Page 105 of Baby, Be Mine

“I know, baby. Needing help doesn’t make you a bad mom, so get that out of your mind right now.”

I laughed and it came out close to a sob. “You sure about that?”

“I’m completely sure. Do you want us to come get you? We can leave right now.”

“No. I need to get us all ready. Bean has some colic. At least we think. So, we need to let her sleep for now.”

“We’ll come in the morning.”

“You don’t have to.”

“We’ll be there bright and early, baby.”

The road wavered in front of me as the tears squeezed out. “Okay.”

“Good. That’s decided. We love you, Emmaline.”

“I know.”

“I’m just going to stay on the phone with you until you get home, okay?”

“Okay,” I said on a broken whisper.

And she did. The whole way back to my apartment, she chattered on about colors and the nursery theme she had waiting for me.

As if she knew all along.

TWENTY-TWO

I checkedmy phone for the fifth time since the night before. I got one text from Emma at midnight that the baby was fine, and they were home.

No other details.

False alarm? Or antibiotics for the win?

I knew from Jared and Gina’s kids that ear infections, random coughs, and any version of the flu known to man would and could derail a night.

But the radio silence felt like it was more than that.

“Anything?”

I looked up from my phone at Rami’s voice. “No.” I stuffed my phone back into my pocket.

“She might just be overwhelmed. When my little one is sick, there are just tears, sleep, and delirium.”

“Yeah. That’s probably it.” I cleared my throat. “Did you need something?”

She played with the ends of her hair. “There’s someone here to see you.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Not if you ask me. He doesn’t look like he’s from around here actually.”

I frowned. “Okay, that sounds interesting.” As interesting as it could be on three hours of sleep.

After overseeing the party breakdown and dealing with a belligerent Gillian—who’d I had to drive home—I’d spent the rest of the night staring at the ceiling.

Usually, I crashed hard after work. Sleep was one of the few things I was actually good at when I actually went home. As if my body knew it needed to power down and go into recovery mode.

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