Two Weeks (The Baxter Family #5)(27)

Lucy nodded. Of course. Babies born so little always battled to gain weight and learn to breathe. “I’ll be praying for him every day.” She smiled at the infant. “That’s for sure.”

“Me, too.” Brooke glanced at the clock on the wall and then looked at her. “Hey, can you take a break? I have twenty minutes before rounds.”

“I was supposed to take one an hour ago.” Lucy turned back to the nurses’ station. “I’ll check myself out.”

They went to the second-floor coffee shop and found a table near the window. Brooke took a long sip of her coffee and leaned back in her chair. “I needed this.”

“Definitely.” Lucy felt the same way. “Thanks for finding me.” She looked at Brooke over the rim of her paper cup. “I knew everyone at my old hospital in Atlanta. Here . . . I’d be a stranger if you hadn’t reached out my first week on the job.” Brooke’s husband, Peter, had met Aaron at a hospital dinner when Lucy was still back in Atlanta packing up the house. “Aaron often talks about that night when you three met.”

Brooke seemed unrushed. Like she had something deeper on her mind. “Did I ever tell you that? About our talk?”

“No.” Lucy set her cup down. “Not in detail.”

Brooke’s eyes filled with empathy. “He told me about your fertility struggles, and how the two of you were hoping.” She hesitated. “You know, new location, new chances. Maybe the baby would come when you got settled here.”

Heat filled Lucy’s face. Aaron had said that? To complete strangers? She swallowed hard and worked to hide her embarrassment. After a few seconds, she gave a light shrug and ordered herself to smile. “That’s what we thought.”

“There’s always a chance. I have another friend who struggled to get pregnant.” Brooke went on about the friend who had been unable to have a baby for six years and then—for no reason in particular—she got pregnant.

Lucy tried to listen, but she couldn’t. She’d heard some version of that story every time the topic came up. Friends, family members, medical personnel. Everyone had a success story. After so many years, all of a sudden . . .

They were only trying to encourage her. But what did someone else’s story have to do with Aaron and her? That’s what Lucy could never figure out.

Brooke was still talking. “So there’s always hope.” Her smile was bathed in sympathy. She reached out and briefly covered Lucy’s hand with her own. “You know that. Working in this profession.”

The expression on Brooke’s face was identical to the one Lucy always saw sitting across from her. People looked the same when they talked to her about babies. When they asked her what she and Aaron had tried and what options they might’ve missed in their quest for a child.

This was why Lucy hated when Aaron told people their story, how she couldn’t get pregnant and how there was still no baby in their lives. It made her feel broken and outcast. Defective. Especially here with Brooke.

But since her new friend already knew, there wasn’t much Lucy could hide. Still, she could change the subject. “Tell me about your girls. You and Peter never had trouble getting pregnant?”

“No. That wasn’t our problem.” Brooke’s voice fell some. Clearly there was some other trouble. When Lucy didn’t say anything, Brooke drew a slow breath. “Our littlest, Hayley, suffered a drowning accident when she was three.” Brooke tilted her head, like she was underlining the point. “She’s eighteen now, but . . . it’s not something we’ll ever get over.”

“Brooke . . .” Lucy felt her heart fall to the floor. She couldn’t imagine. “I’m so sorry.”

“Me, too.” Brooke nodded. “I don’t talk about it much anymore.” She paused. “The girls were at a birthday swim party. Peter was in charge of them.” Her smile looked desperately sad. “I don’t say that with any accusation. Not anymore.”

Lucy waited, not sure how much Brooke wanted to say.

“I was called in to work at the hospital, and Peter said he would watch the girls.” Brooke did a slow shrug, like even after all these years she still wasn’t sure what had happened. Her expression grew distant. “Hayley had arm floaties. The rule was she had to keep them on the whole time. But the kids came in for cake and . . .”

Brooke’s voice trailed off, and tears shone in her lashes. Lucy felt her own eyes well up. “Next thing anyone remembers, Hayley was missing. And they were calling her name and no one could find her.” Brooke stared at her coffee. “Peter was the first to see her in the pool. He jumped in and pulled her out. She was basically dead at that point. No telling how long she’d been in the water.”

Lucy felt sick to her stomach. Now it was her turn to reach out and put her hand over Brooke’s. She had no words.

“Some days I still can’t believe it happened.” Brooke uttered a sad sound. “Even now.” After a long pause she finished the story. “Peter gave her CPR. Saved her life, for sure. I showed up as the ambulance was arriving and they rushed her here.” Brooke’s eyes were clearer now. “No one thought she’d live. Or if she did, they told us she’d be blind and living in a hospital bed.”

“But that didn’t happen?” Lucy felt hope at the center of her soul. As if Hayley had been her own daughter. “She can see and walk, right?”