Cook glanced at me, looking fond and somehow…soft. “You heard the lady. Get her juice?”
Chuckling, I poured her a glass and took it to the table. I sat with her as she ate and Cook made me a plate, too.
My phone buzzed with a message, and I saw it was Dr. Cobb.
A bit of touch and go, no idea how he was able to get to us. Internal bleeding, they whisked him off to surgery. I’ll let you know what happens, but I’m closing the clinic for the day. Tell Mona that Madden will have to stay at the hospital for a few days, but that she’s safe and I’ll come see her soon.
Mona put her fork down and looked at me expectantly. “Was it the Doc?”
“Yep,” I replied, smiling a little. “Madden needs surgery which they’re doing right now, and he’ll have to stay at the hospital for a few days, Dr. Cobb thinks.”
She frowned, her hand going into her pocket for her worry rock. “Okay…”
“He said you are safe and he’ll come see you soon.”
Frowning, she looked at me square in the eye. “What does that mean?” Before I could ask what she meant, she said, “If anyone finds out about me, they’re gonna take me away from Mad, and we don’t wanna be separated.”
I hummed. “Let me ask Dr. Cobb, okay? Just to make sure.” I assumed he’d talked to someone at the hospital to make sure Mona and Madden’s worst fear wouldn’t become a reality, but she needed answers before she could relax. “Eat your breakfast before it gets cold.”
She went back to eating, but looked uneasy until I could confirm that Dr. Cobb had taken care of it.
The door to Lake’s bedroom opened and Theo snuck out.
“Morning,” he murmured, patting Bucky on the head.
“This is Theo,” I told Mona. “And this is Mona. She’s going to hang out with us for a while. Toby is at the hospital with her brother.”
Theo nodded solemnly. “Hi, Mona. If there’s anything you need, let me know. I’m the foreman here, I take care of all the animals all day every day.”
She smiled shyly. “Okay.” She chewed another piece of pancake before asking, “Can I see the horses?”
Theo grinned and went to make himself a smoothie and a coffee. “Sure, but after the sunrise, okay? Maybe you could take a nap so I can get some of the stuff done, and then after you wake up, you can come and help me out at the stable?”
Mona’s eyes began to shine with excitement. “Yeah?” At Theo’s nod, she smiled widely. “Okay! I can do that.”
“Good. Have one of the adults find me when you’re done napping, okay?”
“Okay!” She dug into her food with vigor, which made Cook obviously happy.
As I’d quietly predicted, after eating and going on the couch under a blanket to “try to see if she could nap,” it took less than five minutes for Mona to be fast asleep.
The exhaustion hit her hard, and I curled up on the couch across from her, letting myself feel my own fatigue.
I woke up to gentle fingers running through my hair and smiled. Without opening my eyes, I knew it was Ben.
“Sleep,” he murmured and kissed my temple.
The next time I stirred was to a text. Instantly awake, I looked at it.
I hope the family emergency isn’t too bad. Do you know anything about what’s going on?Ani. They’d likely gotten a message from Dr. Cobb, and I wondered if Ani had gone to the house to make sure to cancel appointments and put a sign on the door or something.
Nope. I think he needs to be there for them.As I sent the message, I knew there was truth in what we were saying; some part of Toby felt like Mona and Madden were family. I’d seen it in his panicked demeanor at the clinic. He felt for these kids, and I knew he might change his mind about the whole fostering thing if it were these two.
I sat up slowly and looked at my phone again. It was past nine already. No wonder I felt a bit more refreshed.
The coffee maker hissed behind me, so I glanced back to see Lake lifting my usual mug at me. At my nod, he smiled.
Mona began to come awake on the other couch. She stretched and rubbed her eyes. The two seconds of panic before she remembered where she was grabbed at my heart more than I could explain.
