Young Truths (Young Series) (16 page)

Clearly, though, the universe has other ideas. Once I get comfortably situated and allow my eyes to finally close again, my phone rings. Growling, I reach over blindly to grab it from the table. I sigh heavily at Mark’s blinking name. “Hello?” I say tiredly.

“Hi, bad time?” he greets cheerfully.

I want to say yes and hang up on him, but I don’t. “No, I was just lying down before dinner. I thought you were out of town with Jessica this week?”

“I postponed,” he tells me. “Bonnie has some doctors’ appointments this week that she wants me to be there for and even though she told me not to worry about her, I should probably be here.”

“That’s sweet of you,” I say. “How’d Jessica take it?”

He sighs. “About how you’d expect. She’s annoyed, but understanding at the same time. I promised her I’d make it up to her when she gets back. How are things with you? Settling into the new apartment alright?”

“Yeah, we’re settling. Matt’s been helping us at the bookstore this week while he’s under his doctor’s orders to not be at work. You’d think he’d want to take advantage of the downtime, but no...”

Mark chuckles. “I always rather got the impression Matt is a reincarnate of the Energizer bunny. Always has to be going at full speed.”

“Yep,” I say, smiling fondly. “I don’t think he’s ever taken a sick day in his life when he wasn’t either forced or unconscious. And Tyler is turning out just like him.”

“Maybe you’ll get lucky and that little girl of yours will be a little calmer.”

My chuckling turns into a groan of pain when Olivia’s movements speed up. I swear she’s playing soccer with my bladder.

“Samantha? Are you okay?” Mark asks.

I can’t answer right away. The baby seems to have kicked the wind right out of my lungs. “Yeah,” I gasp. “Yeah, I’m good.” I nearly drop my phone at the sudden sharp pain in my lower abdomen and I let out a loud hiss into the phone.

“Samantha, talk to me,” Mark says urgently. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” I manage to say. “If I had to guess, I’d say the baby is on her way.”

Mark curses. “Are you home alone?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, stay there, I’m on my way.”

I try to come up with a response to that, to tell him not to worry and I’ll call Matthew. But the phone slips from my fingers and I let out a cry of pain. God, this is worse than when Tyler was born...

The pain becomes too much and the last thing I hear before I blackout is Mark’s voice yelling my name through the phone.

The moment Tyler and I walk into the Young Technologies building, I realize exactly what I’d done. My entire female staff is immediately drawn to my little mini-me, oohing and aahing about how adorable he is and how much he looks like me. I actually feel a little bad for Tyler; the moment the attention is on him, he slips behind my legs and refuses to come out until I manage to get both of us safely into the elevator that goes up to my office.

“Trust me, Ty,” I tell him, pointing out which button for him to push, “in a few years, you’re going to
love
that sort of attention from girls.”

He scrunches his face and shakes his head hard, his hair going in every direction. “No, I won’t,” he says firmly.

I chuckle knowingly and moments later, the elevator door opens. To my surprise, my secretary Sandra is still here. I expected her to take the week off since I wouldn’t be here. “Let me guess,” I begin, grinning as Tyler and I step out, “kids driving you crazy so you told them you were working late all week?”

She smirks her answer. “And I thought you were on sick leave,” she retorts, her eyes immediately finding Tyler at my side and she grins. “Is this who I think it is?”

“Tyler, this is my friend Sandra,” I say, glancing down to find Tyler hiding again.

Sandra crosses over to us and kneels down to Tyler’s level. “Well, hello, Tyler,” she says, holding out a hand for him to shake. To my surprise, he actually shakes back. “I haven’t seen you since you were a little baby. Are you here to take over working from your dad?”

Tyler grins slightly, but shakes his head.

“Oh, well, that’s a shame,” Sandra says in mock disappointment. “Between you and me, I think your dad’s getting a little too old to run this place. You’d be perfect for the job.”

I clear my throat pointedly, glaring down at her even while Tyler giggles. Sandra winks at me and stands. “How are you feeling?” she asks seriously.

“I’m good,” I say honestly when Tyler pulls away from my hand to look at the aquarium against the wall. “We all are and that’s what matters, right?”

She nods. “Absolutely,” she says firmly. “Though I am sorry about your house.” I nod my agreement. “So what brings you in?”

“I just needed to sign off on those toy contracts,” I tell her. “Are they ready?”

While Sandra gets the contracts ready for my signature, I bring Tyler into my office for a look around. “This is where you work?” he asks in awe. “This is awesome.”

I chuckle. “It is pretty neat, isn’t it?”

He wanders to a display case much like the one in my office at home, looking at every last thing within it. “Dad, you’re like Batman!” he exclaims suddenly, pointing at a pocketknife that doubles as a remote control.

“You think that’s cool?” I ask, walking behind my desk. “Come here and look at this...” He runs to my side and we both kneel down behind my desk. “Push that button right there...” He does and I can feel his entire tiny body convulsing in excitement as the clear windows separating from my office from the rest of the building glaze over.

“Wow!” he whispers excitedly.

“Not even the best part,” I warn him, pointing out another button for him to push. When he does, a trapdoor pops open beneath the desk. Tyler and I pry it open and I grab a flashlight from my desk drawer to shine into the hole.

Tyler’s eyes widen to the point that I actually momentarily fear they might get stuck that way. “You
are
Batman...” he breathes.

I laugh. “No, I’m definitely not Batman,” I correct him. “And that’s not a bat cave.”

He drops to his belly and puts his head through the hole as he looks around. I grab onto the waistband of his jeans to keep him from falling in; somehow I don’t think Samantha would appreciate me bringing him home with broken bones in the slightest. While Tyler is enjoying himself, I think about the last time I accessed this trapdoor—when I was believed to be dead by my friends and family, and had snuck into my building to gain access to the surveillance cameras inside my house. I remember how desperate I’d been that night to even get the briefest glance at Samantha and how relieved I’d been to see her just for a few minutes. That seems like a lifetime ago now...

My phone rings and I reach for it with the hand not holding onto Tyler. I frown briefly at the name on the caller
ID, then glance down at my son, reminding myself what Samantha will do to me if he starts spouting a very colorful list of curse words, before answering. “Hello?” I say coolly.

“Matthew? It’s Mark Reilly.”

Really? I hadn’t figured that out from the words Dr. Dipshit I had splayed across my phone when I answered it...
“Mark, what can I do for you?”
Aside from dropping you from a very high cliff onto some very jagged rocks.

“Listen, I don’t want you to panic, but I’m with Samantha and I’m driving her to the hospital.”

In a split second, I’ve yanked Tyler from the hole and we’re on our feet. “What?” I yell. “What’s wrong with her?” What I really want to ask is what he did to her.

“She’s gone into labor. By the time I got to your apartment, it would have taken longer for an ambulance so I’m bringing her myself.”

My free hand is fisting in my hair, all the while Tyler is watching me with wide fearful eyes at my sudden change of mood. I try to force a smile for his benefit. “Is she okay?” I ask, my voice cracking.

“Hang on...”

After a moment, Samantha has the phone. “Matt?”

I sigh in relief. “Hey, are you all right?” I ask.

She’s breathing heavily, but aside from that there are no signs that she’s not going through what women have gone through since the beginning of time. “Yes, I’m fine,” she says soothingly. “Are you on your way?”

Her tone suggests she’s asking about whether I’ve picked up dinner. “Yes, we’re on our way,” I say, quickly hitting the buttons under my desk to lock the trapdoor and return the windows to their normal state. “We’ll be there soon. Do you need me to get anything?” I pick Tyler up off the floor as I leave my office.

“Just you at my side.”

I smile genuinely. “I’ll meet you there, baby.”

We hang up as I pass Sandra’s desk. She looks up in confusion. “The paperwork is nearly ready. Where are you going?” she calls as I make a beeline for the elevators.

Jamming my finger against the elevator button, I shoot a glance over my shoulder. “Sam’s gone into labor,” I shout. “
Screw the damn paperwork!”

Upon my arrival at the hospital, I nearly get myself thrown out when I start shouting demands to be taken to my wife. A very nice young nurse is the first to approach me and attempt to calm me down. She checks the computer and leads me through the hospital to the maternity ward. The last time I was here, I’d just gotten off a plane and I was in a complete panic because Samantha wasn’t supposed to go into labor for three more months. I had no idea what to expect, whether my son had survived or not, and my only thought was to get to my wife.

Tyler and I turn a corner and find Mark Reilly leaning on the wall outside a hospital room. He glances over and straightens up at the sight of me, looking wary. “Where is she?” I demand when I reach him.

“You can’t go in right now,” he informs me.

I let Tyler slide down to the floor, keeping a hold on his hand. “What the fuck do you mean I can’t go in?” I growl. “Get out of my way, Reilly.”

“Samantha and the baby are in distress,” he says as I begin to push past him. I freeze, my hand on the door. “I’m not even allowed in right now and I work here.”

Fear and dread take up residence in my stomach. “What do you mean they’re in distress?” I ask in a whisper.

He sighs, gesturing for us to follow him down the hall to a waiting room. “When I got to your apartment, she was unconscious. I checked all her vitals and she didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger, so I got her to my car and brought her here myself. She was awake briefly when I called you, then passed out again not long after you hung up. They got her hooked up and her blood pressure was very low. Her water broke and she started bleeding heavily; that’s when they kicked me out. I haven’t been able to get any information since.”

I slump in my chair, covering my face with my hands. This can’t be happening again. Samantha has been healthy throughout this pregnancy aside from her brief hospitalization early on, but even then we were assured there wouldn’t be any problems as long as she continued to take the prescribed blood pressure medication. So what happened to cause this?

At some point, Mark stands and says something about going to see if he can’t get some information. I grunt something in response and a moment later, I’m alone with my son. I look over at him, curled up in a chair looking terrified. Can’t say I blame him... I take a deep breath to try and explain what’s happening, but the waiting room door opens. I’m only mildly surprised to find Marcus and Claire entering; even though I called them on the way to the hospital, I didn’t expect them here so soon. They immediately ask what’s going on and I bleakly tell them what little I know. Claire almost immediately offers to take Tyler to the cafeteria for something to eat.

“Samantha will be fine,” Marcus says quietly.

I look up at him, wanting to argue, but can’t find the right words.

“This happened to my wife when my youngest daughter was born,” he says. “Scared the hell out of me. At one point, I thought I’d lose them both.”

Raising an eyebrow, I scrub my hands over my face. “If you’re trying to reassure me,” he says dully, “you’re doing a shit job.”

He chuckles. “Sorry. Anyway, the first couple hours dragged on, but the doctors came through and they’re both fine,” he concludes.

I lean forward slightly, resting my elbows on my knees. “I didn’t think I could be more afraid than I was the day Tyler was born or in the weeks that followed. Somehow we managed to get through that and I thought this pregnancy would go smoothly. Now this, out of nowhere. I mean, she hasn’t been feeling great over the last couple days, but...” I trail off, shrugging and at a loss for words.

“I’ve said it before: That wife of yours is stronger than we give her credit for. And there’s no doubt in my mind that your daughter will take after her.”

We fall into silence for several minutes until Claire and Tyler return with coffee for Marcus and me, and ice cream for my son. I raise an eyebrow at my sister. “Did he at least eat dinner?” I ask dryly, taking the coffee cup she offers me.

“That is his dinner,” Claire responds dismissively. “It’s my job as his aunt to undermine your rules and spoil him completely.”