tried to convince Mark’s family to see reason?
Shelly squashed the useless regrets. She knew she’d made the only decision she could have at the time. Single, alone, and pretty much penniless, she couldn’t
have taken on Mark’s wealthy parents and won. Not without a lot of luck.
The risk of losing her child for good had been too steep a price to bet on luck.
Ty was happy. She’d provided a good home for him over the years. She didn’t know why God meant for her to raise Ty alone, but she was determined to make the most of the path He had set before her.
Just as she drifted off to sleep, it occurred to her that she’d given Tyler everything he possibly needed.
Except a father.
JARED GRINNED as Ty performed another in a row of somersaults that propelled him across the length of the backyard. The kid possessed a bottomless energy every adult coveted. After displaying his gymnastic expertise, Ty showed off his sturdy swingset by climbing up to the very top.
“See? I told you I could,” Ty gloated.
He winced, imagining his feeble explanation to a suspicious ED doctor when Ty ended up in the hospital with a cracked skull. He’d taken care of enough kids to know accidents happened, but they could also be prevented. He gestured for Ty to come down. “I do see, but you need to come down now. Please.”
As the afternoon wore on, Jared slowly realized Ty bore an uncanny resemblance to his brother Mark. The boy’s brown eyes and brown hair were similar traits to dozens of other kids, but the little things, like the way his eyes crinkled at the corners and the hint of a dimple that flashed in his right cheek when he smiled, took Jared back several years. He imagined Mark had looked at him the same way Ty did, tilting his head to one side when listening to something Jared was saying.
Absently, Jared rubbed the nagging ache in the center of his chest. He was becoming obsessed with his brother. Memories of Mark had taken up residence in his head, telegraphing intermittent waves of guilt. Even now, he knew he should be searching for Leigh Wilson instead of playing babysitter to Shelly’s son.
Jared sighed. Maybe he was kidding himself in thinking he could succeed where the private investigator had failed. He’d already logged several hours on the internet on various search engines to no avail. Today he’d planned to head down to the Milwaukee County Courthouse to search all the Wilsons living here during the time Leigh had been born. He’d hoped to start interviewing them one by one to see if he could find a relative of hers. There had to be an aunt or uncle, if not her parents somewhere.