Page 40 of I Found You
His words were dripping in innuendo; even someone with relatively little experience couldn’t miss the message. My eyes widened, and I let out a small squeak. My head swiveled back around so I was facing away from him. My body heated up from my head to my toes, and I knew I must be bright red.
He was openly flirting with me, but what did he mean by it? Was he just messing around? He’d already made it clear he didn’t like me… like that. My body just hadn’t received the same message that my heart did.
I had to make my way over to where he was standing because that was where Jane was. Gathering her in my arms, I quickly left the bedroom and went downstairs. Wyatt followed me down a minute later without a care in the world. As I made us coffee, putting Wyatt’s in a travel mug so he could take it to work with him, I couldn’t help but wonder if he felt this tension between us too. Or was it just one-sided?
He took the travel mug from my hands and broke out his signature smirk and wink combo. It still made my heart gopitter-patter whenever he did it. Outwardly, I just shook my head at him and pushed the mug into his grasp.
“Hey, with everything that happened with Jane yesterday, I never got a chance to talk to you about your dinner,” he said. “When I come by later, I want to hear all about it.”
Apparently, Wyatt was coming over later. I liked how he said it like it was a simple fact. There was no question of whether or not he would or could come over later. Another reason for my heart to go pitter-patter. If I didn’t get this under control soon, I would need to go see a specialist. “Yeah. It went really well, actually. I’ll tell you about it later.”
He gave Jane a quick kiss to the top of her head before he left. I tracked his truck out my front window until I couldn’t see it anymore. The last few days had been an overwhelming blur, but the only thing I could focus on was the way it felt to wake up in Wyatt’s arms.
17
Maeve
All morning, my emotions were spinning around me like a sandstorm. Dinner with Josie, finding out Jane was in the hospital and I wasn’t there with her, being with her in the hospital and watching her get poked and prodded, finding Wyatt waiting for us, waking up in his arms. It was all too much. A few months ago, my only focus had been on work and creating a lesson plan for my students that would hold their attention for more than ten minutes. Now, I hadn’t even started to put together my syllabus for this upcoming school year, and it was starting in a few short weeks.
Jane was still sick, alternating between sleeping like a rock or crying and moaning. When she was awake, she didn’t want me to put her down. She was being unusually clingy, but it was understandable.
My phone vibrated where it sat on the coffee table in the living room. I immediately thought of Wyatt. He’d only left my house a few hours ago, but I already missed him. I needed to get my head out of the clouds, but that felt like too much effort, which I was in short supply of already. The screenshowed that it wasn’t Wyatt but Jane’s social worker, Kara, calling. Dumping the armload of toys and blankets that I was in the midst of cleaning up into the storage bin where they belonged, I hurried to my phone to answer it before it went to voicemail.
“Hello?” I answered and then looked back at the screen to see if it connected or if I had missed it.
“Maeve. It’s Kara, returning your call. I got Wyatt’s voicemail message last night. Is everything okay?”
Putting the call on speakerphone, I explained to Kara everything that had happened.
“I wasn’t home with her when she got real bad. But I promise, I left the best person I know in charge of her, Kara. He was the one who called the EMTs in to assess her.” My heart rate started to speed up, and I hastened to explain, “I’m sure you have to put that in your notes, but please don’t think that I don’t take my responsibility for Jane lightly. I’m not out galivanting every night or anything. I had an important dinner. Usually, I would take Jane with me, honestly. We are never apart. This was actually the first time I had someone else taking care of her. I know I shouldn’t have done it. It won’t happen again.” I was talking so fast at this point I paused to take a breath.
“Maeve, relax. You aren’t in any trouble. You are allowed to have a social life, even as a caregiver. Children get sick. You didn’t do anything wrong, okay?”
I didn’t even realize how worried I was that someone was going to take Jane away because of this. Kara’s words helped calm my racing heart, at least a bit. All of the guilt that I was feeling last night when I read Wyatt’s messages after dinner rose to the surface again.
“Can you walk me through the events of yesterday? When did she start showing signs that she wasn’t feeling well?”
“It was right before I had to leave. She was fine earlier in the day. We played for a bit, sat outside to get some fresh air and sunshine. She started to get fussy at maybe four o’clock in the afternoon.” I answered all of her questions, walking her through the events of the day.
“And you said that Wyatt was the one babysitting? Wyatt Wilder?”
“Yes. Wyatt has become a friend of mine, and he offered to watch Jane for me. Is that going to be an issue?” I asked concerningly.
“No. Not at all. I’ll admit I was a little surprised when I got his call though. I didn’t realize you two were close.”
It was probably a good thing that Kara was on the other side of the phone line and not sitting in front of me. All concern from a second ago had disappeared and was replaced with righteous indignation. “Why was that surprising? Wyatt’s been great. And he’s so good with Jane, it’s incredible. He’s incredible.”
What? Was the idea that Wyatt and I were friends so crazy? Or was it that she didn’t think Wyatt was the kind of guy to volunteer for babysitting duty when someone was in a jam? Calla Bay was a small town. I was sure Kara knew Wyatt, at least by name. But if she was going to pass judgment on him and his character, she should get her facts straight first.
“I shouldn’t have said anything. Let’s get back to Jane.”
We continued a series of questions and answers as Kara documented the incident. She didn’t utter another word about Wyatt during our conversation. Once she was caught up to speed and we were just about ready to hang up, Kara seemedlike she wanted to say something else and was hesitating. I asked her if there was anything else.
“I’m sorry if I upset you earlier. I didn’t mean anything by it.” Now that the moment had passed, I realized I might have overreacted just a little. All she said was that she was surprised. In fairness, I was surprised when he showed up on my doorstep the first time or three.
Just at that time, my phone indicated another incoming call. “It’s fine. Hey, my brother is calling. If you’re all set with your documentation, I’d like to take this.”
“Of course. I hope the baby gets better soon. We’ll talk again at our next check-in.”
