Convenient Lies by Robin Patchen

Author:Robin Patchen [Patchen, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JDO Publishing

Thirty-Eight

Brady heard the baby cry. “I’ll get him,” he said. When Ashley didn’t answer, he tried to roll over to check on her. He couldn’t move. The baby’s screams grew louder, and he was wrapped in blankets. Trapped. Unable to save him.

He fought against the restraints, pushed off the blankets, and sat up in bed.

Only he wasn’t in bed. He found himself on the couch in Reagan’s living room. Just a dream.

Except for the crying baby.

Brady glanced at the clock. Two forty-five. He climbed the steps in his stocking feet and knocked softly on Rae’s door. No answer. How could she hear his knock over Johnny’s wails?

He turned the knob and pushed the door open just wide enough to reach his hand through. Didn’t want to scare her, and he certainly didn’t need the picture of her in that see-through thing she slept in. He waved his hand to get her attention. “Hey, can I come in?”

“Oh.” Rae pulled the door open. She was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. He shouldn’t have been sorry not to see that nightie.

“What’s going on?”

Rae’s eyes were bloodshot and wide. “He won’t stop screaming. I was just about to get you.”

“How can I help?”

Rae handed him the baby, who whimpered, blinked twice, and wailed. Through the little onesie, Brady could feel his fever. “He’s burning up.”

“I know.” She brushed past him. “Thermometer’s in the kitchen.”

He followed her downstairs, where she swiped the infant thermometer across Johnny’s forehead. “One-oh-two point four.”

“Yikes,” Brady said.

“But it’s his breathing that scares me. Can you hear that?”

Brady listened to the baby’s breaths. When Johnny wasn’t screaming, he was wheezing. “Get your shoes on.”

She bolted upstairs.

Brady laid the baby on the sofa and threw on his sweatshirt. By the time Rae returned, he was holding Johnny again. “Here, you take him, and I’ll go start the car.”

Her eyes were wide and terrified.

“It’s going to be all right,” he said.

“You were right. I’m the worst mother—”

“No.” He sat, pulled his shoes on. “Where are your keys?”

“Kitchen counter.”

Two minutes later, they were backing out of the driveway.

“Where are we going?” Rae was sitting in the backseat, trying to soothe little Johnny. The baby had calmed enough for Brady to hear the tears in her voice.

“He’s going to be okay.”

He wouldn’t think about the last time he’d rushed a baby to the hospital in the middle of the night. That wouldn’t happen this time. Babies were resilient. Most of them, anyway.

He turned onto the highway.

“Wait, isn’t Exeter closer?”

“We’re going to the children’s hospital in Manchester.”

“I don’t remember—”

“They’re very good.”

She didn’t ask how he knew. Now was not the time to tell that story. And this situation was completely different. So why were his hands shaking?

Seemed like hours before they pulled up to the emergency room entrance. She grabbed Johnny’s car seat and ran inside. By the time he parked the car, Rae’d hurried through the paperwork. He hadn’t been in the waiting room five minutes when they called Rae and Johnny back. Brady stood, unsure.

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