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“I’ll be home soon.”
After she hung up, she went to the kitchen for a bottle and filled it with cool water. Jamie seemed eager enough to drink, but by the time she reached the nursery and fed him a little, he threw up.
She put him in the crib and changed his clothes for a second time. His temp had climbed another tenth of a degree. She wet a cloth and sponged his forehead and cheeks.
Before long Nick entered the penthouse. “Reese?”
“In the nursery.”
As he came through the door, Jamie threw up once more. It frightened him so much he started crying harder. After she’d wiped off his mouth, Nick pulled him out of her arms and cuddled him against his chest. “Hey, sport—what happened to you?”
Her gaze fused with Nick’s. “Did you reach the doctor?”
“His nurse said he’d call me back. In the meantime we’re to try and get liquids down him in small increments.”
“I’ve been doing that, but after a minute, up it comes. It must be some kind of flu.”
“Maybe the Pedialyte will stay down.” Nick kissed his forehead. “The nurse said it was good to use. I got him cherry. He’s a lucky little guy you’re here for him.”
Nick was always ready to praise her. It made her want to do everything right in his eyes. “I’ll take it to the kitchen and put some in a sterile bottle.” When she returned to the nursery Nick told her the doctor had called. “We’re to keep a close eye on him. If we can’t get anything to stay down, we’re to take him to emergency. The hospital will keep him informed.”
She nodded. By evening he’d thrown up enough times to convince her this was serious. His temperature never dropped. “He seems too lethargic.”
Lines marred Nick’s face. “Let’s take him to the hospital. I’ll tell Paul to bring the car around.”
“While you hold him, I’ll put some things in the diaper bag for him.”
In a short time they left the penthouse. Paul drove them to the E.R. entrance and they hurried inside with Jamie lying limp against his daddy’s shoulder.
One of the emergency-room staff showed them to a cubicle. Right after that another person came inside the curtain. His tag said he was Dr. Marsh. He got to work checking the baby’s vital signs. “How long has he been sick?”
Jamie didn’t like being examined. His cries wrenched Reese’s heart. “Since about two o’clock. It came on so fast I couldn’t believe it. We’ve tried to get liquids down him, but he just spits it up and hasn’t urinated for several hours.”
“We’ll have to culture him to find out if this infection is bacterial, but I’d say he’s picked up Rotavirus.”
“What is it exactly?” Nick’s features had darkened in anxiety.
“A disease of the bowel that causes diarrhea and vomiting. Most children have had several incidences of it by the time they’re five.”
“How would he have gotten it?”
“It’s transmitted several ways, but I would imagine your son picked it up through the air. Someone’s cough could have spread it. It’s highly contagious.”
“I’ve heard it’s serious—” Reese blurted.
“It can be when left untreated. If I’m right, we’ll put him in isolation and hydrate him with an IV to bring back his body’s salt and fluid levels to normal. He should get through this just fine.”
Should? She and Nick shared a panicked glance.
“Who’s your pediatrician?”
“Dr. Hebert Wells.”
“In a minute a team will come in to take a blood sample. When we know for sure what we’re dealing with, we’ll call him. If it’s bacterial, your doctor will treat him with an antibiotic.”
Reese hugged her arms to her waist in agitation. “What more could we have done to have prevented this?”
The doctor eyed her with compassion. “As long as you’re constantly washing your hands before and after you attend to your baby, that’s pretty much all you can do.” Jamie wasn’t her baby, but she loved the sound of it.
“Reese has been very careful about that,” Nick interjected. “I need to do it more often.”
“Washing hands can prevent all kinds of illnesses.”
Nick’s lips tightened. “If an IV is called for, where will you insert it—he’s so small?” He’d taken the question right out of her mouth.
“The IV team will decide, but probably in his foot. It hurts for a minute, but then it’s over.” Reese shared another worried glance with Nick.
“Go ahead and hold your baby until one of the staff shows you to the isolation area.”
As the doctor left the cubicle, Nick reached for Jamie. Once he was back in his father’s strong arms, he quieted down a little bit, but clearly he was miserable. Reese smoothed her hand over the back of his head. “You’re all wiped out, aren’t you, sweetheart.”
“We’re both here—” Nick talked to his son in a low, comforting tone “—and you’re going to get feeling better soon.”
Reese wanted to believe it, too, but she’d heard the underlying concern in his voice and was scared to death herself because the illness had robbed Jamie of his vitality.
In a minute someone came and took them through double doors to a restricted area where they were set up in a private room. Jamie cried some more. “I think he wants you, Reese.” Nick handed the baby to her.
She hugged Jamie close and sang to him. The music kept him somewhat calm. When she lifted her eyes to Nick, she caught a look of such pain in his, it shattered her.
Something in his expression told Reese that Nick was thinking about his wife and how he’d lost her so quickly after they’d reached the hospital. In the two weeks she’d known Nick, he’d never talked about her except to explain how she’d died. Reese refused to consider the possibility that he was worrying his son would be taken from him, too, in so short a time.
“Nothing’s going to happen to Jamie,” she assured him with her heart in her throat. “You heard the doctor. Everyone’s had Rotavirus in their lives. Even the two of us, and we’re alive and healthy, right?” She flashed him a coaxing smile.
Reese wasn’t destined to hear what he would have said back because two technicians came into the cubicle wearing masks. Jamie didn’t like that and turned his head into her neck.
The taller one said, “If Mom and Dad will step outside the curtain, we’ll get this over with quick.” He reached for the baby Reese had to give up, but it killed her because Jamie cried out in protest.
“It’s okay, sport,” Nick assured him. “We’ll be right outside.” He reached for Reese’s hand and led her beyond the curtain. She knew he wasn’t thinking as he drew her along with him, but a sensation of warmth traveled up her arm into her body. He didn’t let go the whole time Jamie cried. With both their emotions raw, the feel of his hand gripping hers gave her the strength to deal with this crisis.
The technician had called them Mom and Dad. Right now she couldn’t imagine feeling any different if Jamie were her son. She loved that baby with every fiber of her being.
All these years she’d planned for a career, not realizing what it meant to love a child like she loved Jamie. The bond with him was so strong, it tore her apart to think of leaving him right now. When the day came that she had children of her own, how would she be able to leave them?
What if she were his mother and had to get back to her job of running a company? She couldn’t see it, not when Jamie needed her and Nick so desperately.
Together they stood having to endure his frightened cries. “For the last two weeks he’s only been with the two of us,” she whispered. “He’s not used to anyone else.”
In a minute the team left and another masked team showed up with their cart. “Stay where you are. This won’t take us long.”
Nick squeezed her hand gently before letting it go. She presumed their arrival made him realize he’d been holding on to hers all that time. Reese wished he wouldn’t have relinquished it. Without that physical connection, she was snatched back from her fantasy about being Jamie’s mother. Nick had been part of that fantasy, too. The three of them, a family. How was she ever going to say goodbye to them when the time came?
Deep in turmoil, she heard the baby let out a yelping cry like the one she’d heard through the monitor. They’d just jabbed him, she was sure of it, the poor darling. In reaction she smoothed her hands nervously over jeanclad hips.
It had been hours since she’d looked in a mirror. At least her hair was back in a ponytail and not messy. When they’d left for the hospital, she’d been in too alarmed a state to think about changing out of the jadecolored T-shirt she’d put on to study. But none of that mattered with Jamie lying there feverish and sick.
“They’re taking a hell of a long time in there,” Nick muttered.
Reese bit her lip. “It seems that way to me, too.”
“At this rate he’s going to think he’s been abandoned.”
“But he won’t remember once it’s over.”
“I’m not so sure of that.” Something in his tone told her that wasn’t idle talk. She wanted to ask him what he meant, but one of the team came outside the curtain with the cart, preventing further conversation.
“You can go back in now. We’ve attached his foot to a pad for protection. You can hold him all you want, just be mindful of the tubing.”
She and Nick hurried back inside to rescue his howling child, but were met by the other technician. “Wash your hands first, then put on the sterile gloves from the container on the wall. After you’ve done that, wear the masks we’ve left on the counter. Do this every time you leave the cubicle for any reason until the doctor tells you if your baby has Rotavirus or not. Dispose of everything in the bin inside the bathroom here. Leave through the other door that leads into the hallway.”
“Thank you,” they both said at the same time.
Once they were alone, Reese urged Nick to wash first. “Jamie needs you.” Though everything in her screamed to pick up the baby, he wasn’t her son and it wasn’t her place.
The warning Reese’s mother had given her about not getting too attached to the baby had gone by the wayside the first time she’d laid eyes on Jamie. The beautiful boy had caught at her heartstrings. After meeting his father, Reese knew why. Now—after loving and playing with him over the past two weeks—there were so many heartstrings being pulled by both Wainwrights, she realized she was in terrible trouble.
Once they were washed, gloved and masked, they spent the next hour taking turns holding him while they tried everything to settle him down. Finally he fell asleep and Nick lowered him to the crib.
“He’s not in pain right now, Nick.”
“We can be thankful for that small mercy at least.”
“You look exhausted. This is going to be an all-night vigil. Why don’t you slip out and grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria first. When you come back, I’ll go get something. I’d rather it was you he woke up to later.”
Nick’s eyes looked fierce above the mask. “He wants you just as much.” Her heart pounded dangerously, but it wasn’t from hunger or fatigue. “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
She knew the waiting was getting to him, but the more he kept telling her that, the more she wanted to believe it. “Hurry, before he wakes up looking for you.”
“All right, but I won’t be long.” He disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door. Reese walked over to the crib and looked down at the dear little boy she’d been privileged to take care of so far.
When Reese had helped her mom with her baby sister, she’d only been fourteen. Though she’d loved Emma, she couldn’t compare the feelings and emotions that filled Reese now. Jeremy had riddled her with accusations about being a cold woman who put a career above the feelings a normal woman possessed.
If he could see into her heart and soul right now, he would discover Reese was more than normal, and Jamie wasn’t even her son!
After consuming a sandwich and a piece of pie in record time, Nick left the cafeteria and walked outside the hospital doors. He had a phone call to make, but cell phones weren’t permitted inside. His father-in-law answered.
“Nick?”
“Sorry to call you this late, Walter, but I thought you should know I won’t be able to bring Jamie to White Plains tomorrow.”
There was a long silence. “Anne predicted right about you.”
He took a fortifying breath. “Jamie’s in the hospital with a bad flu bug of some kind. They’ll be keeping him overnight. Depending on what’s wrong after the tests come back, he might be here tomorrow night, as well. I’ll keep you posted and we’ll plan to bring him to White Plains next weekend instead.”
“What kind of flu?” Anne demanded. She’d picked up on another house phone the minute Walter had told her who was calling.
“We don’t know yet.”
“This never happened when he was with us.”
Nick was sorry she’d come on the line. This was exactly what he’d hoped to avoid. “Every child gets it, Anne. The point is, he’s receiving excellent care. I have to go back to him now. Tomorrow I’ll let you know how he’s doing. Good night.”
He hung up. It was automatic for him to check his voice messages. To his surprise there was one from his father. While his parents were traveling, they never called him. Out of curiosity more than filial duty, he clicked on.
“Nicholas? This is your father.” Nick shook his head because that was the way he always started out any phone call to him. The distance between them continued to widen. “Your mother and I are back on Long Island. I came in the office and discovered you’d already gone home. Stan tells me you’ve got the boy with you at the penthouse. Why you would do that baffles me and could prove to be very unwise. We ran into the Ridgeways while we were vacationing in Cannes. They’ll be back next week with their daughter Jennifer who’s been staying with friends in England. She’s a lovely young woman we want you to meet. Better not spring Jamie on her at first. You know what I mean. I expect a call from you before you go to bed.”
Before I go to bed?
His father could say that when he never phoned for months at a time?
Nick clicked off. The pain he’d carried since he could first remember life kindled into white-hot anger. His parents could wait. Reese couldn’t and neither could Jamie. He’d been gone too long as it was and hurried back to the E.R.
To his relief Jamie was still asleep. Reese’s blue eyes, those mirrors of the soul, fastened on him with intensity. “The doctor still hasn’t come back with the results.”
“It’s a busy night here. Why don’t you go get something to eat now?”
“I will.”
After she left through the bathroom, he washed his hands, then slipped on new gloves and a mask. Thankful his son was getting the rest he needed, Nick pulled up one of the chairs next to the crib to watch him.
He’d grown over the past couple of weeks. His father’s question about why he would bring Jamie home to live could be answered by the baby lying right in front of him with an IV in his tiny foot.
This was why! There were changes going on every day of his son’s life. Nick wanted to be in on all of them. No more chunks of time missing he could never get back.
Had his father or mother ever actually heard Nick say his first word or seen him take his first step? When Nick had gotten the flu as a baby, someone on the staff would have taken care of him. Nick’s mother wouldn’t have been able to tolerate being thrown up on. She would have left that to a nurse.
Reese on the other hand loved and kissed Jamie to death. That was her nature. Because of so much one-on-one attention, his son was blossoming. You can’t spoil a baby enough. Those were her words. Nick believed in her philosophy. Every baby should be so showered.
Nick’s parents didn’t have a clue. They’d been raised by nannies and their parents before them. His father’s mention of the Ridgeway’s daughter, another woman who had to be made in the express image of the other women in Nick’s life, sickened him.
“Mr. Wainright?” Dr. Marsh had come in.
Nick got to his feet. “What’s the verdict?”
“Your son has Rotavirus. I’ve talked to your pediatrician. He’ll be by in the morning on rounds unless the baby’s temp spikes. In the meantime we’ll continue to do what we’re doing and will come in at intervals to check his vitals. Do you have any questions for me?”
“Not that I can think of right now.”
“If you and your wife need a cot, they’re in the closet behind you.”
