H is for Hawk (Men of ALPHAbet Mountain)

I gestured at the craft supplies in front of me. “I should have gotten these done, and I didn’t. The wedding is tomorrow, and the decorations still aren’t done.”

Wendy sat in the chair across from mine and reached for one of the partially finished decorations.

“I can help you finish them,” she said. “That’s not a big deal. There’s plenty of time. Now, tell me what’s really going on.”

Knowing I wasn’t going to be able to get her to drop it, I let out a sigh, my shoulders dropping as I looked at her.

“I had kind of a strange day yesterday,” I said.

Wendy tilted her head to the side, giving me a questioning look. “What do you mean? What happened?”

“I saw Hawk,” I said.

Her eyes snapped to me, and her hands went still. “Hawk? Hawk Blackthorne?”

I gave her a strange look. “Do you know a whole bunch o other men named Hawk?”

She shook her head and looked back at the project in her hands. “No. Nope. He’s the only one. I just didn’t realize the two of you were still in contact.”

“Well, that’s the thing. We weren’t. But he came into the hospital.”

“Oh,” Wendy said. “Is he okay?”

“With a baby,” I said, my voice overlapping hers.

“With a… what?” Wendy asked.

“A baby. One of the other nurses said a patient had come in specifically asking for me, and when I went to the room, it was Hawk, and he was sitting there with a newborn screaming to beat the band.”

“I didn’t know he had a baby. Not that I keep up with him or anything, but I figured I would hear something like that,” she said.

“Well, the baby isn’t his. She is his niece. Apparently, his sister came into town asking for help because she had this baby and the father was in jail. Gave him a big sob story and the whole thing, then up and left in the middle of the night. He woke up to the baby and a note asking him to take care of her. He didn’t know what to do, and the baby, Rose, wouldn’t stop crying. She had a fever, and he was freaking out, so he brought her to the hospital.”

“But why did he ask for you?” Wendy asked. “I mean, you’re an amazing nurse, and I know you would take care of anyone, but of all people for him to want to speak with directly, I wouldn’t immediately put you at the top of the list.”

“Yeah, me neither. But he said he felt better dealing with me because he knew me and trusted me. He didn’t want anyone else to judge Kim or to immediately take the baby away from him. He just wanted to make sure the baby was alright. It turned out she was just hungry and had cried herself into a fever.”

“That’s a relief,” Wendy said. “But if that’s all that was going on, why are you so distracted?”

“Kim just left. Not for a little while. Not a temporary thing. She left. She doesn’t intend on being a mother. So, that means Rose needs a guardian, and Hawk wants to take care of her. He doesn’t want her taken out of the family. But he doesn’t know anything about taking care of a baby and is worried Rose will be taken from him. So, he asked if I would help him learn the basics of taking care of her.”

“Okay,” Wendy said, the word drawn out like she was waiting for something more to come.

“I went over to his house,” I said.

She looked at me with widened eyes, letting out a little bit of a gasp. “You went to Hawk Blackthorne’s house? Without calling me to consult?”

“It wasn’t like that,” I said. “At least, it wasn’t supposed to be. That wasn’t the point. He just wanted to get a crash course in what he was supposed to do to take care of the baby. He didn’t even know how to change her or swaddle her or anything. I told him I might be able to help him arrange to become her guardian with Desiree’s help, and that if he is able to care for her well, it will be more convincing. So, I went over there, brought him some supplies, and spent some time there showing him what to do.”

“That was really nice of you. But what do you mean ‘it wasn’t supposed to be’ like that?” she asked, sounding suspicious.

I couldn’t really blame her. She had been right there with me during everything Hawk put me through. She’d watched me cling to my feelings for him through high school and him bounce my emotions around. She was there with me when he stood me up for the prom. She’d helped me get through the rough patch after and move forward. I could completely understand why she would be so hesitant hearing I had fallen back into spending time with him. Especially if there were any sort of feelings involved.