Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
Scarlett’s mother.
Nik tried to wrap his mind around the words as a freight train roared in his ears. Jane had a child. And she hadn’t said a word, not even after their conversation at the overlook yesterday. She’d kept it from him, just like she’d kept everything about her life for the past ten years from him. And so much before that, too. It shouldn’t have surprised him anymore. But here he was.
Jane’s wide eyes cut into him as she lunged to her feet and then stood frozen in the center of the room, her mouth open in surprise. “I—Nik. I forgot that…”
She’d forgotten that he worked here. What if she’d remembered? Would she have driven Scarlett twenty miles away to the hospital in Harrisville just to avoid seeing him? To avoid giving up her latest secret?
Nik focused on Jane’s daughter. Her blond, wavy hair hung past her shoulders, blue eyes stared up at him. Scarlett looked?—
Just like Jane. She looked like the girl he knew back when they didn’t keep things from each other. And she looked hurt and scared .
That snapped him out of his stupor. He was the doctor here, and Scarlett was his patient. It didn’t matter who her mother was or what kinds of secrets she’d been hiding. Nik headed to the sink to wash his hands. Then he turned to Scarlett, giving her a reassuring smile. “I heard you had a fall.”
Scarlett nodded, still clutching her arm with the opposite hand. “I hurt my arm and my head.”
“I can see that,” Nik said in a low voice. He reached out a hand to Scarlett. “Is it okay if I take a look?”
Scarlett nodded. Nik took her by the wrist and gently worked it back and forth. “Can you do that on your own?” She flapped her hand in front of her with what looked to be the full range of motion, so next he held out a palm. “Can you press here?”
Scarlett pressed her little fist against the flat of his hand and let out a quiet gasp.
Jane’s shoulder brushed his as she slid closer to her daughter’s side, and Nik did his best to ignore the hum of electricity that kicked on the second she was in his vicinity. He shifted away from her, keeping his attention on Scarlett. “I heard you were going for the chocolate chips.”
Scarlett sniffed and then nodded.
He gave her a crooked smile. “Those are my favorite, too.”
“It was an accident.” Scarlett’s eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t mean to fall.”
“We know you didn’t, honey.” Jane slid an arm around her daughter’s shoulder.
“Can I tell you something?” Nik tilted his head in Scarlett’s direction. “I think your mom’s been keeping secrets.”
Beside him, Jane gasped. “Nik, I really don’t think…”
He cut her off, still focused on Scarlett. “She didn’t tell you that she almost ended up at the doctor after trying to steal a treat, too, did she?”
Jane blew out a slow breath .
Scarlett gazed up at him, wide-eyed. She shook her head.
Nik nodded. “We were baking special peanut butter fudge brownies, and your mom decided she couldn’t wait until they were done. She reached in and burned her wrist on the roof of the oven.”
Scarlett’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “I know who you are,” she declared. “You were her friend when she was my age. She told me about you.”
Nik blinked. He’d always imagined that Jane had erased him from her thoughts when she’d taken off. But since their revelations last night, he didn’t know what to think. And what has she told her daughter about me? It would be completely inappropriate to ask, though he was tempted . “That’s right,” he said. “Your mom and I grew up together.” He couldn’t help it now, and his eyes darted to Jane. She pressed her lips together and looked away. “That was a long time ago, though.”
Nik cleared his throat and pulled an ophthalmoscope from his pocket. “I’m just going to use this to take a look in your eyes, okay?” Nik flashed the light at each of Scarlett’s pupils. She squeezed her eyes shut and began to sway on the exam table. “How does your head feel?” he asked.
“It hurts,” Scarlett whimpered.
Nik put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. “Does it hurt where you bumped it, or hurt like you have a headache?”
“Both.”
“Anything else hurt?”
“My tummy.” She turned to Jane, reaching for her mother. “Mommy, I’m going to throw up.”
With three years in the ER under his belt, Nik was used to reacting quickly. He grabbed a plastic basin from the counter by the sink and spun toward Scarlett, getting it under her chin just in time. Jane pulled her daughter’s hair out of the way while Scarlett leaned over, heaving, retching, and crying all at the same time .
“You’re okay, baby. Get it all out.” She stroked Scarlett’s back, and Nik was sure that the girl wouldn’t pick up on the tremor in her mother’s voice or the worry creasing her face.
But he did. When Scarlett paused for a breath, and Jane reached for the basin to take over from Nik, he shook his head. “I’ve got it.” He hitched his chin at Scarlett. “You just do what you’re doing.”
Jane wrapped an arm around Scarlett. The little girl leaned forward, tears streaming down her face, as she threw up into the basin again. “My head hurts…” she wailed, drawing out the last word into multiple syllables. In the next moment, more of her lunch came up.
“I know, baby. I know,” Jane said. “You’re going to be fine.” Her eyes implored Nik to confirm her words were true.
He gave her a reassuring nod. “Nausea is common after a head bump.” Nik leaned in to meet Jane’s eyes, keeping his voice low. “We’ll run some tests for concussion and maybe keep her overnight for observation. But she’ll be fine. We see this all the time.”
Nik didn’t want to spend too much time analyzing the way his heart twisted when Jane’s shoulders relaxed. Or the temptation he had to pull Jane into his arms when Scarlett finally stopped throwing up and lay back on the exam table to rest. Instead, he backed away, leaving the basin on the counter by the sink and heading out of the room.
Nik sat at the computer by the nurses’ station and entered his orders for tests: an MRI to check for a concussion and x-ray for a possible forearm fracture. And then he began to type up his notes.
Nine-year-old girl admitted to the ER with forehead laceration complaining of headache, nausea, and ? —
Nik’s hands froze on the keyboard .
Nine-year-old girl.
Jane had fled Linden Falls in the early summer ten years ago, the day after they lost their virginity to each other in the back of Nik’s car at the overlook. And now she had a nine-year-old daughter. Was it possible…?
Nik closed his eyes, picturing Scarlett’s long blond hair and blue eyes, searching his memory for any hint of his own features. All he’d noticed in that room was that she looked just like a younger version of Jane. But he hadn’t been looking for more than that.
Nik grabbed the computer mouse and clicked around in Scarlett’s medical form until he found her personal information.
Mother: Jane Allison McCaffrey
Father: Matteo DeLuca
Nik sat back in his chair, staring at the name. Ethically, he really shouldn’t do what he was about to do. He was the doctor, and Scarlett was his patient. But if there was any chance that Jane had been keeping an even bigger secret from him…
Nik grabbed his phone and googled the name of Scarlett’s father, and then added Los Angeles to the search bar. The first photo to pop up was of an attractive, smiling man in his early forties standing behind a shiny chrome bar. A neon-lit shelf lined with liquor bottles made up the background of the shot. Nik clicked on the link. Matteo DeLuca was the manager of a nightclub in Los Angeles. Nik zoomed in. Matteo had curly, dark hair, and brown eyes. His coloring wasn’t that much different than Nik’s. But nothing about his features ruled for or against him being Scarlett’s father.
Nik focused back on his computer screen, clicking over to the information the receptionist had typed into Scarlett’s medical record. He briefly skimmed the address—Los Angeles. At least Jane had been telling the truth about that. And then he checked Scarlett’s birthdate.
August 2 nd .
Nik slumped back in his chair. Scarlett had turned nine this past summer. Which meant that Jane would have been in LA for months before her child was conceived. So that was why she’d never contacted him. She’d met someone else, gotten pregnant, and moved on with her life.
It should have come as a relief that Scarlett wasn’t his child. What would it have meant to learn that Jane had kept something like that from him on top of all her other secrets? How would he have ever forgiven her? But as Nik glanced at the handsome man smiling up at him from his phone, something knotted in his gut. Maybe Jane had left Linden Falls to protect him. But she’d run straight to this Matteo DeLuca in Los Angeles. Matteo had kissed her, touched her, been inside her mere months after she’d been with Nik. Mere months after she’d shared the most important moments of Nik’s life.
And now Matteo had everything Nik had always wanted.
From the moment she’d walked back into this town, Nik had known. He still wanted Jane in his life, in his bed. He still wanted her laughter, her friendship. Her heart. But that guy in the photo and the little girl in the exam room next door meant he’d never have any of those things. Jane had a family and an entire life that he wasn’t a part of. Hell, Jane had an entire life he didn’t even know anything about.
Nik took one more look at Matteo’s face and then closed the browser window. It was probably better he’d found out this way. Because this solved all the mysteries about where Jane had been and why she’d stayed away. And he could finally let her go and move on.
At that moment, the computer beeped, announcing a message had come in. Scarlett’s test results. He clicked open the window and scanned the report. Scarlett had a distal radius fracture and would need to be fitted for a cast on her arm. He continued reading. The MRI had picked up some slight swelling in her brain. It was recommended they keep her overnight for observation.
When Nik entered Scarlett’s hospital room to let Jane know the results of the tests, he found her lying in the bed, her back against the pillows, with Scarlett’s head on her chest. Her eyes were closed, and the only sign she was awake was the way her hand gently stroked her daughter’s hair. It hit him all over again that Jane had a child, that this was the reason she hadn’t come back for the past decade. Somehow, he felt both happy for her—and utterly left out of her life.
Scarlett stirred, shifting on the bed and opening her eyes. “Mommy, I want to go home.”
“I know, honey,” Jane murmured, as if it took a supreme amount of effort to form the words. “It will just be a little longer.” She looked so tired, so worn out, with dark circles under her eyes and a heaviness to her movements like she’d attached weights to her arms.
Nik stepped inside the room, rattling the curtain. “Hey.”
When she spotted him, Jane slid her arm out from under Scarlett so she could sit up.
He waved a hand in her direction. “You’re fine there, you don’t have to get up.”
“No, it’s okay.” Jane climbed out of the bed and perched on the edge.
Nik approached Scarlett. “How are you feeling?” They’d given her a wrap to secure her arm, and she looked exhausted but otherwise okay.
She shrugged and looked away, suddenly shy.
He looked to Jane. “Any more headaches or nausea?”
Jane shook her head. “The nurse gave her something that helped a lot. Now we’re just ready to go home. Is there any news about the test results?”
“Well,” Nik said, “the good news is that Scarlett is going to be just fine. She has a small fracture that will require a cast, and a little bump on her head. But we’re going to have to keep her overnight to monitor that bump.”
Scarlett let out a little whimper.
“It’s just a precaution, I promise.” He tried to keep his voice upbeat as he turned to look at Scarlett. “We have comfortable rooms upstairs, and they have nice big couches where your mom can sleep.”
Scarlett stared wide-eyed, and Nik braced himself for the girl to start crying or at least to whine that she wanted to go home. He delivered a lot of news like this, and kids usually didn’t take it so well. But though Scarlett’s eyes filled with tears, she remained silent.
Jane stroked her daughter’s hair again. “I’ll stay here with you the whole time, okay?” She rubbed her temples like her head had suddenly started throbbing and turned to Nik. “So, what happens now?”
“The nurse will be in sometime in the next hour to get Scarlett fitted for her cast and then coordinate her admittance to the inpatient unit.”
“Okay.” Jane nodded. “My mom is out in the waiting room. I’ll need to let her know she should go home.” She hauled herself up from the bed, and then hesitated. “Scarlett, will you be okay for one minute? I’ll be right back.”
Nik checked his watch. He only had about a half-hour left on his shift, with an hour of paperwork to finish. But then his gaze slid back and forth between Jane’s exhausted face and Scarlett’s anxious one. “Take your time. I’ll hang out here with Scarlett.”
Jane hesitated. “Are you sure? I don’t want to keep you from your other patients.”
Nik tapped the phone on his hip. “They’ll call me if they need me.” Then from the pocket of his lab coat, he pulled out a pack of Uno cards. “While we’re waiting…” He gave Scarlett a grin. “What do you say I beat you at Uno? ”
Scarlett’s eyes lit up and she sat up in the bed.
“You might regret that,” Jane warned. “Scarlett is an Uno expert.”
Something tugged in Nik’s chest. Pete had kept an old pile of games on the shelf at the Grassroots Café, and Nik and Jane used to play Uno for hours at their table in the corner. Over the years, their matches had grown increasingly competitive. Three out of five: Winner buys coffee. Loser has to declare the winner is the smartest, most beautiful person they’ve ever met.
When Jane had been the winner, Nik had delivered his penalty with a goofy grin and a laugh to hide his true feelings behind the words.
Did Jane think about those old competitions when she was playing with her daughter? He sat on the chair next to the bed and pulled it closer, shuffling the cards. “You in, too?” he asked Jane, with a hint of a challenge in his voice. “We’ll wait for you to come back.”
She hesitated, glancing at Scarlett, who had rubbed away the tears and was smiling now. “Of course I am.” Jane raised her eyebrows. “Same old rules?”
Nik looked at Scarlett with his head cocked. “Loser has to declare the winner is the smartest, most beautiful person they’ve ever met?—?”
Scarlett giggled and nodded.
Nik shuffled the cards, his eyes drifting to Jane’s. “Yep, same old rules.”