to the doorway and on down the hall. It would be okay to ask her if she was okay, right?
He leaned toward the door only to hear her retching. He frowned and knocked lightly. “Dot, honey? Are you okay?”
She moaned, and then the word sounded very much like, “No.”
“Can I come in?”
“Please,” she said, and Ward dang near ripped the door down to get it open.
Dot knelt in front of the toilet, pure misery on her face. A bit of white residue ringed her upper lip and the corner of her mouth. Alarms shouted in Ward’s head.
“I don’t feel good,” Dot said, a single tear rolling down her face. Her breaths came in shallow gasps. “I’m nauseous and vomiting. I’m dying of thirst, so then I have to go to the bathroom all the time.”
He knelt on the floor with her. “I can get you something to drink.”
She shook her head. “I can’t drink any more. I’ve been drinking for hours.” She leaned her head against his chest. “I can’t cry, because I’m so dehydrated.”
Ward put his hand against her heart and found it beating like hummingbird wings. “More insulin,” he said. “That’s what you need?” He could go grab it from the fridge.
“Yes,” she said, gasping the word out. “But Ward.” Gasp. Exhale. Shudder. “I don’t have any more.”
Chapter Twenty
“Tell them you’re not coming in,” Ida said, plenty of annoyance in her voice though she hadn’t spoken louder than a whisper. Brady’s phone continued to ring, and she reached over and smacked his chest. Honestly, how the cop could sleep through the noise eluded her. “Your phone.”
Her husband groaned and rolled over, moving right into a sitting position. The light from the nursery, which sat only fifteen feet to Ida’s left and through a massive, arched doorway, spilled into their bedroom and illuminated Brady as he lifted his phone. “It’s Tyson.”
“Great. Tell him no.” Ida closed her eyes, not even wanting to see what time it was. It was the middle of the night, that was what, and she’d barely strung together three hours of sleep since the babies had been born seven days ago. Brady wasn’t even supposed to be on-call.
Brady got out of bed, and Ida knew he’d slip away from her. She was okay with it; they’d talked a lot about his job before he’d asked her to marry him. He’d also asked his boss if he could have a few weeks off of the rotation for on-call emergencies, and he’d been granted his request.
No one should be calling him in the middle of the night.
Ida sighed in an exaggerated way and rolled over. She fumbled for her phone to check the time, though it blinded her, and she had to squint against the light. Two-ten. She’d need to be up in a half-hour to feed the babies anyway. Perhaps she could sneak in their feeding now and then sleep until morning.
Armed with that amazingly good idea, Ida set her phone down and swung her legs out of bed. She still needed an extra second to steady herself, as she wasn’t pregnant anymore, and she didn’t have thirteen extra pounds attached to the front of her body.
“Ida, it’s Ward,” Brady said, rushing back into the room. He flipped the light on, and Ida frowned and threw her hand up to shield her eyes.
“Ward?”
“Well, it’s really Dot,” Brady said, tossing his phone on the bed. He reached for his boots, the urgency with which he moved frightening Ida. “She’s out of insulin, and she’s got super high blood sugar.” He pulled in a breath. “Ward called Tyson—that’s her brother—and he called me. I’m going with him to get more insulin and take it up to the ranch.”
“I’ll come,” Ida said, her heartbeat pounding in the back of her throat. It hammered against her tongue. Ward was her very best friend besides Etta, and she could help him.
“You can’t come, sweets,” Brady said, standing up and rounding the corner of the bed. He took her by the shoulders and smiled at her. “We’d have gone to the ranch today if we could get there, remember?”
“I have to go,” she said. “Ward will need my help.”
“Everyone else is there,” Brady said gently, but that was exactly the wrong thing to say. She flinched from the extra salt in the wound. “Have you forgotten how many babies we have now?” He grinned down at her and leaned in for a kiss.
He pulled away almost the moment his lips touched hers.