taller one said, “If Mom and Dad will step outside the curtain, we’ll get this over with quick.” He reached for the baby Reese had to give up, but it killed her because Jamie cried out in protest.
“It’s okay, sport,” Nick assured him. “We’ll be right outside.” He reached for Reese’s hand and led her beyond the curtain. She knew he wasn’t thinking as he drew her along with him, but a sensation of warmth traveled up her arm into her body. He didn’t let go the whole time Jamie cried. With both their emotions raw, the feel of his hand gripping hers gave her the strength to deal with this crisis.
The technician had called them Mom and Dad. Right now she couldn’t imagine feeling any different if Jamie were her son. She loved that baby with every fiber of her being.
All these years she’d planned for a career, not realizing what it meant to love a child like she loved Jamie. The bond with him was so strong, it tore her apart to think of leaving him right now. When the day came that she had children of her own, how would she be able to leave them?
What if she were his mother and had to get back to her job of running a company? She couldn’t see it, not when Jamie needed her and Nick so desperately.
Together they stood having to endure his frightened cries. “For the last two weeks he’s only been with the two of us,” she whispered. “He’s not used to anyone else.”
In a minute the team left and another masked team showed up with their cart. “Stay where you are. This won’t take us long.”
Nick squeezed her hand gently before letting it go. She presumed their arrival made him realize he’d been holding on to hers all that time. Reese wished he wouldn’t have relinquished it. Without that physical connection, she was snatched back from her fantasy about being Jamie’s mother. Nick had been part of that fantasy, too. The three of them, a family. How was she ever going to say goodbye to them when the time came?
Deep in turmoil, she heard the baby let out a yelping cry like the one she’d heard through the monitor. They’d just jabbed him, she was sure of it, the poor darling. In reaction she smoothed her hands nervously over jeanclad hips.
It had been hours since she’d looked in a mirror. At least her hair was back in a ponytail and not messy. When they’d left for the hospital, she’d been in too alarmed a state to think about changing out of the jadecolored T-shirt she’d put on to study. But none of that mattered with Jamie lying there feverish and sick.
“They’re taking a hell of a long time in there,” Nick muttered.
Reese bit her lip. “It seems that way to me, too.”
“At this rate he’s going to think he’s been abandoned.”
“But he won’t remember once it’s over.”
“I’m not so sure of that.” Something in his tone told her that wasn’t idle talk. She wanted to ask him what he meant, but one of the team came outside the curtain with the cart, preventing further conversation.
“You can go back in now. We’ve attached his foot to a pad for protection. You can hold him all you want, just be mindful of the tubing.”
She and Nick hurried back inside to rescue his howling child, but were met by the other technician. “Wash your hands first, then put on the sterile gloves from the container on the wall. After you’ve done that, wear the masks we’ve left on the counter. Do this every time you leave the cubicle for any reason until the doctor tells you if your baby has Rotavirus or not. Dispose of everything in the bin inside the bathroom here. Leave through the other door that leads into the hallway.”
“Thank you,” they both said at the same time.
Once they were alone, Reese urged Nick to wash first. “Jamie needs you.” Though everything in her screamed to pick up the baby, he wasn’t her son and it wasn’t her place.
The warning Reese’s mother had given her about not getting too attached to the baby had gone by the wayside the first time she’d laid eyes on Jamie. The beautiful boy had caught at her heartstrings. After meeting his father, Reese knew why. Now—after loving and playing with him over the past two weeks—there were so many heartstrings being pulled by both Wainwrights, she realized she was in terrible trouble.
Once they were washed, gloved and masked, they spent the next hour taking turns holding him while they tried everything to settle him down. Finally he fell asleep and Nick lowered him to the crib.
“He’s not in pain right now, Nick.”
“We can be thankful for that small mercy at least.”
“You look exhausted. This is going to be an all-night vigil. Why don’t you slip out and grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria first. When you come back, I’ll go get something. I’d rather it was you he woke up to later.”
Nick’s eyes looked fierce above the mask. “He wants you just as much.” Her heart pounded dangerously, but it wasn’t from hunger or fatigue. “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
She knew the waiting was getting to him, but the more he kept telling her that, the more she wanted to believe it. “Hurry, before he wakes up looking for you.”
“All right, but I won’t be long.” He disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door. Reese walked over to the crib and looked down at the dear little boy she’d been privileged to take care of so far.
When Reese had helped her mom with her baby sister, she’d only been fourteen. Though she’d loved Emma, she couldn’t compare the feelings and emotions that filled Reese now. Jeremy had riddled her with accusations about being a cold woman who put a career above the feelings a normal woman possessed.
If he could see into her heart and soul right now, he would discover Reese was more than normal, and Jamie wasn’t even her son!
After consuming a sandwich and a piece of pie in record time, Nick left the cafeteria and walked outside the hospital doors. He had a phone call to make, but cell phones weren’t permitted inside. His father-in-law answered.
“Nick?”
“Sorry to call you this late, Walter, but I thought you should know I won’t be able to bring Jamie to White Plains tomorrow.”
There was a long silence. “Anne predicted right about you.”
He took a fortifying breath. “Jamie’s in the hospital with a bad flu bug of some kind. They’ll be keeping him overnight. Depending on what’s wrong after the tests come back, he might be here tomorrow night, as well. I’ll keep you posted and we’ll plan to bring him to White Plains next weekend instead.”
“What kind of flu?” Anne demanded. She’d picked up on another house phone the minute Walter had told her who was calling.
“We don’t know yet.”
“This never happened when he was with us.”
Nick was sorry she’d come on the line. This was exactly what he’d hoped to avoid. “Every child gets it, Anne. The point is, he’s receiving excellent care. I have to go back to him now. Tomorrow I’ll let you know how he’s doing. Good night.”
He hung up. It was automatic for him to check his voice messages. To his surprise there was one from his father. While his parents were traveling, they never called him. Out of curiosity more than filial duty, he clicked on.
“Nicholas? This is your father.” Nick shook his head because that was the way he always started out any phone call to him. The distance between them continued to widen. “Your mother and I are back on Long Island. I came in the office and discovered you’d already gone home. Stan tells me you’ve got the boy with you at the penthouse. Why you would do that baffles me and could prove to be very unwise. We ran into the Ridgeways while we were vacationing in Cannes. They’ll be back next week with their daughter Jennifer who’s been staying with friends in England. She’s