Two Men and a Baby - Isla Olsen Page 0,45

and Josh.”

The little box in the corner of the screen clearly shows me with my head in Connor’s lap, so if Aidan didn’t know about us before he definitely does now.

“Why did you think it wouldn’t be true?” Connor asks.

Aidan shrugs. “I don’t know. I just didn’t picture you together. Although now I think about it, it kind of makes sense. You’re the two biggest nerds I know.”

“We’ll take that as a compliment,” Connor says.

Aidan narrows his eyes in scrutiny. “Jesus, is that a Baby-Sitters Club book?” He shakes his head in disappointment. “Come on, Josh, you’re better than that. Don’t let him corrupt you.”

“I like letting him corrupt me,” I say, exchanging a heated look with Connor.

“Urgh, okay that’s more than I needed to know.”

“Where are you now, anyway?” Connor asks. “When will you be coming home next?”

“I’m in Budapest right now. We’re doing some cave diving under the city. As for coming home—probably not for a while.”

“Don’t make it too long,” Connor warns. “Mom’s ready to cut you out of the family after you missed Christmas.”

“I was stuck in a cyclone, there was nothing I could do!” Aidan protests.

“Except you told me at the wedding you weren’t supposed to be in Australia until after New Year’s,” Connor points out.

“Yeah, well, things changed,” Aidan mutters.

“Have you sent Aidan those new pictures of Chase?” I ask Connor.

The dark expression on Aidan’s face clears, replaced by a bright smile. “Yeah, send me as many pictures as you can. And videos. Whatever you have.”

“Okay, I will. But you have to promise to at least try to get back and meet him some time before he starts driving.”

Aidan chuckles. “I’ll try.”

19

Connor

Laura Bennett: Chase is sick. We’re at the hospital

The sight of those words on my phone has my insides churning with fear and dread. I can’t stop myself from shooting off a stream of quickfire texts in response:

Me: What hospital?

Me: How sick?

Me: What’s wrong with him?

Me: Is he going to be okay?

And when Laura doesn’t answer within thirty seconds, I hit the call icon.

“Calm down, I don’t need you freaking out right now,” she tells me briskly.

“Okay, okay—just tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s bronchiolitis—”

“That sounds bad—is that bad?”

“Connor, seriously, I can’t deal with you having a breakdown right now,” she growls. “He’ll be okay, but just get to the hospital as soon as you can—it’s Brooklyn General. I need to go, I need to talk to the doctor.”

She ends the call before I can say anything else and I’m left staring at my phone at a complete loss of what to do.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” I feel the steady, reassuring presence of Josh’s arms wrapping around me from behind. He’s wet from the shower but I don’t care, I just sink into the embrace and draw comfort from him.

“Chase is sick. He’s in the hospital. I don’t really understand what’s going on.” I turn around to face Josh. “Do you know what bronchiolitis is?”

He nods. “It’s like a chest infection type thing. It’s pretty common.”

“So it’s not that bad?” I ask hopefully.

Josh sighs. “I’m not going to lie, anything that lands a baby in the hospital is bad, but it’s very treatable. I’m sure he’ll be back to his usual self in no time.”

I nod, letting a soft sigh of relief escape me. I’m still scared shitless, but at least I’m not on the verge of a total breakdown like I was a few moments ago. I wrap my arms around Josh, pressing a kiss to his damp hair. “I know you’re supposed to be working today, but—”

“I’m coming with you to the hospital, don’t worry.”

Brooklyn has never felt as far away as it does on the drive from my place to the hospital, and I’m kicking myself for not having the foresight to stay at Josh’s place last night. Not that I was expecting to be making a trip to Brooklyn today, but whatever…

When we meet Laura in the lobby of the hospital I take the fact that she’s not frantic with worry as a good sign; but then she’s a nurse and pretty used to high stress situations so maybe I should take this with a grain of salt.

“He’s been admitted to the pediatric ward,” she tells me. “And they’re hoping he’ll only need to be in for a night, but it might be longer. His fever’s already come down but they just need to monitor his breathing and make sure he’s not dehydrated.”

“He wasn’t breathing?” I demand.

“He wasn’t breathing well,” Laura