Chapter 19
Killian
I had a drink in my hand but I had only just started sipping it. It didn't even taste right. All my inner desire to drown my emotions in alcohol still couldn't motivate me to get wasted again. But at least Misty and Cara had the good sense not to even show up this time. I'd have kicked them out if they did.
"What gives? You're acting like a schmuck. So she dumped you; get over it." Jake had a woman on each side as he lectured me, but I walked away and ignored him. Eventually I'd feel like myself again, but it was too soon to try to jump back into the deep end and swim with the big fish.
At this point I counted it a success that I was even here and hadn't stayed at home to hide in my room. The longer I was around these people the longer I realized they weren't really my people. They were the ones I grew up with and the crowd I had available to me, but deep down they weren't like me. I pretended to be like them because my dad was the wealthiest one so they made me the ringleader. Now I just wanted to surround myself with people who understood me.
I meandered through the sprawling condo until I found a quiet place in the corner of the kitchen and sipped my drink again, but I had no desire to finish it. When my phone rang I took it from my pocket and tossed it on the counter. Unless it was Bailey I didn't want to talk. The condo was filled with people I was already ignoring.
But the caller ID said Mike Matthews and my heart almost stopped. What the hell would he want to call me for? Unless he heard about the party and intended to be an ass and break it up. I ignored the call, sending it to voicemail, and walked out of the kitchen to find a different quiet spot.
Minutes later, however, Benny Parker walked out of the kitchen with my phone in hand and headed straight toward where I was leaning against the hallway doorjamb. He had his arm stretched out toward me and in his other hand he held a bong ready to go to the patio.
"Here, man, it was ringing."
I glowered at him and took the phone, only to see Matthews's number show up again. If I didn't answer this and he was out front, he'd just barge in and humiliate me or break up the party. Chances were someone just called in a noise complaint or something and he had to personally remind me I was on thin ice.
I swiped right and said, "What!" The music was loud but I heard him plain as day when he responded.
"Bailey needs you." His words were curt and I could tell he wasn't pleased with saying them.
"What do you mean?" I walked toward the door, already reaching for my keys.
"I mean, she needs you. The baby is sick and Bailey is terrified. Harold told me to get you over there, but so help me if you--"
I hung up on him. I didn't have any desire to listen to his lecturing or anger. If Bailey wanted me there, there wasn't a force in Heaven or on Earth that could keep me away. A few people tried to stop me and ask what was going on but I walked right past them and raced to the hospital.
I left my car parked in the emergency lot and ran through the doors but I didn't see anyone. Mr. Matthews wasn't around, nor was Bailey, which meant they were already in a room somewhere. I charged up to the check in counter and the nurse there looked up.
"Can I help you?" she asked politely, but I felt frantic.
"I'm here, um... Bailey Matthews please...." It wasn't that I was winded as much as desperate.
"Yes, sir, you'll have to take a seat. We can't allow visitors in the emergency department." Her fingers clicked away at the keyboard but she was serious about me sitting down. I wasn't having it.
"I'm the child's father." The old lie rolled off my tongue with ease and the nurse looked up at me.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Matthews. Let me get a nurse. She stood and walked away and I didn't even care that she didn't recognize me or use the correct name. I had to get to Bailey because if she needed me enough for Mike to come looking, then I knew it was bad.
They led me back through the maze of curtains and hallways until the nurse pulled open the door to a small waiting room. Bailey sat in a hard plastic chair with her father beside her and Mike next to him. They all three looked worried, but Bailey looked almost relieved to see me. She got out of her seat and crashed into my arms and I held her and smoothed her hair back as she cried softly.
"Hey, I'm here now. It's okay, baby. What's wrong?" She was too hysterical to talk so I looked to her father who didn't look pleased to see me but he sighed and stood with his hat in his hands.
"Sienna is getting a lumbar puncture. They think it's spinal meningitis." I didn't know much about medicine but I knew what a lumbar puncture was. This was pretty serious for a baby this young so I understood why Bailey was so shook up. I hated that there was distance between us and that when she called I ignored it. Mike had threatened me, otherwise I'd have been here from the beginning.
"Harold, there's something you need to know. Bailey might not even know this either." Mike stood up and walked toward me a few steps but I didn't care what he told anyone. The only thing that mattered was that Bailey was in my arms and she could draw strength from me. Mike had zero tact. He just wanted to bully me.
"What's that?" Bailey's dad asked, and he turned away from me. The two men, being brothers, probably thought a lot alike. I wanted to defend our actions and the choice we made to lie to everyone but I couldn't. We both entered into that agreement as adults and what was done was done. Besides, if I could make Sienna mine for real, I would. I loved this woman.
"Killian isn't Sienna's father. I ran the DNA. So either they both lied to us, or he's manipulating her for some reason." Mike squared his shoulders as Harold looked back at me with a glare, and all I could do was walk Bailey to the corner of the room and help her sit down. Those too idiots would work it out between themselves. I wasn't going to engage with them when she was this upset.
"Kill," she whimpered and I brushed a few tears away. I noticed her uncle and dad talking but only looked into her eyes.
"I'm here as long as you want or need me, okay? I'm not going anywhere." I kissed her forehead and she clung to me.
"I'm glad you came. She's so sick. I'm so worried."
I held Bailey until Mike stormed out of the room in an angry huff. Harold never said a word to me; he just let me sit with Bailey and hold her. And when the doctors came in and told us we could go back to the baby's bed side, Bailey insisted that I come along.
The entire two-hours I was on pins and needles wondering what Mr. Matthews was thinking but he didn't say a word. We stood by Sienna's bed as the doctor explained that the condition she was suffering from was called roseola, and that the fever would pass but a rash would probably cover her whole body. We were so relieved, and Sienna was finally resting.
"So you're saying it's just a virus?" Bailey asked and she snuggled closer to me. She looked exhausted. It was nearly midnight and it looked like she hadn't slept in days. Probably so if Sienna really was that fussy.
"Yes, we can keep the fever under control and give you something for the rash but this will pass on its own. We'll keep her here overnight for monitoring, make sure the fever goes down and she gets rehydrated. She was probably just really miserable with the fever that high so she wasn't eating. We will release her tomorrow afternoon." The doctor, a balding man in his fifties, reached out and shook my hand.
"Thank you, doctor," I said, gripping his hand firmly. He shook Bailey's dad's hand too and then excused himself from the room.
Bailey curled around me tightly and laid her head on my chest. "I don't want you to leave, Kill. Please stay with me."
I kissed the top of her head and held her more tightly. "I told you I'm not going anywhere." Even if her uncle wanted to bully me and make me feel bad for the lie, that was behind us now. He could try to press charges on me but they wouldn't stick. Bailey would stand up for me.
"Son, why don't you take Bailey to her apartment so she can sleep. I'll sit with the baby overnight." Harold's hand on my shoulder made me tense at first until I saw the look in his eyes. He'd heard Mike tell the truth, that I wasn't Sienna's father, but he was still allowing me to be here. It puzzled me.
"Sir, I think we should let Bailey decide that." I loosened my tight hug and she stared down at Sienna. "What do you think, baby?" This time, when I called her baby in front of one of her family members it wasn't put-on. I meant it. I wanted her to be my baby in every sense of the word.
"Shouldn't I stay? I'm her mom." She chewed her bottom lip and her dad responded.
"I've got this. She's just going to sleep, and they will feed her if she's hungry. You go home and rest. That's an order." He grunted and cleared his throat then said, "And Killian, we have some things to talk about, but you take care of her tonight. I expect you to make sure she's hydrating and resting."
On any given Friday night I would have been wasted by this point, throwing rocks at the ocean or in bed with a random woman. But all of that changed and now this was the only place I could even fathom being. I wanted to be here with Bailey, getting lectured by her father about propriety and how to care for a woman. I wanted this.
"Of course sir. I'll take care of her." I nodded at him and hooked an arm around Bailey's waist and pulled her toward the door. She hugged her dad on the way and grabbed her purse then walked with me in silence toward the exit.
We didn't talk much as I drove her home, but she did hold my hand. I heard her crying and got her a napkin from my glove box when I stopped at a red light. She kissed the back of my hand and pressed my hand to her breastbone.
When I walked her up to her apartment, her shoulders were sagging. She looked despondent and lost. Her head hung, and her shoes dragged on the ground with each step. At the door she stopped and turned to me without making eye contact.
"You don't have to stay if you don't want to. I know you're probably missing a big party or something. And I know I'm not your type, and that you could have any woman you want, and I'm poor and--"
