Page 24 of Silver Fox's Secret Baby

"I don't wanna go," Noah whined, and Mom put her arm around him.

"Nana will go with you, okay, baby?" She kissed his forehead, and he grimaced and tried to pull away, but it caused a coughing fit.

Sitting beside him, I dropped the bag on the floor at our feet and slid him onto my lap. I cradled him and talked him through the coughing until he was breathing a bit easier, and Mom and Dad hovered the entire time.

"Maybe we should just call an ambulance." Mom's hand was reaching for her phone on the coffee table next to Noah's cuff before I even answered.

"No, Mom," I said firmly. "I will drive him. An ambulance will take another thirty minutes to get here and then thirty to the hospital. If we get in my car now, we can be there in twenty." The logic seemed to make sense to her, which made me breathe a sigh of relief. Any ambulance on this side of Denver would take him where I didn't want him to go.

Dad pulled his keys out of his pocket and jingled them. "Let me drive then, Lily. You can sit in back by Noah and help him better than either Mom or I could." I was still afraid he would do the wrong thing and take Noah to Mountain View. Sometimes, Dad did what he wanted to do when I didn't agree with it at all. Like the time he gave Noah too much caffeine late at night and I had no sleep before work.

"St. Anne's," I said defensively. Dad was a parent, and parents usually do what they want, but I trusted that he would respect me.

"If that's where you want to go. Anywhere is better than here." He offered me his hand, and I stood with Noah in one arm and used Dad's hand as support.

We hurried to the car, and Mom took a few minutes to shut off the lights and lock up. By the time I had Noah in his booster seat, we were all loaded and Dad was pulling out. He took a second to shut my car door before he climbed in, otherwise there would have been a minor collision.

I kept an eye on Noah's face the entire drive. The darker blue his lips were, the worse it was getting, but I didn’t know if I was overreacting. I talked to him softly but he was limp and lethargic, both signs his breathing wasn't right and his blood pressure was too high. In my haste, I'd left his cuff on the table and without my cuff and stethoscope, I couldn’t take it manually.

"Go faster, Dad," I whimpered, and I clung to the booster seat to avoid crying. Noah needed me to be strong now. If he saw me freaking out, it would make him more upset which would affect both his already-taxed breathing and his too-high blood pressure. Hopefully, they would get him in for his surgery tonight and this would be a matter of helping my little boy deal with his fear while recovering.

18

ETHAN

Lily breezed out of my room so fast it left me wondering what the hell happened. From what I gathered from the one-sided phone conversation I'd overheard, someone she cared about had done something and was having trouble breathing. I sat on the foot of the bed wondering just who that "someone" might be. A few times over the past several weeks, I had feared she was dating someone else. But Lily was too classy for that. She would never be a cheater.

Which left only one possible assumption. Lily had no brothers, only Kate, her younger sister. Which meant the person struggling with a health issue was most likely her father. I couldn't see Kate getting married, but if she did, I didn't see Lily being the type of doting sister-in-law who would rush off after incredible sex like that without any explanation. Her dad must have been suffering for a while and things took a turn for the worse.

That made me think of my ailing father and Mom, who lay in bed two doors down. She was running a mild fever earlier this afternoon. I had given her some Tylenol to lower the fever and help her body aches. I assumed it was a cold or the flu, andshe just wanted to rest. Lily having her own struggles with aging parents only made me feel more connected to her, more in sync.

I put the rest of my clothing back on and decided to check on Mom. It had been long enough that the medication would be wearing off, if it hadn't fully worn off already. She would want me to get her more if the fever hadn’t abated. And she might be hungry or thirsty. Even on her good days, I did a lot of these things for her just because I cared. But when she was ill, I played nurse round the clock, and I didn't mind doing it.

Tapping on her door, I pushed it open. "Just me, Mom." I leaned in and saw her lying on her side looking at me. The light was on low, casting an eerie glow over her face. Long shadows stretched toward her chin, and she blinked slowly.

"I'm awake." She didn't sound like herself. She sounded melancholy, and I knew why. Dad had been in so much pain following his surgery, he hadn't been as communicative. His calls lasted only a few minutes when he even made them, and he could only take visitors for an hour or so before he had to lie back down in bed. She missed him.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, tiptoeing to the nightstand. Mom's glass of water was empty and her lips looked dry.

"I'm tired and my body hurts. I think this cold is kicking my butt." Her usual happy demeanor had been replaced with a sullen expression and sadness. Seeing how she was so depressed over not being able to be with Dad or help him made my heart hurt for her, and for Lily.

I pictured her rushing to the ER to help her father, only to be told to sit down and be the loved one, not pretend to be the doctor. How many times had I been told that myself when it came to my parents? It was one of the most difficult things for a doctor—to know what to do and how to do it, to alleviate your loved one's suffering but being unable to do a thing because of state laws.

"Well, let's get you better." I grabbed a second pillow from the closet and walked to Mom's side. "Being a bit more upright will help your sinuses to drain better and keep the mucus out of your throat. Might even help your coughing to be more effective."

She struggled to sit up while I fluffed her pillow and added the second one, and I made sure she was back in a comfortable position when I was done. "I'll get you some more water and another round of pills."

I started to back away, but she grabbed my wrist. "Stay," she muttered, and I noticed the tears in her eyes.

"Of course." I sat on the edge of the mattress and let her hold my hand. I hated seeing her like this. Not just the sickness, but the sadness. She and Dad had been married for more than five decades. They were each other's everything, and now they were separated and hurting.

"What will I do?" she asked timidly, but I didn't understand her question.

"What do you mean, Mom? About the cold? Or about…"

"About Tom." She blinked, and tears ran down her face. "What if he doesn't make it? What will I do, Ethan? I haven't been alone since nineteen sixty-nine. I don't even remember what it feels like to be alone."

Her words made my heartache worse. A man in my position had so many reasons to run from that question. If Dad didn't make it out of this thing with his hip, I'd have to watch my mother grieve her life partner. She'd be alone and hurting and no one would be here to truly console that pain because I couldn’t replace him.

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