As soon as it stops, it starts up again, just as Derrick’s ringtone fills the room.
In slow motion, I look at him and he looks at me. That’s when it dawns on us why both of us would be getting a call.
“Dr Littlefoot,” I say, answering my phone.
“Hi, Blair. It’s Em. Um, I didn’t want to worry but now I think Ishouldbe. You said for us to call if his breathin’ slowed down too much. Well, I just checked and he’s only takin’ like seven breaths a minute. That’s bad, right?” she asks, her voice tight and frantic.
Just hearing her say it’s his breathing had me on my feet.
“OK, Em. We’re leaving now. We’ll be there as soon as possible,” I say at the same time Derrick says, “Yeah, Zane. We’re comin’ now,” into his phone and hangs up.
“Derrick, you go ahead with Blair. I’ll follow behind,” Sutton says. “Gorgeous, where’s your medical bag?”
“In my car,” I rush out.
Sutton hooks a hand behind my neck and gives me a gentle reassuring squeeze. “Let me get that for you and I’ll meet you around the front. I’ll be right behind you.”
What we don’t expect is Jude to jump to his feet and follow us out of the house. “I’m comin’ too.”
“Why?” I ask, not having time to argue.
“I can’t explain. There’s just somethin’ tellin’ me I have to come with you. I’m just followin’ my gut.”
That’s when Derrick turns to Jude. “This somethin’ to do with the Call?”
“I don’t know. Maybe? I just have to be there. That’s all I know…”
Derrick stares at him for a moment before his head drops. “Dammit,” he mutters. “Ofcourseit had to be a Cooper. It’s like history repeatin’ itself.”
“What?” I ask, switching between them. “What do you mean? It can’t be the Call. Did you forget that the Coopers and the Wilson’s are related?”
Derrick sighs. “I don’t have time to explain right now, but just know that Em’s my sister in every way she can be, except by blood.”
“What?” The three of us say at the same time.
“Yep. So, if this is the Call, this whole damn thing just got a hell of a lot more complicated,” Derrick replies.
My head flicks between Jude and Derrick. “Wait. You’re sayin’ Jude andEm?”
“Well, it sure ain’t goin’ to beme,is it?” Derrick sighs. “But somethin’ tells me, we’re all about to find out.”
Epilogue 1 - Sutton
5years later
“Daddy, daddy, come,” our almost three-year-old daughter Lou Lou says, tugging on my pant leg.
“What’s up?”
“Daddy. You’ve got to come see,” she says emphatically.
“OK. OK.” I leave the dishes I’m washing, drying my hands before holding my arm out for hers, loving the happiness shining back at me in her bright blue eyes. “Where are you takin’ me, precious?”
“This way.” Then I’m being dragged toward the hallway and to the door leading to the back of the house where our family’s ‘wing’ of the house will be finished soon.
Birdie and Will’s part was first, coming off the lounge at the front side of the house. Case and Isla’s wing incorporates Will and Case’s old bedrooms and then extending out to the opposite front side of the house.
This one that will belong to me, Blair, and Lou, is at the far back of the house, taking up the bedrooms that used to being to me and Jude.
