“Be a parent, you mean?”
He glanced at her. “Yeah. I figured I maybe wouldn’t suck at it too badly.”
She considered his profile for a beat. He had a strong nose. Forceful. She’d never consciously noticed that about him before.
“You’re a smart guy. You can probably do almost anything if you want it enough.”
“Yeah.” He glanced toward the counter and she knew he was wondering if this conversation was already defunct. If his baby had survived or not. If Lola was still alive.
The next hour crawled. Vivian was checking her emails for the fifth time when a tall, thin man dressed in scrubs entered the waiting area.
“Seth Anderson?” he called out.
Seth looked up, then stood, and the doctor gestured for Seth to join him. He glanced at her.
“I’ll be here,” she said.
He nodded. She watched him disappear around the corner, feeling sick and worried for him.
Not so long ago, she’d wanted to tear him a new one. Now, she just wished she had the power to set his world to rights.
But she didn’t. All she could do was sit here and wait.
* * *
SETH STEPPED INTO a small, stark room that was obviously set aside for the delivery of bad news to patients’ loved ones.
Holy shit.
He sat on one side of the table and watched as the surgeon took the other seat. The muffin he’d eaten had congealed into a lump of concrete in his stomach and his mouth was cotton-dry.
“As you know, Ms. Brown was brought in with extensive head and internal injuries. In situations like this where there are potentially two lives at risk, we try to consider the outcome for both mother and child. Especially in such a late-term pregnancy where the fetus is highly viable.”
Seth pressed his back teeth together so firmly they ached. When was this guy going to cut to the chase?
“It was evident to us early on that the baby was alive but in distress, and we decided to deliver her while at the same time working to stabilize Ms. Brown. The baby is small, but she is holding her own. Ms. Brown, however, remains in a critical condition. We have repaired a laceration to her liver and removed a length of ruptured bowel. Both injuries are stable, but the trauma to her head is profound. My colleague, Dr. Conrad, has operated to remove a section of her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain. Even so, there has been significant bleeding and swelling, and we’ve been forced to put her into an induced coma to give her body a chance to rally.”
Seth swallowed, trying to keep a track of all the information. “The baby. The baby is okay?” he asked, seizing onto the only piece of positive information the man had passed on.
“She’s a little underweight, but she’s responding well. You can visit her in the neonatal unit shortly.”
“This coma...that’s reversible, right?”
“Yes. But I need to stress to you that she’s suffered profound brain trauma.”
“So, are you saying that she’s going to die?” Because if that was what the guy was getting at, Seth would prefer for him to put it out there rather than hedge his bets with medical mumbo jumbo.
“The next twenty-four hours are critical. But you should know that even if Ms. Brown does survive, she will more than likely have significant mental deficits. I’m not sure what plans you have in place, but it’s highly unlikely that she will be in a position to be the primary caregiver for her child in the near future, if at all.”
Seth sat back. He had that airless feeling again, as though someone had punched him in the solar plexus.
“She’s only twenty-four,” he said stupidly.
As if Lola’s age made a difference to anything.
“I know this is a lot to process. Take as long as you need in here, and if you have any further questions for me, feel free to call.” He handed over his business card before standing.
Seth stared unseeingly at the black words on the square of card.
“Is there anyone we can call for you, Mr. Anderson?”
“What? No. No, I’ve got it covered.”
“Then I’ll speak to you later. Don’t hesitate to make contact if you have any questions.”
Seth had barely finished nodding before the doctor was gone, pulling the door shut behind him. Seth set the card on the table and planted his hands on either side of it.
Lola was teetering on the edge of death.
He had a daughter.
It was unlikely that Lola would ever be a true mother to her child.
He swore, the single word hissing between his teeth. This was...not happening. It was too big. Too much. Too terrible.
He had no idea how long he stared at the table, but the sound of the door handle brought his head up as a nurse appeared in the doorway.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize anyone was in here,” she said, quickly shutting the door again.
It was enough to jolt him from his stupor. He slid the doctor’s card into his pocket and made his way to the waiting area. Vivian came to meet him the moment she spotted him.
“You’re as white as a ghost,” she said, resting her hand on his forearm.
“The baby is okay,” he said. “It’s a girl. But Lola’s in an induced coma.”
“God, Seth. You must be reeling.”
“Yeah, I am a little.”
“Come and sit down for a moment.” She led him back to their chairs.
“Can you see the baby?”
“Yes. I need to find the neonatal unit....” His gaze went to the sign hanging from the ceiling, but there was no mention of a maternity ward, just X-ray and Admissions.
“What about Lola’s parents? Do you have any way of contacting them?”
He stared at her, then the import of her words sunk in. His brain cleared and he could see all the steps that lay before him. All the things he needed to do, the calls he needed to make. He took a deep breath, pushing his hair off his forehead.
“I’ll need to go to her place, see if she’s got anything there with their contact details. She’s got a laptop. Maybe Zara knows her password.”
“Where does she live? We can go there when we leave here.”
He frowned. “You must have stuff to do. I can’t let you be my personal taxi service.”
Maybe he should call Jason, see if he could borrow his car for a few hours. Although the logistics of how his brother would get the car to him and then get home again were beyond him right now.
“Seth, you’ve got more than enough on your plate without worrying about how you’re going to get around. Let me do this for you.”
He wanted to argue—she didn’t owe him anything—but she was right. He was in the middle of the biggest crisis he’d ever faced and the last thing he needed was more stress.
“Okay. Thanks. I really appreciate this, Viv.”
“I know. What do we need to do now?”
“Find the neonatal ward.”
Her expression softened. “To see your daughter.”
“Yeah.”
He had a daughter. Not just a notional bump, or a blurry outline on a scan. A real, live, breathing baby girl. She’d survived the accident and the surgery, and she was waiting for him somewhere in this massive edifice of concrete and steel.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said, suddenly urgent.
He needed to make sure his little girl was okay.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE BABY WAS small, but that was to be expected considering she was only thirty-six weeks. Vivian stood at the viewing window and watched as Seth spoke to the nurse on the other side. He looked so grim and scared as he gazed into the crib. And no wonder. This was a nightmare of epic proportions. Every single plan he and Lola had made for the future had been scuttled in one fell swoop.
But his daughter was alive, and, by the look of her, well. That was a huge, huge positive to cling to.
The only positive, really, until they heard more regarding Lola’s condition.
The nurse reached
into the crib and lifted the baby out. Seth accepted the tiny, white wrapped bundle, automatically drawing her close to his chest, nestling her head into the crook of his arm. Vivian blinked, surprised by how natural he looked holding his child. Then she remembered that he’d had plenty of practice with Sam and Max. He might come across as a die-hard bachelor, but in some ways he’d been training for this for years.
He lowered his head and said something to his daughter, his expression almost unbearably tender. It was such an intimate, personal moment Vivian had to look away. A lump of emotion swelled her throat and she swallowed a couple of times, wishing there was something more she could do for him. For all of them.
When she was confident she wouldn’t turn into a one-woman waterworks, she let herself look again. He was rocking the baby in his arms, his shoulders hunched as though he wanted to curl around her to protect her from the world. And the expression on his face—it was a mix of wonder, grief, fear and bafflement.
He glanced up, and their eyes met. A shy smile curved his mouth before he caught himself. She knew exactly what he was thinking—that it was wrong to feel anything but bad given the circumstances. But he was holding a new person in his arms. How could he not celebrate that? How could he not feel enormously relieved and grateful and honored?
She smiled to let him know it was okay to be happy that his daughter had arrived and survived. Then he returned his attention to his girl and she knew that everything and everyone else had been forgotten. As it should be.
Some of the color was back in his face when he left the nursery. He looked...determined. As though he knew exactly what needed to be done. And who needed to come first.
“I have to talk to someone about paperwork, apparently. Then we can get going. I’ll call Zara, and make sure she’s going to be around.”
It took another hour for them to escape the hospital. Zara had assured Seth that she’d be at the town house she and Lola rented, and Vivian drove toward the city, finally parking in front of a small two-story town house situated opposite the train line in Malvern East.
Seth didn’t immediately get out of the car and she saw he was bracing himself. Preparing himself to deal with Zara.
“She was pretty upset, huh?”
“Yeah. They’re both English, and they’ve become pretty good mates even though they didn’t know each other before they came to Australia.”
Vivian didn’t point out that dealing with Zara would be ten times easier than breaking the bad news to Lola’s parents. She was sure that Seth was already painfully aware of that fact.
“You don’t need to come in if you don’t want to,” he said suddenly.
She considered the town house and what was likely to occur once he went inside.
“It might be helpful to have another woman around.”
“Yeah, but this isn’t your mess.”
“You can be grateful later, okay? Let’s just get through this.”
His dark eyes were unfathomable as he looked at her. “Viv, all that stuff with Jason and Jodie and the kids... If I’d stopped to think for even a second, none of that crap would have ever come out my mouth.”
“No kidding.” She opened her door. “Let’s do this.”
He joined her on the pavement and squared his shoulders before reaching for the catch on the waist-high gate. The garden was overgrown and neglected, a handful of junk mail rotting into the garden bed beside the letter box. Remembering the share-houses of her youth, Vivian had a fair idea what she was about to walk into—Ikea furniture, cask wine and the kind of clutter that only two young women can generate.
The door opened as they approached, revealing a wan-looking, fuller-figured brunette dressed in an oversize sweater and black leggings.
“I heard you pull up,” she said. Her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed and she clutched a scrunched-up tissue in one hand.
“I’m really sorry, Zar,” Seth said.
Her face crumpled and Seth stepped forward, wrapping her in a hug. “She’s in a great hospital, and they’re doing everything they can.”
Vivian tried not to stare. Over the years, she’d seen Seth flirt and tease and be charming. She’d seen him argue with her sister and roll his eyes at his father. She’d seen him be both playful and stern with his nephews. But she’d never seen the side of him she’d witnessed tonight—empathetic, gentle, patient. Emotional.
Not so much the battle-hardened bachelor. Maybe more of a well-disguised marshmallow in wolf’s clothing.
“She just went out to grab some stuff for dinner,” Zara said, her voice thick with tears. “I invited her to come to the movies with me but she said she didn’t feel like it.”
“I invited her to come to my nephew’s party, too,” Seth said. “Don’t give yourself a hard time about those sorts of choices. Best way to drive yourself nuts.”
Zara blew her nose, then she seemed to register Vivian for the first time.
“This is Vivian, my sister-in-law,” Seth explained.
“I’m so sorry about your friend,” Vivian said simply.
Zara nodded, her chin wobbling. Seth put his arm around her.
“I need to work out how to contact Lola’s parents. I don’t suppose you have any idea where she keeps that kind of stuff.”
Zara’s forehead wrinkled as she thought for a moment. “I know she emails them pretty regularly. And they sent her a parcel for her birthday in March. There was a card....”
Vivian followed them as they disappeared into the house. Zara led them past an overcrowded living room and upstairs to Lola’s bedroom, where it looked as though a clothing bomb had exploded.
“Her computer password is legseleven.” Zara’s mouth formed a weak smile as she passed the laptop to Seth. “She loves bingo like nobody’s business.”
The battery was flat, and it took them a while to find the charger in all the mess. Eventually Seth was able to access her email account, and it didn’t take long to discover her parents’ email address. Vivian jotted it down in the notebook she always carried in her purse, but she could see that Seth wasn’t satisfied.
“I don’t want to send them an email telling them what’s happened,” he said.
“If we can find an address, we can look up their phone number online.”
More searching unearthed a stash of Christmas cards in Lola’s bedside drawer, most of which were still in their envelopes. It only took a few minutes to find one from her parents.
“I’ll take this, if that’s okay,” Seth told Zara.
She shrugged, looking lost and very young. Vivian remembered how alone and isolated she’d felt when her grandfather had died while she was living in New York. Being overseas was a fantastic adventure—until something happened to remind you of how precious and far away home was.
“Is there someone who can come stay the night with you?” she asked.
“My boyfriend works night shift. He’s coming over as soon as he finishes,” Zara said.
Vivian made her a cup of tea before they left, and Seth showed her a photograph he’d taken of the baby, which sent Zara to the bathroom to procure a fresh fistful of tissues.
“Can I come see her? Does she look like Lola?”
“Of course you can see her. And she has blond hair, like Lola,” Seth said.
It was nearly midnight by the time they got in the car to drive to Seth’s place.
“You okay?” she asked as she started the engine.
“Yeah.” He sounded infinitely weary.
“What’s the time difference between here and the U.K.?”
“Nine hours, I think. Depending on whether they’re on summer time.”
She saw the familiar golden arches of a McDonald’s ahead. “You want a burger? You must be starving.”
He shrugged, but she pulled into the drive-through anyway and ordered two cheeseburger meals. She parked in the lot, and they were silent as they unwrapped their food.
“I haven’t had a cheeseburger since I was a kid,” he s
aid.
“What do you normally have?”
“Big Mac, of course.” He waved the cheeseburger between them. “This is a girl’s burger.”
“I guess these fries are probably girly, too, right? Not chunky and masculine enough for you?”
“These fries are just fine,” he said, grabbing a handful and stuffing them into his mouth.
She laughed, the sound very loud in the confines of the car. Then she remembered why they were parked at McDonald’s at twelve-thirty on a Saturday night and the smile slipped from her lips.
“I might check in with the hospital,” Seth said, his mind clearly on the same track as hers.
He made the call, only to be told that there was no change in Lola’s condition. They finished eating and headed for Seth’s place.
“When do you get your car back?” she asked as she pulled into his driveway.
“Not till Monday afternoon at the earliest. But Jason texted me earlier—he’s going to drop his car off in the morning, so I’m covered. Thanks, though.”
“Oh, good. That’s great.” She thought about all the things he needed to sort out. Lola’s parents, Lola’s treatment, the baby... She felt overwhelmed just thinking about it. She could only imagine how he was feeling. If he was a friend—as opposed to a sort-of relative that she only had a very loose relationship with—she’d offer to come in and do whatever it took to ease his burden. But she was very aware of the fact that the only reason she’d played a part in this small tragedy tonight was because he’d needed to get from A to B. Under normal circumstances, she would have heard about this via her sister, a few days after the event, and it would be months before she’d be in a position to offer him her sympathies in person.
“I’m starting to feel like a broken record, but thanks for everything.” He faced her. “I would have been screwed if you hadn’t stepped up. And no one would have blamed you if you told me to go hang.”
“You can suck up to me for the next ten years to make it up to me, don’t worry.”
“Deal.”
“Try to get some sleep, okay?” she said. “As well as doing all the other stuff you need to do.”
“Yeah.”
He surprised her then by leaning across the hand brake and kissing her cheek. They’d never really done the kiss-hello, kiss-goodbye thing. For obvious reasons.
Her Kind of Trouble (Harlequin Superromance) Page 8
