My Ex's Baby (Crescent Cove 8)

“Kinleigh, are you listening to me? We need to take the baby to the ER. Grab Ivy’s baby bag, and I’ll go get the truck.”

She nodded, her eyes overflowing. A tear splashed on the baby, but she never stopped jerking around long enough to notice.

I took a second to cup Kinleigh’s cheek. “You did the right thing, baby, calling me. It’s going to be okay.”

She nodded again, her tears still running freely.

I hated leaving them for even a moment.

I hurried to the lot and stowed the pizza box next to the car seat before backing out of the space. They were waiting on the porch when I pulled the truck around. Luckily, I kept a car seat in it all the time in case I needed to babysit Rhiannon, so it was just a matter of getting her si

tuated.

Rhiannon sobbed the whole way to the ER. Kinleigh texted Ivy that she should meet us at the hospital, and my heart gave a painful lurch at the panic my sister would feel getting that text. But it couldn’t be helped. I didn’t want to delay any longer. When blood was involved—even a small amount—I wasn’t taking any chances.

“Can you text Rory too? Do you have the number? I think he’s down in the city for the day, back tonight.”

“I have the number.” She typed frantically while I tried to focus on the road.

Every minute or so, I glanced back at my niece and crooned softly to her, hoping I could find the right combination of nonsense words and her name and anything I could think of to try to calm her down. She just continued to let out huge wrenching sobs that made my throat constrict and my shoulders ache.

“She’s going to be fine, baby.” I reached over to take Kinleigh’s hand as she stared morosely out the window. “I promise.”

Instead of shoving me away, she wrapped her fingers around mine and held on tight.

Twenty

I paced up and down the small waiting room while August was in the examination room with the baby. We’d been together for most of it while the doctor did the necessary checks, August and I taking turns soothing Rhiannon while the other helped keep the fussing baby still. Then Ivy’s frantic texts had started coming in, along with Rory’s, and August had suggested I wait out here for Ivy to arrive.

Since the little girl’s anguish was tugging hard at my chest and belly, I hadn’t argued. August’s steady calm had soothed me as much as it had the baby.

Oh, it hadn’t happened quickly. Rhiannon was still uneasy and crying, but she’d definitely started to calm down. The doctor had mentioned a likely ear infection, with a probable ruptured eardrum. That sounded much worse than it actually was apparently, especially when it came to babies that young. But I didn’t blame Ivy for freaking out. Add in the mom guilt that she’d chanced running to the store and now her baby was at the ER and she was a mess.

I couldn’t seem to stop pacing.

As soon as Ivy rushed into the waiting room, the emotion in her expressive eyes so like August’s, I started to cry. She’d stopped momentarily, her cheeks blotchy and red. But the instant our gazes connected, it was instant waterworks on her side too.

She hurried toward me and we hugged, any earlier awkwardness forgotten. “She’s fine,” I repeated over and over, stroking her hair. “She’s with August in with the doctor. Everything is going to be okay.”

As if I’d summoned him, he came into the waiting room, toting a now subdued Rhiannon. “She had a shot,” he explained sheepishly before Ivy wrenched away from me and hurtled herself at her child.

Rhiannon’s chin wobbled and she immediately started crying again as she saw her mother, extending her arms in a universal gesture my already maternal heart recognized.

And yearned for, as much as it made me ache.

“There’s my darling. There’s my sweetheart. Mama’s here. I’m here, baby. I won’t ever leave you again, I promise.” Ivy cradled Rhiannon gently, brushing her ginger curls away from her flushed forehead.

August and I exchanged a glance over Ivy and Rhi, the moment plunging me back into the past to the day of the baby’s birth. He was so good with her. So good with Ivy as he rubbed his sister’s back and told her softly what the doctor had said. But his eyes remained riveted on me.

If I had to say one moment had changed everything between us, Ivy’s baby’s birth had been the start.

“Rory’s on his way,” I said into the momentary silence. “He’s catching the first flight back he can.”

“Yeah, he called. We spent a few minutes crying and going crazy while I drove here.” Ivy let out a sniffly laugh. “He tried to be strong of course, but I heard him sniffing. Said he had a cold. He loves her as ferociously as I do.” She tugged her daughter’s blanket up more tightly around her. “Isn’t that right, Rhi-Rhi? Daddy’s hurrying here to see you. He’ll be here to put you to sleep tonight.” She sighed. “First, we have a prescription to get.”

Again, my gaze clung to August. It was impossible not to think about what kind of father he’d be to our child. Would it be a girl or a boy? Better question—would I be a hopeless mess every time he or she got a skinned knee or the flu?

I hoped not. Practice made perfect, right? In time, I’d find a modicum of chill.