Page 60 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

The damn woman would be the death of me. She insisted on working even though I told her that she didn’t need to, even though I told her that I would take care of her and Caleb’s expenses.

She said she was heavily interested in all the renovations we were doing and too invested in the outcome not to show up every day.

And now look where we are.

“A doctor!” I barked out the minute I threw open the swinging doors with my foot. All the nurses looked at me. “Now!”

They galvanized into action, one of them grabbing a gurney and the other coming to attempt to take her from my arms. I refused them, laying her down on the gurney myself as they grabbed some equipment to begin reading her vitals. When they started transporting her into the room, I walked with them.

One nurse turned around to put her hands against my chest.

“You can’t go in there, sir,” she said, but I ignored her, ready to push past into the room anyway.

My Allie. My Allie was in there.

I didn’t even notice the growl coming out of my throat, but fear instantly jumped into the woman’s eyes. “If you don’t comply, we’re going to have to call security on you.”

Try it and see. They didn’t have enough security in this building to keep me from my woman.

“Stop.” It was Adam’s hands on my shoulders next. I whirled around to face him, ready to take my anger out on him but found that there was no animosity on his face. Only concern. “Just let them do their job.”

“He’s right,” Athena said, and there was even more sympathy in her expression. “You arguing with them is not going to help Allie right now.”

She was carrying Caleb, who still looked scared, and that was what knocked the voice of reason back into me.

Damn it, she was right. All of them were right. As much as I hated the idea, I had to let the doctors do their job and trust that they knew what the heck they were doing.

I nodded resignedly, and the nurse looked relieved as she dashed into the room, closing the curtains that separated us. I immediately began to pace, feeling the tension line my muscles.

I want to hit something.

Jesus, this was a nightmare. This was the worst form of torture, standing here and not knowing what was going on with her.

Why did she pass out?

I wracked my brain, trying to think of a good reason for anything that could be wrong.

Stress? Was she sick?

God no.

I flung the thought out of my mind, but the residual panic still ran through me. No. She couldn’t be sick. I wouldn’t allow it. I would make sure that whatever was wrong with her was figured out and treated because there was no way I would allow her to be sick on my watch.

“She’ll be fine,” Athena said, and I turned to see that there was also fear in her eyes, but she was trying to keep it back. She was remarkably calm amidst all this. “Allie has never known when to stop, and this is probably nothing. She’s probably just stressed.”

It was the same thing I was thinking, but for some reason, hearing her say it say it made me even less convinced. Like we were both lying to ourselves to avoid facing the unbearable truth.

I nodded, appreciating the words of comfort even though I didn’t necessarily believe them.

I couldn’t speak past the knot in my throat, so I turned and went back to pacing. Adam came and put his hand on my shoulder, and when I glanced at him, his eyes held cautious and unfamiliar compassion in them. And something else. A truce.

Ha.

It seemed he was finally ready to put aside his hatred of me for once. It would have been funny if it wasn’t fucking annoying.

I nodded anyway to show there were no hard feelings. Everything was all in the past and seemed so unimportant now in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t like I could blame him for trying to protect his sister anyway.

It took nearly an hour before we heard anything. But it felt like an eternity. When Allie’s parents arrived, her father immediately started throwing out questions before her mother scolded him and asked him to calm down. Good thing, too, because he was only adding to the growing tension tightening my gut.

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