Page 3 of Winning You
“What unit is that?”
The woman rolled her eyes. Lovely. “The PICU.”
That sounded ominous as fuck.
He took a deep, steadying breath, then put the sticker on his shirt and headed for the elevator. By the time he reached the fifth floor, his legs were like jelly. He didn’t know what he was going to find. How bad was she? This six-week-old baby?
What had Anika done to her?
The nurse on the phone at the PICU double doors was kind as she let him in, and he was immediately met with a large nurse’s station. The walls were white like the rest of the hospital, but there were zoo animals painted all along the corridors, and the lights weren’t as harshly white as everywhere else.
“Can I help you, sir?”
Frankie turned at the sound of a voice. It wasn’t the nurse he spoke to, so he turned his shirt so she could read his badge. “I’m here for Elodie Paisley.”
Her face did something complicated. “Of course. She’s just finished her evening bottle, actually, so she might be awake for a bit.”
He followed her down the hall, past ten, twelve—shit, he was reading the even signs. He turned his gaze to fifteen. The door had a big red balloon on it, and when she pushed it open, he immediately spotted a large contraption with lights and tubes and other things.
Beneath it was a little plastic cot, clear around the edges, though the mattress was wrapped in a blue-and-pink striped sheet. And his sister was there. Elodie. Tinier than any baby he’d ever seen in his life, not that he had a lot of experience with infants.
She was wearing a white onesie and was wrapped in a blanket that matched the sheet. There was a pink hat off to the side, and she had a thick shock of black hair. He forgot the nurse was there when he walked up to her.
Were all six-week-old babies this tiny? Or was this a product of his mother’s failings as a parent? She looked freshly born with ruddy, wrinkled skin. Her eyes were closed, but when he cleared his throat, she opened them and turned toward him.
He noticed then her eyes weren’t focused. They were sort of wobbling back and forth. “Can she see?”
“Something,” the nurse said. “She’s too young for us to be able to tell. She can at least see light.”
So yeah. He wasn’t wrong. There were issues. “What else is going on with her?”
“You weren’t given any information?”
“Only that my mom was arrested for neglect and that I was the only family member they could find.” He tore his gaze away from Elodie and looked at the nurse. “And that she’s medically complicated. I haven’t spoken to my mom since CPS gave me custody of my two younger brothers twelve years ago.”
Her face softened. “I’ll page the doctor and let him know you’re here. He can give you all the information.”
“Is she…” He hesitated. He didn’t even know what to ask. “Can she leave? I mean, is she medically dependent on these machines?”
The nurse smiled and reached over, putting her finger against Elodie’s. The baby quickly grabbed on and attempted to put the finger toward her mouth. “She’s breathing on her own just fine. She’s smart as a whip too. Thriving, in spite of what they found in her system.”
He didn’t want to know. “Okay.”
“There are some things you should know. If you’re here to take custody of her,” she added.
He looked down at her. He wanted to say no. He wanted to say that there had to be a better family for her—a more competent set of parents that would already know how to make her life big and special and important.
But he couldn’t. This was his family. His blood. A byproduct of his mother’s inability to love anyone else but herself. And if Fenton and Fallon were okay after he’d raised them, maybe Elodie would be too.
When the nurse removed her hand, he pressed his to Elodie’s chest and felt her tiny breaths. “Can I hold her?”
“Of course. We hold all the babies as much as we can, but it’s not enough.”
His heart ached even harder as he lifted her into his arms and rested her against his chest. She squirmed and grunted for a moment, but as he began to sway back and forth, she settled.
“It’s like she knows you,” the nurse murmured.
He didn’t want to believe that. He’d stopped buying fantasy stories a long, long time ago. He didn’t even really believe in love. He appreciated Eddie. He wanted him. Enjoyed his company most of the time, and they were great in bed together.But he wasn’t foolish enough to think there was a happily ever after for the two of them.
