Makena

Tomorrow. It’s more than a word. It’s a promise.

My stomach does a half dozen somersaults and my hands are trembling when Emer and Bree come out of Delaney’s room. I brush away the tears that have fallen down my cheeks and force a shaky smile when I see them.

“What’s wrong?” Emer asks, rushing to my side, taking my hands. “If Shane did something, I’ll-”

“No.” I laugh. It sounds a bit hysterical, but I’m still processing the things he said to me. “Everything is good.”

Emer purses her lips like she doesn’t know if she should believe me, but it’s Bree that gives me a knowing smile. Thankfully, she doesn’t ask any questions, because I’m not sure I have any answers for her right now.

“Delaney needs to rest,” she says.

Aiden and Owen meet us in the hallway. “We’re going to head home for a few hours, then pick Agnus up and bring her back here. Did ye want to ride with us?”

“Shane will be right back. I’ll go with him. I’ll just stay in the hall until he does.”

“Okay.” Emer gives me a hug, then the two couples disappear down the hall, their laughter and happy chatter floating through the elevator doors even after it’s closed.

Minutes tick by, the large clock on the wall letting me know that it’s been fifteen minutes since Shane left.

I don’t mind the quiet. It gives me time to think. To process everything that’s happened in the past few weeks.

A pretty redheaded nurse starts to walk down the hall towards me, but she stops suddenly when her gaze lands on me. It’s just a brief hesitation, but it still seems odd. She starts walking toward me again, her gaze glossy and slightly wild, like there’s something not quite right with her.

I hit a deer with my car once. The animal wasn’t dead, just dazed. When I’d gotten out of the car to check on it, it’s eyes had that same look the woman walking toward me has now.

A shiver races down my spine.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid, like I had been at the pub. Joey had just been trying to protect me, and my brain had turned him into a crazed stalker.

This woman was just a nurse, doing her job.

I smile at her when she passes, and I swear the woman hisses under her breath at me.

When she turns into one of the rooms, I let out the breath I’d been holding in.

Just a nurse, I repeat.

I glance over at the clock, but only a couple minutes have passed since I last checked. I begin to regret sending him off on a mission to find me a charger. All I want right now is to be with him. To talk about the tomorrows we promised each other.

Everything will be okay.

Even if the baby does end up being his. I’ll probably never have children of my own, but I can be a part of that child’s life. It might be enough to fill that ache that’s never really gone away since I found out I’d never be a mom.

With my head resting on the wall, I close my eyes briefly until I hear the squeak of rubber-soled shoes passing by me quickly.

I open my eyes to see the back of the nurse as she scurries down the hall carrying a blue bundle in her arms. It isn’t until she turns the corner that I realize it’s a baby.

Warning bells go off in my brain. Why the hell was she running with an infant in her arms? If there was an emergency, there would have been alarms or something. It’s then that I realize whose room she’d gone into earlier – Delaney’s.

Oh God.

She’s asleep in the hospital bed when I enter, and Cillian’s sprawled out in a lounge chair beside her, his eyes closed. The bassinette beside him is empty.

“Cillian.” I shake him until his eyes jerk open.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did you authorize a nurse to take Axel?” I keep my voice low, not wanting to wake Delaney up in case I’m just overreacting.

“What?” He’s suddenly wide awake. “No.”

“Call Security. I’m sorry, I thought she was a nurse-”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. A redhead. Wearing pink scrubs. Just call. Have them lock the exits.” I rush out of the room. I hear Delaney’s cry just as I turn the same corner the woman went.

This can’t be happening.

There are three doors in the direction she took. One is a restroom that’s unoccupied, one’s a locked custodial room, and the other leads to the stairwell.

I burst through them, glancing down. Nothing. Until I hear the squeak of shoes somewhere below me, followed by a newborn’s cry.

She’s in here.

I take the stairs as quickly as my feet will allow, adrenaline racing through me so that I barely feel the pain that slices through my knee when I turn a corner too quickly.

An alarm sounds over the intercom issuing a Code Pink.

Good.

There will be security at every exit. I just hope to God that she doesn’t do anything to harm the child.

One floor below me, I hear a door open, and as I turn the corner, I see a blur of red hair before it shuts again.

I push through, not knowing what I’m going to do if I catch up with her, but knowing I can’t let her out of my sight.

Who the hell is she?

When the woman comes to a sudden halt at the end of hall, I freeze when I see what caused her reaction.

Shane. Carrying two coffee cups, a small plastic bag, and an insanely large stuffed panda bear under one arm. The vision would normally have a smile itching at my lips. But my first reaction is to yell at him to stop the woman.

I don’t have time to, because his gaze drifts to the redhead and his eyes widen in recognition. Her name is on his lips instantly. “Emily?”

Even with the distance between us, I see the crazed lovestruck look that makes her eyes widen and her face turn a shade of pink. It’s a look that’s more than just a celebrity crush. And I have an aching suspicion she’s someone to him, and that I’ve just placed myself in a bigger mess than I could ever have imagined.