Page 65 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

I relaxed. A little.

“They’re keeping her overnight as a precaution,” he explained while taking my suitcase.

“When did this happen?”

“Yesterday,” he admitted.

White-hot rage bubbled inside me. “This happenedyesterdayand she didn’t call me? I’m her sister! She can’t justkeepthings like this from me!”

“She knew you would say that,” Lucas said calmly. “She wanted me to tell you that she didn’t want you to fly home early for no reason.”

“No reason. No reason! How is thisno reason?”

“Aunty Sara is okay, Mommy,” Bran said. “She just had a little scare. Like when I scraped my knee last year.”

I moderated my breathing, then told Bran, “Good point, Bran Bran. But Mommy is very mad at Aunt Sara right now.”

We loaded everything up in Lucas’s car, a nice looking Nissan sedan. “Hey. Quick question. How did you… um. At what point did Sara contact…”

“Sara told Jordan first,” Lucas answered. “He watched Bran last night after baseball practice. But he had to go to work today, so he called me.”

Lucas had been watching Bran. That spawned a new kaleidoscope of emotions, but I pushed them aside for now.

“It’s three o’clock. Shouldn’t you be at work?” I asked.

“I took a personal day. Really, it was no problem. We’ve been having fun. Right, little man?”

“Yeah!” Bran said happily from the back seat. “We’ve been havingsomuch fun. I like his name.”

A jolt of panic surged through me. “Oh yeah?”

If Bran had told Lucaswhyhe liked his name so much…

“It’s fun to say,” Bran announced. “Lucas Lucas Lucas. It rhymes withmucus. That’s the fancy word forbuggers.”

“We’ve been watching Sesame Street,” Lucas told me. “Elmo was a doctor in the last episode. Sara said it was okay.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Bran hadn’t told Lucas his middle name. Or if he had, Lucas hadn’t pieced it all together

Yet.

When we got home, I rushed to get ready to go to the hospital. I changed into some fresh clothes, noting that my apartment was a mess of toys, coloring books, and yogurt containers. All problems that could wait until later. Being a mother was a never-ending chore of deciding which messes had to be taken care of now, and which could be put off.

“I’ll watch Bran until baseball practice,” Lucas said. “Go to the hospital. Be with your sister.”

“Thanks,” I said, then hugged him. He felt tall and sturdy, and projected an air of stability. Like everything was going to be all right.

I said goodbye to Bran, then hopped in my car.

The hospital was across the river in Portland. Thanks to rush hour traffic on the bridge, it took over an hour to get there. I parked, then speed-walked through the lobby and up to the floor where Sara’s room was.

I burst into tears as soon as I saw her sitting in the hospital bed.

“Oh God, not you, too,” Sara muttered in annoyance.

I hugged her. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

“I’m fine,” she said. “We had everything covered.”

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