“Take your time,” I replied, glancing at the woman as she stared at me.
“You’re not going to introduce me?” she said, her nose in the air.
“Kaylee, this is my woman, Teddy.”
Kaylee rolled her eyes. “Right. Hey, I’m Dylan’s mom.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said as Cam’s hand came down on my shoulder. “Wish the circumstances were different.”
“Yeah, me too.” She looked behind me, her frown growing more pronounced as she realized where I’d come from. “You were in my son’s room?”
At that point, Cam had obviously had enough. “Kaylee,” he greeted, cutting off whatever she was about to say. “Good to see you.” He urged me past them.
“God, so typical,” Kaylee said behind us as Cam kept moving me forward. “You’ve known her, like, two weeks, and suddenly your dad’s her best friend?”
I didn’t hear anything else because Cam was still moving me away.
“There’s a reason Curt knew it would never work with her,” he said as we turned the corner. “Even with Dylan on the way. The woman would’ve made his life a misery.”
“She’s just worried about her kid,” I replied, glancing at him.
“So are you,” he said grimly. “Haven’t seen you treatin’ anyone like shit.”
“Give me time,” I mumbled, making him grin.
Chapter 19
Curtis
“Teddy,” I calledsoftly, shaking her shoulder carefully so I didn’t jostle Finn, who was sleeping behind her. “Baby, where’s Jesse?”
“What?” she asked, flinging herself out of the bed. Once she was on her feet, she stared blankly at the empty bed. “Oh god.”
“Don’t panic,” I said quickly, walking over to double-check the dark bathroom. “Got men in the waiting room. They couldn’t have gone far.”
“Dylan,” we both said at the same time.
Turning, I led Teddy out of the room.
“They’re being discharged in the morning,” Teddy hissed as we hurried down the hallway. “I said we could go see Dylan as soon as they were.”
“You’re surprised they didn’t wait?” I asked. I’d thought we should’ve pushed against it when the nurse said Jess had to stay in their room, but I’d deferred to Teddy. Everyone was strung tight as a wire after a week at the hospital, and I wasn’t about to start an argument and make it worse.
She scoffed as we reached Dylan’s room. Then, quietly, she opened the door.
Inside, Jess was sitting next to Dylan in bed, both of them awake and watching the muted TV.
“Busted,” Dylan said with a grin. He was looking better every day, and we thought he might be discharged with Jess the next day or the day after.
“You’re supposed to be in your own room,” Teddy chastised without any heat as she walked toward the bed. “How’re you feeling after sneaking all the way down here?”
“Not great,” Jesse mumbled carefully.
Teddy let out a short huff of laughter. “I bet.”
“Let me stay?” Jesse asked. “Ten more minutes?”
“You just had to make it one more night,” Teddy said with a sigh, walking over to drop into the chair beside the bed. “How did you even get up there?”
