Page 89 of Teasing

He turns back to the field, and I jog down to the tunnel as dread fills me.

My mother and Scarlet come into view, waiting for me with red-rimmed eyes and horror-filled faces, and my knees threaten to buckle.

“Where are the girls? Where are Rosie and Emmie?” I yell over the roar of the crowd.

Mom wipes tears from her eyes, and my stomach sinks.

“Rosie was exposed to peanuts,” Scarlet finally tells me, and my entire world tilts on its axis. “Emmie and your dad are in an ambulance on their way to the hospital.”

“Is she okay?” I plead, ready to make a deal with the devil to get the answer I need. “Scarlet—” I yell when neither of them answer me.

“She wasn’t breathing, Mav.”

Isprint through the hospital doors, with my mother and aunt on my heels, and race to the reception desk, ready to steamroll over whoever stands in the way of me getting to my daughter.

Dad is already there waiting when I get there.

I grab him with shaking hands. “Where is she?”

He looks like he’s aged ten years in the time it took to get me off the field and to the hospital.

“She’s okay, Mav. She’s going to be okay.” I’m not sure if he’s trying to convince himself or me, but it doesn’t work.

He pulls us with him and flashes his badge in front of a security check, then leads us down a hall to an elevator. Hospital staff move by us as patients go in and out of rooms, and visitorschat, like the world hasn’t just stopped spinning. And for them it hasn’t. But for me?—

“Which is it? Is she okay or is shegoing to beokay?” The elevator doors slide shut, and it feels like the walls are closing in on me. “Dad...”

“She’s as good as she can be right now,considering, but she’ll be perfect again soon. It was peanuts. Her throat closed up, like we knew it would if she was exposed. Emmie gave her both EpiPens, and then we gave her the one in Mom’s purse too. But even then, she needed to be intubated, and the tube was too big, and her throat was too swollen.”

Mom takes my hand in hers. “Your father saved her life. He got the tube in.”

“Dad...” My voice cracks, and he shakes his head.

“Her throat’s going to be sore for a few weeks.” He grips my shoulders, keeping me standing. “Listen to me when I say it was close.Too close.But she’s going to be fine. Our girl’s a fighter.” And this time when he says it, I believe him as much as I can until I see her for myself. “You should be able to take her home in a few hours.”

The elevator chimes, and it feels like we wait a fucking lifetime before the doors open, and I follow him out and down another hall.

“But she’s okay?” I can’t wrap my head around any of this.

He stops me outside her closed door. “She was scared and only wanted you or Emmie, but she’s already so much better now.”

“Is Em with her?” I try to calm my racing heart and brace for what I’m going to see when I open the door.

“That woman in that room with our girl didn’t hesitate, Mav. She found both pens and then the third. She never left her side, and I’m pretty sure she’d fight me if I tried to pry her out of Rosie’s bed right now.” He rests his hand on the knob and holdsmy eyes. “Prepare yourself. Because if you lose your shit, Rosie’s going to get scared again, and she just calmed down.”

I nod and blow out a breath, and Mom wipes a tear from my cheek.

Fucking peanuts. I never should have let her go.

Once I’m good, I push through the door and stare at the bed. Rosie is tucked against Emmie’s chest. Her entire face is swollen, and her lips are cracked and swollen. Her beautiful eyes are closed, and she’s clinging to Emmie whose face is buried in Rosie’s hair.

I move closer, and Emmie’s eyes snap open, ready to attack until she realizes it’s me, then they soften and pool with tears. She reaches for me, and I wrap my arms around her and Rosie and listen to my baby breathe.

Sweet, soft, strong breaths, showing me she’s alive.

Letting me believe it.

Thank you, Lord.

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