Page 59 of Love and Other Lost Things

He cut her off, still focused on Scarlett. “She didn’t tell you that she almost ended up at the doctor after trying to steal a treat, too, did she?”

Jane blew out a slow breath.

Scarlett gazed up at him, wide-eyed. She shook her head.

Nik nodded. “We were baking special peanut butter fudge brownies, and your mom decided she couldn’t wait until they were done. She reached in and burned her wrist on the roof of the oven.”

Scarlett’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “I know who you are,” she declared. “You were her friend when she was my age. She told me about you.”

Nik blinked. He’d always imagined that Jane had erased him from her thoughts when she’d taken off. But since their revelations last night, he didn’t know what to think. And what has she told her daughter about me? It would be completely inappropriate to ask, though he was tempted. “That’s right,” he said. “Your mom and I grew up together.” He couldn’t help it now, and his eyes darted to Jane. She pressed her lips together and looked away. “That was a long time ago, though.”

Nik cleared his throat and pulled an ophthalmoscope from his pocket. “I’m just going to use this to take a look in your eyes, okay?” Nik flashed the light at each of Scarlett’s pupils. She squeezed her eyes shut and began to sway on the exam table. “How does your head feel?” he asked.

“It hurts,” Scarlett whimpered.

Nik put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. “Does it hurt where you bumped it, or hurt like you have a headache?”

“Both.”

“Anything else hurt?”

“My tummy.” She turned to Jane, reaching for her mother. “Mommy, I’m going to throw up.”

With three years in the ER under his belt, Nik was used to reacting quickly. He grabbed a plastic basin from the counter by the sink and spun toward Scarlett, getting it under her chin just in time. Jane pulled her daughter’s hair out of the way while Scarlett leaned over, heaving, retching, and crying all at the same time.

“You’re okay, baby. Get it all out.” She stroked Scarlett’s back, and Nik was sure that the girl wouldn’t pick up on the tremor in her mother’s voice or the worry creasing her face.

But he did. When Scarlett paused for a breath, and Jane reached for the basin to take over from Nik, he shook his head. “I’ve got it.” He hitched his chin at Scarlett. “You just do what you’re doing.”

Jane wrapped an arm around Scarlett. The little girl leaned forward, tears streaming down her face, as she threw up into the basin again. “My head hurts…” she wailed, drawing out the last word into multiple syllables. In the next moment, more of her lunch came up.

“I know, baby. I know,” Jane said. “You’re going to be fine.” Her eyes implored Nik to confirm her words were true.

He gave her a reassuring nod. “Nausea is common after a head bump.” Nik leaned in to meet Jane’s eyes, keeping his voice low. “We’ll run some tests for concussion and maybe keep her overnight for observation. But she’ll be fine. We see this all the time.”

Nik didn’t want to spend too much time analyzing the way his heart twisted when Jane’s shoulders relaxed. Or the temptation he had to pull Jane into his arms when Scarlett finally stopped throwing up and lay back on the exam table to rest. Instead, he backed away, leaving the basin on the counter by the sink and heading out of the room.

Nik sat at the computer by the nurses’ station and entered his orders for tests: an MRI to check for a concussion and x-ray for a possible forearm fracture. And then he began to type up his notes.

Nine-year-old girl admitted to the ER with forehead laceration complaining of headache, nausea, and?—

Nik’s hands froze on the keyboard.

Nine-year-old girl.

Jane had fled Linden Falls in the early summer ten years ago, the day after they lost their virginity to each other in the back of Nik’s car at the overlook. And now she had a nine-year-old daughter. Was it possible…?

Nik closed his eyes, picturing Scarlett’s long blond hair and blue eyes, searching his memory for any hint of his own features. All he’d noticed in that room was that she looked just like a younger version of Jane. But he hadn’t been looking for more than that.

Nik grabbed the computer mouse and clicked around in Scarlett’s medical form until he found her personal information.

Mother: Jane Allison McCaffrey

Father: Matteo DeLuca

Nik sat back in his chair, staring at the name. Ethically, he really shouldn’t do what he was about to do. He was the doctor, and Scarlett was his patient. But if there was any chance that Jane had been keeping an even bigger secret from him…

Nik grabbed his phone and googled the name of Scarlett’s father, and then added Los Angeles to the search bar. The first photo to pop up was of an attractive, smiling man in his early forties standing behind a shiny chrome bar. A neon-lit shelf lined with liquor bottles made up the background of the shot. Nik clicked on the link. Matteo DeLuca was the manager of a nightclub in Los Angeles. Nik zoomed in. Matteo had curly, dark hair, and brown eyes. His coloring wasn’t that much different than Nik’s. But nothing about his features ruled for or against him being Scarlett’s father.

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