“Your mom’s not feeling so good, so?—”
Caleb didn’t even finish his sentence. Owen grabbed his backpack and rushed out the double doors of the gym. Caleb had to double-time it to just to keep up with him. When he heard whistling sounds, he knew that Owen was wheezing and going too fast.
“Hey, slow down. Do you have your blue inhaler?”
Owen didn’t slow down, but he reached inside the front pocket of his backpack, pulled out his blue inhaler, shook it, pushed the cap off, exhaled, put his lips around the mouthpiece,inhaled while pushing down the canister, held his breath for ten seconds, and then exhaled. They approached his Jeep, and Caleb clicked the fob. They climbed in and Owen took his second puff thirty seconds after his first.
Caleb turned his signal on as he came to a stop before pulling out of the parking lot, and explaining, “So?—"
“Is it him?” Owen spoke at the same time.
“What?” Caleb looked at Owen. Unshed tears pooled in his eyes as he stared straight ahead. “Who?”
“Martin.” His tone held no emotion even as a large tear slid down Owen’s cheek. He lifted his arm and wiped the drop off with the back of his hand. “Did he find her?”
“No,” Caleb quickly assured him. “No, he didn’t.”
And for Martin’s sake, he better hope Caleb never foundhim.
Owen’s head spun toward Caleb. “But you said…you just…you looked so upset.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. She was at the book club, and she passed out. They are taking her to the hospital. That’s where we’re going.”
“Oh, okay.” Owen exhaled a sigh of what sounded like relief and sank back into the seat. “It’s almost nine so Dr. Davies will be starting his shift soon in the E.R. He’s good and mom likes him a lot.”
Caleb wasn’t sure if Owen was just relieved it wasn’t Martin, or if he was jaded because he went to the hospital so much that a trip to the E.R. didn’t seem like a big deal, or if Taylor had health issues and this was a normal occurrence. He didn’t want to say anything that might upset Owen, but he also wanted to be up to speed.
“Has this happened before? With your mom?” Caleb glanced over and saw that Owen was calling someone.
“No.” Owen lowered the phone from his ear. “She’s not answering.”
“She probably just can’t hear her phone.” Nikki made it seem like she wasn’t conscious, but he didn’t want to tell Owen that.
Caleb looked over and saw that Owen was typing on his phone. “Are you texting her?”
“I’m texting Dr. Davies.”
“You have his cell phone number?”
“He gave it to Mom and said to call if we ever needed anything.”
I bet he did, Caleb thought to himself.
Caleb refused to give in to the jealousy that Dr. Davies was bringing up in him. The only thing that mattered right now was getting Taylor and Owen through this and making sure they were both okay. Nothing else. Certainly not jealousy over an E.R. doctor.
After that, Caleb’s next priority was to make sure Martin Watts never hurt Taylor or Owen again. He didn’t know exactly how he was going to do that, but they were his family, they were his to protect and he would doanythinghe had to do to make that happen.
14
Taylor squintedand turned her head to the side as a bright light shone in her eyes. Something limited her range of movement. She felt restricted and claustrophobic. She tried to lift her arm, but that was difficult, too. It was tethered to something. Her vision cleared, and she saw an IV stand about a foot in front of her.
She tried to keep her eyelids open, but that proved impossible. They were too heavy and closed again. Flashes of memories played in her head like a movie montage. She was at the book club. She woke up in an ambulance. She asked the paramedics for her phone. She told them she needed to call her son. They either hadn’t understood her or maybe she hadn’t communicated any of that. Maybe it had all been in her head.
It didn’t matter; all she knew was she needed to get her phone so she could talk to Owen. She had to make sure he was okay. She needed to draw on super-strength like the mothers who can suddenly lift cars when their children are trapped beneath them.
She opened her eyes once more and turned her head to the side. A nurse was swapping out a bag of clear fluid on the pole beside her bed. “Owen.”
The nurse bent down. “I’m sorry, what?”
