Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,91
tight. But that wasn’t something he could do. So he stood there with his hands fisted at his side, watching Sophia be the strength her son needed.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Sophia woke with a start, jerking upright in the armchair she’d apparently fallen asleep in, grateful that the room had comfortable furniture for the families of sick children. The room almost seemed like a hotel room—until you saw the hospital bed.
Glancing around, she noticed a nurse was in the room speaking with Ryker. She blew out a breath and rubbed her face. She was so tired. More exhausted than she’d ever been before. But considering she hadn’t slept more than a couple of hours in a row since Bryson had been admitted, that wasn’t too surprising.
Getting to her feet, she moved to stand next to Bryson’s bed, happy to see that he was awake. In the three days since he’d been admitted, he’d shown some signs of improvement, but it had been slow going. She’d thought that once the fever had gone down, everything would be better, but then it had gone up again.
The only area they hadn’t had a set back in was the dehydration he’d been experiencing on admission. She’d been glad that even though he wasn’t drinking as much as he should have been or when he’d thrown up again, she didn’t have to worry about him getting dehydrated because of the IV fluids he was receiving.
“Everything okay?” she asked, directing her question to Ryker.
It seemed that the staff now understood that she would turn to Ryker first with her questions if he was around. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the nurses and doctors. She just trusted Ryker more.
“They’re going to be coming to draw blood soon.”
“I can still stay with him, right?” He’d had a couple of blood draws so far, and neither of them had been great. She wasn’t sure which of them had been more upset by them.
He nodded. “It’s best that you do.”
“And you’ll be here too?”
“Of course.”
Sophia had a moment of apprehension, worried that she was expecting too much of Ryker. He’d gone over and above what anyone should have had to for someone that they weren’t even related to.
“If you need—” A look from Ryker stopped her words. She bit her lip to keep from saying anything further.
The fact was, however, that he’d spent a lot of time at the hospital with them. She had no idea what Michael was doing since for the past two days Ryker had been at the hospital each day by three o’clock. Clearly, he wasn’t putting in the full day of work he usually did.
She’d finally let her family know what was going on, and while her parents had come up to the hospital earlier that day, they hadn’t stayed very long. Nana had been extremely worried and had voiced more than once that she wished she could come to see them. Unfortunately, having to use a wheelchair for mobility made it nearly impossible for her to visit.
When the nurse left the room, Sophia tried to shake off her tiredness as she moved closer to Bryson. He was dozing again after having been awake for a little while. She wasn’t used to him sleeping so much, but Ryker assured her that extra sleep was a good thing at this point. But no matter how many times he told her that—and it had been several—she just couldn’t seem to grasp the truth of what he said.
The person coming to do Bryson’s blood draw arrived just as Ryker’s phone rang. He moved closer to the window to answer it while Sophia prepared to keep Bryson from getting too upset. She wasn’t sure why they were drawing his blood again, but they’d said something about checking some levels.
She wanted to worry, but Ryker said it was just routine. So, hopefully, he was right.
“It’s okay, baby,” Sophia murmured as she wrapped her arms around Bryson when he began to get agitated when he spotted the lab technician.
The technician was a soft-spoken woman who, from what Sophia could see, was trying her best not to traumatize Bryson further. Unfortunately, Bryson had already endured so much over the past few days that he wasn’t calm about anything anymore.
When his whimpers turned to cries, Sophia heard Ryker say, “Mom, I’ve got to call you back.” She felt Ryker at her side, his arms wrapping around her and his hand cupping the back of Bryson’s head. “Hey, buddy. It’s going to be okay.”