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“He’s fine.” I’m not sure who I’m convincing, myself or my mother, but I wait for the words to make the shitty feeling in my chest go away. It doesn’t, and while I continue explaining things to her, I head back to Easton’s room. “Because he was in so much discomfort, they’re giving him IV antibiotics and fluids. Honestly, Mom, he’s good. Sleepy as hell after keeping all of Summer’s family awake the night before last, but…”
“What are they like?” she asks instantly. “Do you like them? Were they nice to you? I really hope they were.”
“Her family is great. Very Irish,” I laugh lightly into the phone, pausing outside the restrooms. “They own a real pub, and her uncle pretty much threatened to bust my ass if I hurt Summer… I’m pretty certain her cousin is waiting for me to propose to her…”
“You like them,” Mom sighs as though she’s relieved.
“They’re good people.”
“Summer’s a nice girl, Parker. It really would be a shame not to—”
“I know. I know you love her and that I couldn’t do any better, but I’m not going to rush into anything. Summer has plans, and I won’t get in the way of what she wants to make myself happier. Neither of us is going anywhere…we have time…” A guy comes out of the restroom, and I take that as an opportunity to say goodbye.
“Call me later. I don’t want to bother you, but I want to know how my baby is doing.”
“Love you, Mom.”
“Love you more, sweetheart. Give Summer a warm hug from me.” That makes me smile before hanging up.
I use the restroom quickly and head back upstairs. The hospital is so quiet that it makes the children’s ward seem a world of its own with all the noises from the machines, chatter, and even toys.
The nurse at the station smiles in my direction while she takes a drink from her bright pink coffee cup. The word “Joy” stares back at me in a bold script, and I find myself grinning at it.
Summer has brought so much joy into East’s and my life. More than I ever thought was possible to feel. Walking a little faster with the urge to lay eyes on my two favorite people, I stride to the closed door of Easton’s hospital room, and I open it, ready to breathe again since I left them.
My heart drops to the floor. The room is empty. The crib has nothing but Easton’s monkey lying on it, along with the IV catheter.
“Summer?” I call in the direction of the bathroom on the other side of the room. “East?”
When there’s no reply or sign of them, I yell louder, pressing the assistance button on the wall beside the bed.
“Is everything okay?” the nurse asks as I’m about to run out of the room and find her.
“Where’s my son?” The words are garbled and barely coherent, but I know that she understood me because she looks between me and the bed with a confused stare. “Where is my son?”
“He wa—” She doesn’t actually finish whatever she was about to say. Instead, she jogs to the nurses’ station and checks the board behind it before asking her colleague, “The patient in room nine—”
“Your son is so cute,” the younger woman coos at me. “Vitals are looking up. Temperature is coming down, and he was having a nap with Mommy watching over him.”
It strikes me odd that she would call Summer his mom when she knows otherwise. “His mom?”
“Yes, the blonde lady that was visiting with your girlfriend?”
Shit.
“You need to call security,” I snap at both nurses while pulling my phone from my pocket. While I dial 911, I tell them, “She’s taken my son!”
* * *
Code pink.
That’s the procedure where they lock a hospital down when a child is kidnapped. It’s the first time I’ve heard of it, and as I pace Easton’s empty room, all I can do is cuddle the stuffed monkey that still smells of him.
“Please, Mr. Hawthorne, we need all the information you can give us,” the police officer states as I turn to look at him.
“I’ve told you all I can. My son and my girlfriend are missing, and the last I heard, my ex was nowhere to be seen. She’s unstable, and for all I know, she could be high or…fuck,” I grit out as the female officer walks into the room with her pad and pen in her hands.
“Nurse said that the mother and the girlfriend appeared to be in a heated discussion, but Miss O’Shea said that they were fine. They appeared so to the staff.”
