is good. Casey is recovering. Baby is six pounds, three ounces. He has a lot of hair, Mom. So much hair. And a good set of lungs on him too. We have to stay at least two nights to make sure his numbers stay good but then we can take him home.”
My mother started to cry.
Dana hugged our brother and stepped back for me to pull him in and clap him on the back. “Congratulations, man. You’re a dad.” I stepped back and gave his cheek a firm pat. “I can’t believe it. You’re a dad, Eli. If our old man was here…” I trailed off as my throat tightened.
“I know,” Eli croaked. “He’d be bawling harder than the kid.”
We laughed because that was what us Collinders did when our hearts ached and we missed our father.
Eli raked his fingers through his hair. “Do you want to meet him?”
“Hell yes,” I said.
Eli led us down the hall to the recovery room. Dana and I let Mom go in first and we came in behind her. Everyone washed their hands and crowded around the baby, who lay snuggled up in blue blankets in a small bassinet in one corner of the room.
I, however, went to see Casey.
She was on her back in bed. Everything about her looked swollen and tender, especially her eyes, and I knew she’d been crying. I reached out and took her hand as she smiled up at me. Fresh tears leaked down her cheeks.
“Hey,” I said softly. “You did it. It wasn’t so bad, was it?”
She smiled and closed her eyes. “When I have full range of motion again, I’m going to punch that stupid grin off your face.”
I laughed and gave her hand a squeeze. “Congratulations. I’m so proud of you, sister-in-law. My brother? Well, I’ve never seen him this happy. That’s a lucky little boy over there to have you and my brother as his parents.”
“And you for an uncle,” she whispered.
It was at that moment that my brother arrived on the other side of the bed with his baby swaddled in blue cradled in his arms. He held him up so I could see, and the first thing I thought when I saw that little face was how much he looked like my brother.
And my father.
I pressed a fist to my chest as emotions bubbled up inside me I’d never felt before. Pride. Joy. And love unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
“This is your Uncle Ethan,” my brother managed in a thin voice. He kissed the top of his son’s head. “Mom, Dana, Ethan, meet the newest Collinder family member, David James Collinder.”
My mother sucked in a sharp breath.
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. “That’s Dad’s name.”
My brother nodded. “It is.”
Chapter 27
Kathryn
Ethan missed work on Monday.
It took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to ask someone if they’d heard from him. It took even more willpower not to call or text him. We’d agreed to keep things professional and he’d held true to that pact.
Me on the other hand?
I’d kissed him before getting into the cab after four martinis after the market on Saturday night.
For some reason, it felt natural to lean in and press my lips against his. I hadn’t even realized what I was doing until it was too late and the stubble on his chin and upper lip were tickling my skin. He’d tasted like bourbon and spices from his old fashioneds.
I left work on Monday evening resolving that it was perfectly normal for Ethan to miss a day of work and not tell me about it. He didn’t owe me an explanation. I would check in with him on Tuesday to make sure all was well and we would carry on with business as usual.
So when the first three hours of the day passed by on Tuesday and Ethan never showed, I began to grow concerned.
Where was he?
Had something happened?
Was he in trouble?
It wasn’t like him to miss two days of work in a row. In fact, it was just as rare for him to miss work as it would have been for me to do so. Something important was keeping him out of the office and I wasn’t getting any work done because I was worrying over what that something might be.
Was he sick?
He lived all alone in that penthouse. Maybe he needed someone to swing by and heat up some soup for him. We had been out well into the night on Saturday