“I was scared,” I admitted, my hand fisting under the sheet.
“I know. I was, too.” He shifted, and the chair squeaked, complaining. I had a hunch that such recliners were not designed for guys as big as Noah. “Which reminds me. I’d like you to change your emergency contact to me when you get back to work. If Emma hadn’t been on your file today, I wouldn’t have known what was happening.”
I was too tired to argue, and besides, Noah had a point. “All right. I’ll update it as soon as I can.”
“Thank you.”
We were both quiet for a few moments before Noah spoke again. “Remember when we were here together right after I’d been hurt? When I was in the ER, and no one was doing anything, and I was in so much pain?”
“Of course, I remember that. I felt so terrible for you.”
“I was scared that day, and you sat with me and made me feel better. You kept my mind off all the nightmare scenarios that were dancing around my head. So consider this payback in part.”
I smiled in the dark. The meds were doing their job, and the headache was beginning to ebb. “All right. If you say so.”
I heard the steady, comforting rhythm of Noah’s breathing. I held on tight to that sound, foolishly glad that he was here, that he’d insisted on staying with me.
“You know, I was thinking before, when you were asleep, that you know pretty much everything that I’ve been doing since the last time we saw each other—I mean, since before my surgery,” he amended quickly. “You know I’ve been screwing things up left and right. But other than trying to get in touch with me, I have no idea what’s gone on in your life.” The chair squealed again. “What new projects have you done in your house? How’s everything in your office?”
I took a deep breath, thinking. “I finished the master bathroom.”
“How did it turn out?”
“It’s beautiful. I love it. The tub is old-fashioned, but it’s huge and deep . . . so comfortable. The colors are exactly what I wanted. It might be my favorite room in the house now.”
“Mmmmm. Can’t wait to see it.” Noah yawned. “What else has been new?”
I thought about the crazy, tumultuous ride the last few months had been. “Oh, I flew to California to see Daneen. Remember I told you about my last foster mothers, Daneen and Lana?”
“Yeah, I remember. Lana passed away a little while back, and Daneen’s in a home, right? Dementia?”
I was gratified and oddly touched that he’d remember. “Yeah, that’s it. She has congestive heart failure, and her doctor thought I should come to visit sooner than later.”
“How was she?”
I hesitated. “Good. Not as bad as I’d feared, but she didn’t know me . . .” I thought back to the few days I’d spent with her. “The first day, she talked about me. I mean, she talked about Alison, not recognizing that IamAlison, you know? And she said something about Lana doing some digging into who my parents were. If what she told me really happened, Lana found out that my mother had planned to keep me until the last minute. My biological father might have been a dangerous man—or he was in trouble with someone—whatever the reason, my birth mother thought it was safer to leave me than to take me home.”
“That’s wild.” Noah sounded genuinely intrigued. “Are you going to follow up on that? See if you can figure out who your parents were?”
I shook my head, even though I was pretty sure he couldn’t see me. “I don’t think so. Not now . . . maybe not ever. If it’s true and my mother really did leave me at the hospital because she thought I’d be safer, I could be stirring up something that’s better left alone. If it isn’t true . . .” I trailed off. “I’d rather not know. I’ve thought about what Daneen said, and it’s just so in character with who Lana was—and who Daneen was, too. Daneen always said it didn’t matter where we came from, it was where we were going. I think she would’ve been a little pissed that Lana went ahead and looked into it when Daneen didn’t think it made any difference. So maybe it’s true. It makes me feel a little more at peace when I think of my birth mother. Maybe she really did do the most noble thing she could.”
“Hmmmm.” Noah grunted. “Well, if you ever decide you want to take it further, find out more, I’d be happy to help however I could.”
“Thank you.”
I closed my eyes again and listened to Noah’s breath growing slower and more even. I smiled, picturing his body contorted into some semi-comfortable position on the recliner. It was such a peaceful feeling, knowing he was near me.
Before long, I was sleeping, too.
6
Noah
“All right, Ms—uh, Dr. Wakely. I think we’re going to send you home later this morning.”
The same doctor who I’d met the day before pulled the earpieces of his stethoscope from his ears as he straightened. He’d taken Alison’s blood pressure and pronounced it improved. Her temperature was lower, hovering just around ninety-nine. She still looked wan and pale to me, and the dark circles beneath her eyes were even more pronounced, but I was pretty sure she wasn’t feeling nearly as sick as she had the day before.
“Good.” Her voice was raspy, and she’d developed a slight cough. The doctor counseled us to let him know if her breathing was labored or if the cough became increasingly worse, and he offered some pregnancy-safe meds to help ease her symptoms.
