Hard Knox - Riley Hart Page 0,87

to stop and use his inhaler when he was playing with his friend.

I would never get the sound out of my head, of Callum’s voice when he’d said my name. The sharp edge of fear that had sliced through me. I tried not to think about it. Things were better now. Logan was fine. It would be okay. It was hard sometimes, when you could be used to something, can have dealt with it, but for me, it was still hard because it was my son. Plus, we’d had urgent-care trips before and the ER once, but those had always been when it was me and Carol.

He was sleeping now while I waited for them to get him admitted to the floor. We’d been here for hours, and I hadn’t left his side. I didn’t have my phone on me, but I’d spoken to one of the nurses about letting Callum know Logan was okay. They wouldn’t allow him and Charlie into his ER room, because of Charlie’s age and they only wanted one person in the room.

A tech stuck his head around the curtain. “They got him a room. He’ll probably go up in about thirty minutes.”

“Okay.” I rubbed a hand over my face. My eyes were scratchy. “I’m gonna head out to the waiting room to talk to my…Callum.” My Callum? Christ, I needed to get it together. “Make sure he and Logan’s sister know what’s going on. Can you tell Logan where I am if he wakes up?”

The man gave me a kind smile. “Yeah, of course. He’ll be all right. We’re taking good care of him.”

“Thank you.” Natalie worked in the ER, and I’d been hoping she was here tonight, but she wasn’t. Everyone had been great, but it would have been nice to have her there.

My legs were stiff as I stood. I was aching to see Callum. To hold him and have him tell me that everything was going to be okay. I knew it would, but sometimes you needed to hear it from someone you loved, someone you trusted.

I also wanted to hold Charlie, to make sure she was okay. Having something happen to Logan made me want to keep them both a little closer.

I made my way to the waiting room. It was the middle of the night, so it was quiet there. When I walked around the corner, I saw them. Callum with his arm around Charlie, who was asleep against him. Mary Beth sitting on the other side of Cal, then Law and Remy.

Callum’s eyes darted up, as if he sensed me, even though I hadn’t moved from my spot near the entrance.

“Knox,” he said softly, pain in his voice.

I walked over. “He’s okay. We aren’t sure why things got so bad there. They want to keep him overnight to watch his oxygen levels. We might need to adjust his treatment. He’s sleeping now. They had to give him some oxygen. That’s never…” That had never happened before.

Charlie rolled over but didn’t wake. Her position made it so she wasn’t as heavily against Cal as she had been. He was able to slip out from under her, and she didn’t move, stayed curled up where she was. I whispered, “How did you all…?”

“Here, let’s go around the corner so we don’t wake her,” Callum said.

We all left the waiting room and went right around the corner, so we could still keep an eye on her and hear her but have some privacy.

“I called Carol. She’s on her way. I told her she didn’t have to come, but…”

“She’s a mom,” Knox filled in.

Callum bit his thumbnail nervously. I’d never seen him do that before. “I called my mom. I hope that’s okay. I was worried. Jesus, I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

“Hey, come here. I’m sorry I couldn’t be out here with you.” I pulled him close, my arms around his shoulders, his around my waist. I kissed the top of his head, savored the feel of him against me.

“I called Law,” Mary Beth filled me in. Callum had his cheek against my chest. My heart raced, and I wondered if he felt it beat against him, if he knew he’d brought it to life again. “I wanted to tell him I might not be in to work in the morning.”

“And there was no way I was going to stay at home,” Law added. “We went over and took Frankie Blue out before we got here. What can we