Half a second after jabbing the button, Matt noticed a woman approaching the elevator, carrying a giant floral arrangement with a pink-and-white balloon attached. He pressed the button to hold the door open.
“Thank you.” The woman sounded as if she’d sprinted from the parking lot.
“What floor do you need?”
“Tenth, please. I’m going to visit my sister and niece. She was born early this morning.”
Since the balloon said “Congrats, It’s A Girl,” he’d assumed she wasn’t there to visit someone who’d had their gallbladder removed.
“She wasn’t due until next week, but I guess she didn’t get the memo.”
He didn’t have much experience with pregnancies, but a week early didn’t sound unusual.
“I have ten nephews. My older two brothers both have all boys, so this is my first niece.”
Based on the excitement in her voice, one would think she’d been the one to have a baby.
“Don’t get me wrong. I love my nephews, but everyone hoped my sister would have a girl because even my cousins all have boys.”
Maybe it was because he preferred to keep as much of his life private as he could, but he’d never understood why some people felt the need to share personal information with random strangers.
Not responding would make him look rude, but what should he say? He didn’t know the woman and didn’t care that her sister had given birth to a baby that morning, or that it was the first girl in a long list of boys.
Hoping for some help, he glanced at Aiden across the elevator. The shrug he got in response told Matt his brother was clueless too.
A person couldn’t go wrong with congratulating someone, right?
“Congratulations.”
The smile on the woman’s face somehow grew. “Thank you. They named her Olivia. It’s our grandmother’s name. I have some pictures.”
At the name Olivia, an image of Liv popped into his head. He’d sent her a short text message before boarding the plane, but she still hadn’t responded. Usually, she got right back to him within minutes, unless she was at work, and he knew she was supposed to have the day off.
The elevator doors opened just as the woman pulled out her cell phone. “I hope whoever you’re visiting feels better soon.”
Aiden moved away from the wall once they were alone. “Just a little talkative.”
“You think? If we’d been together much longer, she would’ve started sharing the names and ages of her nephews.”
“Hey, at least she wasn’t hounding you for an autograph.”
“I’d rather she’d done that. I know how to handle people when they do that.”
“Ten nephews. Must be chaos at the holidays.”
Matt wouldn’t label the holidays growing up as chaos, but they’d always been large events. Although not like when he was a kid, even now holiday celebrations tended to be big gatherings.
Floral arrangements, some with balloons attached and cards, covered every visible surface in his mom’s hospital room. Clearly, his mom’s friends hadn’t wasted any time sending flowers. Actually, knowing many of them, they’d probably seen it as a contest of who not only got her flowers first but who sent the largest arrangement.
Flowers weren’t the only company his mom had. Unsurprisingly, Matt’s dad sat in the uncomfortable standard hospital chair near the window while his cousin Sophie occupied the one closest to the bed.
Considering she’d been in an accident less than twenty-four hours ago and was in the hospital, he’d expected his mom to look disheveled and tired—or at least as disheveled as his mom could look. He should’ve known better. Instead, her hair was perfectly arranged, she wore makeup, and there wasn’t a hospital johnny in sight. The cast on her leg and wrist were the only signs that something was wrong.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, leaning down to kiss her cheek.
“Much better now that Sophie fixed my hair and did my makeup. I scared all the nurses this morning.”
He wouldn’t label his mom as vain, but she believed in never leaving the house unless everything from her hair and makeup to her clothes looked perfect.
