Any Day Now - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,69

would lurch.

God, if we’d only been two minutes earlier, we might’ve stopped the beating entirely.

But two minutes later? Shit would’ve gotten out of hand, and Amelia might not be alive right now to hold onto.

“I’m okay,” she said again.

I studied her face. Then her hands.

“You may be, but I’m not.”

Her face softened.

Chapter 22

Sometimes I close my eyes and wish you would hit yourself in the face.

-Amelia to Adam

Amelia

“I’m okay, Adam.” I tugged lightly on his wrist.

When he still didn’t move, I glanced out in the hallway to see all the men and women lining the walls.

Men from the SWAT team and their women. My family. Hell, there were even a few of the Dixie Wardens MC here now. All of them outside in the hallway where Zach had kicked them to moments before.

“You may be, but I’m not.”

Adam’s words had a knife twisting in my gut.

“You’re… you’re not?” I asked, sounding timid and lost.

Was he not okay because of the baby?

Fuck, a baby.

Even thinking it, which I’d been trying to avoid doing over the last twenty minutes, was out of this world to me.

I wasn’t ready to be a mother.

I had plans, and things I wanted to do, and places I wanted to see.

Oh, and I wanted to do all of those things with Adam.

A baby wouldn’t fit into those plans.

But what choice did I have?

A baby of Adam’s was a dream come true.

There was this little niggle of excitement that was growing inside of me each second that I allowed myself to think about what a baby of Adam’s would look like.

Would the baby have his hair? His eye coloring? His skin tone?

God, I hoped so.

I studied his face as he looked brokenly at my hands.

“I’m not okay because I almost lost you today, and I didn’t even fully realize that I wanted to keep you forever until you almost slipped through my fingers,” he murmured softly.

Those words made my heart melt.

“Oh, Adam,” I said as I held out my other hand for his. “I love you.”

He bent down and rested his forehead against my hand instead of giving me his fingers.

I let go of his other hand and sifted my fingers through his hair for a few long moments.

The men of the SWAT team would glance inside, see Adam, and then quickly glance away. Going back to their conversations or looking away as soon as they saw him.

Just as I was about to look away, I spotted a familiar face that hadn’t been there earlier.

“So…” Reggie came into the room rolling a computer. “I heard that you decided to go and get beat up, Amelia Mackenzie.”

She looked up after she maneuvered the computer into the room and blinked hard at the sheer amount of people stuffed into the area surrounding my room.

I rolled my eyes.

“Ahh,” Zach said. “Just the girl I was waiting for.”

My brows rose. “When did you start working here?”

The last I’d heard she was permanently at the other hospital.

“The internship I was talking about last time we spoke is here,” she said. “I get to go where I’m needed throughout the day, touring the floors until I find the floor that I’d like to hang out on for the rest of my internship.” She paused. “But, with the internship came me having to quit my old job.”

“I thought you knew where you wanted to work?” I frowned.

Adam lifted his head and glanced to the side, staring at Reggie.

“I do,” she answered as she walked over to Adam and offered her hand to him. “We’ve met once before a while ago, I don’t know if you remember me. But I’m Reggie.”

Adam took her hand. “Adam.”

She grinned. “I know.” She turned back to me. “Your girl has a lot to say about you when I can actually find time to text her. And to answer that question before you ask it, Amelia, the two-week float for the internship is mandatory. Once I’ve completed two rounds on every single floor, then I’ll get to choose.” She paused, grinning. “It’s actually kind of fun.” She looked at Zach who’d taken over her computer that she’d rolled in with her. “This is my last semester of school, and I get to choose which hospital that I take my clinicals at. Since I chose here, everyone already knows me. This is my last shift in the ER before I go up to NICU next week.”

Understanding dawned.

She’d told me from the beginning that neonatal intensive care unit was her passion.

She’d wanted to