the road. On the headlights firmly in the correct lane.
Finally they arrived at the hospital. The tiny parking lot at the birthing center was packed full, and there was only one available space. Rebecca turned into it sharply and killed the engine, then got out without waiting for him.
She scurried quickly to the automatic glass doors, dodging raindrops as they started to fall. He walked slower, not caring when the icy drops hit his bare skin, slid inside the collar of his shirt and down his back. He’d forgotten his hat. Which seemed about right since his whole world had been pitched just slightly to the left and he wasn’t sure what the hell he was going to do about it.
He wasn’t sure what the hell he was going to do next.
They walked into the waiting area, a small space with double doors on the opposite side of it, guarded by a man sitting at a desk positioned out front.
“Who are you here to see?” he asked.
“Sierra West.” Then he remembered that wasn’t her name anymore. “I mean Sierra Thompson. Sorry. I can’t quite get used to that.”
The man looked at the registry book in front of him, offering Gage an understanding smile as he did. “Takes a while for a name change to stick.” He took two name tags and dated them, then passed them over to Gage and Rebecca to add their names. “If she’s not taking visitors the nurse will stop you. She’s in room three.”
He nodded, missing his hat again and feeling a little like an ass.
“Come on,” Rebecca said as the man at the desk pressed a button and opened the security doors.
She didn’t touch him, but he still felt connected to her by some invisible thread. But that was low on his list of things to worry about. Especially when he saw Colton, his wife, Lydia—who Gage had yet to formally meet—and Maddy sitting in the waiting room.
They all stood when he walked in. Colton wrapped his arm around Lydia and drew her close. Maddy crossed her arms, holding herself close and putting obvious distance between her and himself.
“We have to stop meeting like this,” he said, his lame joke doing nothing to defuse the tension in the room.
“Then, maybe don’t make a habit out of showing up only when someone is hospitalized?” This came from Maddy.
“How is she?”
“Great,” Colton said. “Resting.”
“Everything is good with the baby?”
“Everything’s fine. It’s a girl,” Maddy added. “If she wasn’t okay, I would have told you.”
“Yeah, I figured.” He actually had. Madison was straight up, that much he had gathered in their limited interaction.
“You can go,” Colton said.
Lydia put a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “I don’t think he wants to go, Colton.”
“No,” Gage said, “he doesn’t.”
“She didn’t ask for you,” Colton said. “Why would she? For seventeen years you haven’t been around. There would be no point in her asking for you. Why would she ask for you now?”
“I know. I’m not going to stand here and try to justify myself. Not now. That’s a conversation for a different time. And it’s going to take a lot more than one conversation, frankly. But right now, I want to see her. Or, I at least want her to know that I was here.”
Colton frowned, looking past Gage, his eyes landing on Rebecca. “Are you with him, Rebecca?” he asked.
Gage looked down at Rebecca. Her golden cheeks darkened, pink flushing up beneath her skin. “I drove him,” she said, her voice monotone.
Colton looked like he wanted to launch into an inquisition, but he refrained. “I can check and see if she wants to see you.”
“I will,” Maddy said, treating him to a look that would have scorched a lesser man before she walked toward the patient rooms, disappearing into one of them.
A heavy, uncomfortable silence descended over them.
“Were you all here the whole time?”
Colton nodded, and so did Lydia. “That’s what we do,” Colton said. “That’s what I do. It’s what I’ve done ever since you left.”
“I need coffee,” Lydia said, her tone firm, giving every indication that she had no need of coffee, she only wanted to remove herself from the conversation. “Rebecca, why don’t you come with me?” She smiled pleasantly at Rebecca, making it very clear that it wasn’t optional.
Rebecca didn’t look at him. Instead, she turned and went with Lydia without giving them another glance. Probably for the best. He didn’t exactly want to play up his connection with her. Both because he didn’t want