Page 64 of The Fire Captain's Unexpected Baby
Whoever they are, I want to thank them for taking such good care of him all this time. Before I got to meet him, they werethere for him. I don’t know exactly how or in what way, but they have been through some tough times together. It’s obvious.
The woman shakes her head and then looks around the room, her eyes landing on me for the first time. It’s like she can see the rest of the world now that she knows Aaron is okay.
“You’re his nurse?”
I nod, not wanting to overshare. Even if I wanted to say more, what could I possibly say? That I’m the woman who just broke up with the man who is lying in the hospital bed because he was serious about her?
“Thank you for taking care of my little Aaron,” she says with warmth.
I feel it resonate in my chest and spread outward. She could have given me a bear hug. I wouldn’t have felt it any more than I do right now.
“You should have seen him when my husband brought him home.” Her eyes grow misty with memory, and she turns to her husband. I can sense that there’s pain in the story, even after all these years. “Couldn’t have been more than seventeen. And the boy bled all over my couch.”
“I bought you a new one, Ma,” Aaron reminds her. “It was my first priority when I got a job.”
“I know you did, baby. But that’s not the point!” She turns back to me. “The point is that he’s been through it, and he deserves someone who will take care of him.”
Aaron turns his attention to me. “Paige, this is my family. Not by blood, but no less of a family.”
The look he gives me is pointed. I hear what he isn’t saying. He was able to transform these strangers into his family. Obviously, they were all quite close. But it wasn’t the same thing as welcoming achildinto his life.
I don’t get to ruminate on it because the people around us erupt excitedly. They mutter among themselves, all of them looking at me.
Like they know me.
Like they know who I am, and who I am to Aaron.
As if on cue, his mother pats him on the shoulder. She looks between him and me a few more times, sizing me up. I try not to shrink under her attention. She just cares deeply for Aaron, and she should.
“I think we need to hit the food court,” she says suddenly. “You know it’s a long drive to get here.”
“There’s a vending machine at the end of the hall,” I tell her, in case she doesn’t want to be too far from her son. “The cafeteria doesn’t have much to grab and go.”
“Well then, I guess we’ll stop at that darling little diner down the street for a bite to eat. Aaron, honey, you’ll be okay for an hour or so?”
“Go get something to eat, Mom.” He rolls his eyes at her.
She says something so quietly that only he and his sister can hear. Unsure what it is, the sentiment makes him blush. His eyes find mine.
Then, she gathers up the entire crowd. They troop out of the hospital room just as suddenly as they came, leaving a vacuum of noise in their wake. I don’t know what to say to Aaron without them here.
“You told them about me?”
I try to picture Aaron having a conversation with his dad. What would he have told them about me that made them leave the room so suddenly? His mom seemed to want us to have alone time, even though she was obviously distraught over his minor injuries.
“Did I tell them that I met a great woman with a great kid?” Aaron shrugs. “Yeah, so? Don’t worry about it. I told them it was just casual. That’s what you wanted, right?”
The tenderness of the moment before his family came in pops like a bubble. Tears spring to my eyes at the bitterness in his voice. Knowing that I put that tone there and hurt him this way wounds me deeper than I thought it would.
“I should rest,” he says, looking straight ahead.
It’s the first time he doesn’t look at me when he speaks. Like he can’t bring himself to look at me anymore.
“Aaron, I’m so sorry,” I start.
He shakes his head, like he isn’t ready to hear it yet. But I have to get it off my chest.
“I don’t know what I’m doing here. I just need time to think.”
