Chapter 26
Greer was still shaking.
They’d all gotten so lucky. Especially Ronnie and the babies. And Greer…her baby was going to be okay. She had ultrasound photos of her baby now. The baby was okay. Greer forced herself to breathe, to just be calm. Everyone was going to be okay.
She was not going to fall apart now. She just wasn’t.
She didn’t know how much longer she could do this. Greer was keeping in every emotion, so that her family wouldn’t see how freaked she was. She was sore, but she would be okay. Her baby was okay. Aubrey had had a nurse stay with Greer the whole time Aubrey was in with Ronnie.
Her sister-in-law was going to be okay. Greer wiped tears from her cheeks as that started to sink in.
Ronnie was going to be okay. She’d be hurting for a while, of course, but Ronnie and both babies were alive.
George and Ronnie hadn’t even told anyone Ronnie was having twins, and they could have lost the babies and Ronnie today.
When Greer had looked at Ronnie in George’s truck, had seen the blood, had seen her sister-in-law’s face—she had been so terrified. She hadn’t known what to do, either.
Thank God Aubrey and Genny had been behind them. Aubrey had known what to do, and Genny had been amazing. Genny hadn’t fallen apart out there. Well, Greer wasn’t going to fall apart now, either.
Her family was safe, her baby was safe, and everything was going to be okay.
Even if Aubrey and Guthrie had insisted Greer was spending the night in the hospital, too. The nurse Janie, a woman Greer had known since kindergarten, was in the room with her now. She was one of Genny’s friends, too. They worked together all the time. Everyone was going to be okay now.
Janie helped Greer get set up in the bed, with an extra blanket and bottled water.
She fussed, like nurses tended to do. Greer had learned that long ago, when she’d been stuck in hospitals, waiting to get out forever.
She’d been in and out of the hospital that first year or so after the attack had left her in a coma and barely able to move.
She’d had two surgeries, and three years of weekly physical therapy, followed by two years of twice a month work.
She had hated it.
That was behind her now.
But tonight…here in the hospital for the first time since her final surgery when she’d been twelve, she was fighting the memories.
Janie told her to just press the button if she needed anything, then dimmed the lights and slipped out.
Greer would be okay. And if she wasn’t, Aubrey and Genny were sitting up with George and Ronnie and the babies in the room right next door.
Gia was around, too. She was going to spend the night with Greer, too.
She drifted for a moment, trying not to focus on what could have happened. What her family could have lost today. She’d snuck into George and Ronnie’s room before Janie and Genny had caught her. She’d just wanted to see them. Her new niece and nephew. To make sure they were okay.
They were beautiful, precious, and just perfect.
Genny had helped her hold little Max. He was beyond beautiful.
His sister Mira had been fussing. The sound had brought tears to Greer’s eyes.
They had almost lost her, especially. It had been so close—Mira’s placenta had torn, and they could have lost her. That precious baby girl.
Greer’s hand covered where her own baby rested. Mira looked just like Genny had as a baby. No one could ever deny that. Greer’s baby could look just like her, too.
She just stayed right where she was and imagined what her life was going to be like once her own baby was here. There was a little trio of black and white images on the table next to the water bottle Janie had left.
They were the most precious photos Greer had ever seen.
Her baby.
Guthrie had ordered an ultrasound, just to make sure everything was okay. He said they’d do another in the morning before they let her go home. Just because he said they would, and Aubrey had agreed.
It paid to have the head of Obstetrics as her big brother, no denying that.
She was holding those images in her hand when a sound at the door had her looking up.
To stare.
“What are you doing here?”