“That’s because you didn’t have a bathing suit. Trust me, you’ll want to go shopping with me. That sound like a good deal?”
Savannah nods. Sydney wipes away her tears as I unlock the car and open the door for the backseat. Listening to them was nice, but now, all I can think about is what kind of bathing suit Sydney is going to pick. Is she going to wear a bikini? A one-piece? Or a different kind of two-piece that covers her body more? When Savannah is all buckled up and Sydney turns to face me, I can’t help but ask.
“What are you going to wear?”
She smiles. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Evil, gorgeous. You’re pure evil.”
She kisses me quickly. “I’ll make it up to you tonight.”
Now, that is what I like to hear.
“Damn, EJ, you look like hell,” Zane says as we’re walking out to the parking lot after practice.
“Bree cries a lot at night and she doesn’t want to sleep,” he explains.
“Isn’t your mom there to help you?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean she’s doing all the work. She’s mine to take care of,” he snaps. And she is. He had a test done to confirm that he’s actually the father.
“Hey, we get that,” I break in. “But you still need some sleep.”
“I’m not putting my kid off on my mom.” EJ glares at me. “Besides, she’s going to cry either way and that wakes me up.” He shakes his head. “I don’t understand how someone so cute and adorable can be so cranky and upset all the time.”
Scott laughs when he hears this. “She’ll get better, EJ. How long is your mom staying?”
“Forever?” That cracks us up, but EJ adds, “At least until the season is over. Thank god she’s retired. I’d be lost without her helping me.”
“Let’s have lunch,” Scott says. “You need it.”
EJ hesitates. “I don’t know. I told Mom I’d be back.”
“We can go to your house. Maybe Bree is crying because she’s tired of seeing your ugly ass,” Z jokes with a grin.
EJ shrugs. “If that’s what you guys want to do.”
So, we go our separate ways in the parking lot to follow him to his house. I check my phone and find that it’s dead. How the hell did that happen? I’m pretty sure I charged it last night. I plug it into the car charger, and when I get to EJ’s, I leave it in the car to continue to charge.
“Damn, man. This house is nice.” Zane whistles as we walk inside. It is a nice two-story house that sits in a subdivision.
“Yeah. I kind of went overboard, but,” he shrugs, “having all those bedrooms is incredibly useful right now.”
“Elias James?” a woman calls.
“Yeah, Ma. It’s me. Some of the guys are with me,” he finishes as an older lady enters the foyer with little Bree in her arms. “Ma, this is Zane, Scott, and Ian. Guys, this is my mom, Alice.”
“Nice to meet you gentlemen.”
EJ snorts as he takes Bree from her. “They aren’t gentlemen, Ma.”
“We most certainly are,” Scott defends us. “We came to give y’all a mini-break and play with the baby. Hand her over, Elias James.”
EJ glares as he nods his head toward a room on the left, the living room. We take a seat on the couch, and EJ does actually hand Bree to Scott, but it’s only because he’s going to help his mom with lunch.
“Man, I forgot how much I love babies,” Scott murmurs. “It’s been forever since Stella and Stephanie were this little.”
“You could always have more kids,” Zane says.
Scott just shakes his head and talks to Bree instead. “And your daddy said you’re a fussy baby. He’s crazy, isn’t he?”
She blinks and jerks her hand. We take turns holding the baby and EJ takes her once it’s time for lunch. I don’t really know much about him, but it’s clear that he wants to take care of Bree and that he loves her. If I don’t know anything else about EJ Bertuzzi, I know that he’s taking the dad role seriously.
“I thought you said she cried all the time?” Zane asks. “She hasn’t cried once since we’ve been here.”
Alice laughs. “She’s taking a break. She had just calmed down from a crying fit before you got here.”
Really, all she’s done is sleep, but it doesn’t sound like she’s sleeping at night, so she has to catch up at some point. Her schedule is backward. For EJ’s sake, I hope they get it turned around soon. We thank them for lunch and head out, so we can get our own nap in before we have to be at the arena. When I get into the car, my phone is on.
There are dozens of missed calls from Sydney and even more texts. Before I can press the buttons to call her back, there’s another incoming call from her.
“Hey, ba—”
“Where the fuck have you been?” she whisper-yells. “I’ve been calling and texting for over an hour, Ian! You can’t just not answer! We have a kid! You always have to answer me! What the fuck have you been doing while I’ve been over here losing my mind?”
“What is going on?” I ask, my heart hammering in my chest at how upset she sounds. “My phone died and it was charging in the car while I was at EJ’s to see the baby and have lunch. What’s wrong?”
“Well, that’s fucking great! I’ve been in the hospital with Savannah while you’re socializing! You can’t do that, Ian! You—”
“What happened to Savannah?” I interrupt. Thank god I haven’t pulled out of EJ’s driveway yet. I’d have to pull over.
Sydney takes a deep breath. “I got a call from the daycare. They were outside since it was warm today. She fell, broke her arm, and hit her head. They had to call an ambulance. So, I’m here with her. She wants her fucking daddy, and I can’t get up with him! She has to get stitches, Ian. And a cast for her arm. And you were nowhere to be found!”
“I’m on my way now.”
She scoffs. “Why?”
In the background, I hear, “Ms. Jarvis?”
“I have to go.” She hangs up without another word.
Fuck! I read her texts, see she’s at the county hospital. Before I can leave, EJ is jogging out of the house.
“Hey, Marco just called me to see if you were here. Sydney has been trying to call you because—”
“Yeah, I know. Thanks. I gotta go.”
What are the odds that the one time I don’t have my phone with me, something happens to Savannah? Sydney didn’t sound like she’s going to cool off any time soon either.
When I get there, they let me into the back to see Savannah. She’s screaming bloody murder, clutching to Sydney with one hand. They’ve already put the cast on her arm in the time it took for me to get here. Sydney looks like a wreck, and the guilt starts eating away at me for not seeing if EJ had a charger so I could bring my phone inside to charge at least.
“Savannah, come on. They have to do it so it won’t hurt.”
“No! No! No!” she screams.
“Hey.” It seems like a terrible way to announce my presence, but it gets their attention.
“Daddy! Save me! Please! Please!” Savannah reaches for me. With her head away from Sydney’s neck, I see the patch of gauze on her forehead.
I pick her up, rubbing her back. “What’s going on?” I ask Sydney, but the doctor is the one who answers me.
“We need to stitch up the gash on her head, and that means a shot.”
“No! No! No shot!” Savannah screams as she bursts into tears again, wiggling in my arms as if she could escape that way.
“They already tried giving her something to calm her down,” Sydney says. “It’s not working, or else it’s just taking a really long time.”
“I go home,” Savannah whispers to me. Her body is suddenly lax in my arms like she’s given out and she has no more fight in her.
“I know, but the doctor has to fix your forehead first. Mommy and I will hold your hand, okay?”
“No!” She wiggles in my arms again. “It hurts!”
“For like one second.”
“What? I’m not going to lie to her.” It makes Savannah cry more, though. “Savannah, look at me.” She lifts her head. “Daddy’s had stitches before.” Her eyes widen. “The shot for stitches? It’s not like normal shots. It feels like this.” I give her a small pinch for half a second. “That’s all it hurts. You’re a brave big girl, aren’t you? Can’t you handle that? I think you can.”
Her lips tremble, a few more fat tears fall, and she shakes her head.
“Please? We’ll take you to the store and you can pick out any toy you want.” Bribing can’t hurt at this point, can it?
She takes a good two minutes to think about that. “You hold me?” she asks.
I glance to the doctor. “You can lie with her on the bed.”
“That work, little Miss?”
Finally, she nods. I sit her down on the bed and sit next to her. She lies down, I do too, and she looks at me as the doctor tells her to. I take her hand. She squeezes it as hard as she can.
“You have to stay still, okay, Savannah?” the doctor says.
“We can do that, can’t we? We’ll have a staring contest. Can’t look away from my face, Savannah. If you win, you get cookies after dinner tonight.”
“Okay,” she whispers. “Mommy?”
Sydney stands. “I’m right here, buttercup.”
The doctor is about to give her the shot, so I say, “You know, now you have a cast like Lo-Lo.”
“Ow!”
“That part’s over,” the doctor reassures.
“Maybe Lo-Lo will draw on your cast like you drew on his,” I continue.
Savannah and I talk until the stitches are in. Her eyes are dry by the time it’s over. Soon, she’s discharged. She wants to ride home with me, and Sydney doesn’t put up any fight at all. In fact, she doesn’t talk to me unless she has to. On the ride home is when that medicine seems to finally kick in and make Savannah sleepy.
Sydney looks exhausted when I get to the apartment, carrying a nearly asleep Savannah.
“Lay her on the couch,” Sydney says softly.
I check the time. Damn it. I have to get ready to leave for the arena. We were at the hospital longer than I thought we were, and I was at EJ’s longer than I thought I was. “I have to go soon.”
“I know.” She lies next to Savannah and closes her eyes.
“Are you going to talk to me when I get home?”
She shrugs a shoulder. Damn it.
“Need anything?”
“Sleep.”
“Babe,” I start.
“Go away, Ian. Get ready for your game and go away.”
For a few moments, I stand there, waiting to see if she’ll give me something, anything, to soothe the building unease, but nothing happens. I leave for our bedroom to change into a suit. Sydney is asleep when I come back into the living room. She’s pissed, but I don’t care. I lean down and kiss both of their foreheads before I go. What happened was a simple mistake. She can’t stay pissed at me forever.
Right?
Reluctantly, I turn the game on. The last thing I want to do is think about Ian, but Savannah wanted to watch while we eat the cookies Ian promised I would make her. Our nap didn’t last long enough if you ask me. Getting that call and dealing with Savannah when she was hurt and in pain has left me emotionally exhausted. That is a first I never want to experience again. Once was more than enough.
Savannah has already asked when she can take the cast off. Hopefully, being like Logan will be enough for her to like it while she has it. Logan is supposed to be on his way over here, too. I called Mom to tell her what happened, and Logan was next. He wants to see her, so he should be here soon. I’m glad because I want to see him.
“Goal!” Savannah’s arms shoot up in the air as a horn goes off on the TV.
“That was a fantastic pass by Zane Landry,” one of the broadcasters says.
“Mommy!” She pats my leg, even though she has my full attention. “That’s Z!”
“Yeah, he helped score the goal. You’ll have to give him a fist bump next time you see him.” There’s a knock on the door. “Come in,” I call out.
“Lo-Lo! Look! I’m like you!”
“I see that. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to go around getting yourself hurt?” he asks as he takes a seat next to me and pulls her into his lap, checking her over.
“It was accident,” she tells him, totally obliterating the word ‘accident.’
I half-listen as he talks to her and I watch the game. It’s good to have the two guys giving a play-by-play because what I learned, I’ve nearly forgotten already. Liam Irving comes out of the blue paint, going around the net to play the puck, and I tense. What is he doing? Shouldn’t the goalie stay in front of the net? He can’t keep the puck out if he’s behind the net. I breathe a quiet sigh of relief when he’s back in his place, just in time to make a save, too.
When there’s a stoppage in play, a commercial comes on.
“How’d Ian react? How’d you react?” Logan asks, now coloring on her cast.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I didn’t tell him much of anything earlier, except that she got hurt while they were outside playing. I thought I wanted to talk about it, but now? I’m too tired to get into it.
“That bad?”
“Worse.”
“You sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“Yep.”
He shakes his head and the game comes back on. Eventually, I have to talk to Ian. That’s bad enough. Right now, I’m drowning in disappointment. Talking about what happened isn’t going to help things.
There’s a face-off, which we apparently lose. The Sabres clear the zone, one of them has the puck on his stick, and he’s rushing down the ice toward Liam. I hold my breath as he lifts the stick high and shoots. Exhaling, I mentally congratulate Liam. He was posed and ready, making a sick glove save as he lifted his arm up in the air and moved it down just in time to catch it.
“Are you really watching a game?” Logan asks.
“Savannah wanted to.”
He raises an eyebrow at me because she’s now coloring on his cast and definitely not watching the game. I’m a breath away from telling him to go home. I’m not in a social mood after all.
“What’s been going on with Carey?” I ask to change the subject.
“I don’t know. She isn’t talking to me.”
The excitement coming from the announcers distracts me as I look back to the TV to see Ian fighting with some guy. Totally missed what happened to cause that. Is it bad that I’m rooting for the other guy in this instance? It’s not like I’m going to whoop Ian’s ass. Someone else might as well do it. When they cut the cameras to Ian in the penalty box, I feel guilty. I’m a terrible person to wish he’d at least have a busted lip or something. I really feel bad when later, he gets a high-stick to the face and then there is blood. My god, how many times do they need to show a replay of that?
Thankfully, the period ends soon after what happened to Ian. Since Logan is here, Savannah wants him to read to her before bed, so I’m left alone while he does that. My mind wanders to the panic I felt earlier when I got that call from Savannah’s daycare. My little girl has never been hurt before. I wanted to faint when they told me about her injuries; it didn’t help that I could hear her crying in the background either.
I immediately headed to the hospital because they told me that the ambulance just arrived to take her. I also began my first of many attempts to get ahold of Ian. I needed him there, and after the fourth call, I realized that I had no way of getting in touch with him if he was busy with work, though I knew he should be done by then. But what if it was during a game or practice and something happened that I needed to reach him? Who would I call to get word to him? I have no earthly idea. That pissed me off because he should make sure I’m able to do that if it’s an emergency.
But it was an emergency, he shouldn’t have been cau
ght up with work, and I still couldn’t get ahold of him. He’s supposed to be dependable and reliable. He should be there for me, especially when it comes to Savannah. Yet, the phone rang and rang. Texts went unanswered. All the while, I’m barely holding on once I see an inconsolable Savannah, her broken arm, and the blood on her face. I wanted to throw up when I saw her. For a solid second, I thought I was going to.
Two thoughts were running through my mind: My poor baby. God, is she going to be okay? And where. The. Fuck. Is. Ian?
I needed him. Savannah wanted him. He was off doing who knows what.
I did text Meredith and Lizzy and asked if they would get Noah and Marc to find Ian for me because if he was still with teammates or at work, they’d have better luck.
Now that I know what he was doing and why he wasn’t answering, I’m still just as pissed and upset. This feels so major for him to be unreachable when we needed him to be there. This entire situation has sent me spiraling, rethinking everything between us, and second-guessing our relationship.
“Syd?”
I glance up to see Logan. “Yeah?”
“You okay?”
“No, but don’t worry about me just yet. She all tucked in?”
“Yeah. Do you want me to stay for a while? I was planning to head home, but I don’t mind hanging out if you want me to.”
My gut is to tell him no, but I pat the seat next to me and he hobbles over, plopping down on the couch. Logan puts an arm around me. I burst into tears, causing him to pull me in closer.
“Damn, Syd. What the fuck happened today?”
“She broke her arm and it took for-fucking-ever to get up with Ian,” I cry. “It’s wore me out and made me crazy. I’m sorry.” I try to calm myself and wipe away the wetness on my cheeks. “Just watch the game with me.”
“All right. If you want me to kick Ian’s ass or anything, just say the word.”
I laugh. “Thanks.”
“And just so you know, I expect a really good birthday present this year. I’ve been a fantastic brother.”
“Yes, you have. Thank you. Just tell me what you want and it’s yours.”
Logan starts talking, essentially giving me a list like I’m Santa and it’s Christmas. I watch as a goal by the captain, Brayden Hayes, is reviewed, but because of Logan’s talking, I miss why it’s under review. At least we’re leading four to two right now. Brayden’s goal will make it five if it’s good.
It's Our Time (Carolina Rebels Book 4) Page 19