Friends with Benefits - Nicole Blanchard Page 0,67

an actuality. “What happened?”

The keys in Charlie’s hand rattled as she put them in the ignition. “The doctors think she’s having a miscarriage.”

“Is she alone?” I asked.

“Layla was with her. I volunteered to come get you.”

“How was she?”

Charlie swallowed hard. “She was in pain. They gave her some medication to help the pain and help her rest. They want to keep her overnight for observation. I got here as quick as I could.”

“Thank you.”

I was quiet for the rest of the drive to the hospital. The baby had only been alive for a few short weeks. I hadn’t even had time to properly wrap my thoughts around their existence. It didn’t seem fair for their life to end so suddenly. It hadn’t been planned, but they had been wanted, and they were already loved.

Charlie drove into the emergency room parking lot at the hospital and stopped under the awning for me to get out of the car while she parked. I signed in at the front desk and followed one of the nurses back into the maternity ward on autopilot. When they stopped at her room, it took me a minute to work up the nerve to open the door, afraid of what I’d find on the other side.

Layla looked up from where she was sitting beside the hospital bed. Both of her hands were wrapped around one of Ember’s. The other was hooked up to a bunch of wires and tubes. She looked incredibly small in the large bed. Her eyes were closed, and her chest rose rhythmically in sleep.

I crossed to the bed, my eyes on her face, afraid I’d see her slip away right in front of me. “How is she?” I asked Layla. I studied the dark smudges under her eyes and the hollows in her cheeks I hadn’t noticed before.

“Hey, Tripp. She’s okay now that she’s resting. The doctor says she can go home tomorrow if there are no complications.”

I swallowed hard. “Thanks for being here for her.”

Layla got up and pushed her hair away from her face. Her eyes were red. She must have been crying. “Of course. She’ll be glad to see you’re here when she wakes up. I’ll give you two some time. Please call Charlie or me if there’s anything you need.”

“I will. Thanks again.”

Layla paused after putting her purse over her shoulder. Then she moved forward and wrapped me in a hug. “I’m so sorry, Tripp.”

A tide of sorrow welled up inside me. “Me, too,” I said.

There was nothing else to add, so Layla left. I dumped my duffle on the small couch in the room, then took Layla’s place in the chair by the hospital bed. Ember’s hand looked so limp and pale when I took it into my own. She was the strongest woman I knew, but in the bed, hooked up to a half-dozen machines, she seemed fragile. The fear that I could have lost her at any moment, too, was overpowering.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Ember

“Are you sure you don’t mind having a girl’s night while we pack up? I hope I’m not killing your fun.”

Charlie lifted a beer. “You provided sustenance. It doesn’t matter where we’re at, as long as we’re together.”

“Don’t make me cry,” Layla said, then hefted the box she was carrying onto a stack of them at the front door. “I can’t believe we’re all leaving this place. It won’t be the same.”

Charlie nodded. “It was fun while it lasted.”

It was, I thought, as I looked around the apartment, which was in various stages of disarray. I’d had a lot of hard times here, but there were a lot of good times, too. The girls had lived here their whole lives. They’d said their first words and taken their first steps here. It was bittersweet, but time for a change.

In the weeks since my stay at the hospital, I’d recovered. It hadn’t been easy, but Layla and Charlie had helped. Charlie had taken time off work to be my own personal nurse for a few days. Layla had stopped by after school to take care of the girls when Tripp’s parents weren’t watching them. School and my own work had been understanding. Within two weeks, I had been back in the swing of things. It was almost like it had never happened.

Except it had, and I was forever changed.

“End of an era,” Layla agreed. “How is the new place? Do the girls like it?”

Since I was finishing the program at school and was going to be