Year One (Chronicles of The One #1)(11)

“We’ll make a list of what you want, from home, and I’ll run and get it. I’ll stay right here tonight.”

“I can’t think straight.” Though her eyes felt gritty, Katie couldn’t close them.

He took her hand, covered it with kisses. “I’ll wing it. And you have to do what the doctor said. You have to rest.”

“I know, but … Tony, can you just go check? Can you go see how Mom’s doing? I don’t think I can rest until I know.”

“Okay, but no getting up and boogying around the room while I’m gone.”

She worked up a wan smile. “Solemn oath.”

He rose, leaned over, kissed her belly. “And you guys stay put. Kids.” He rolled his eyes at Katie. “Always in a hurry.”

When he stepped out, he just leaned against the door, struggled against the gnawing need to break down. Katie was the tough one, he thought, the strong one. But now he had to be. So he would.

He made his way through the special care section—the place was a maze—found the doors to the waiting area, check-in, elevators. Tony suspected Katie would have to stay long enough for him to learn his way around.

As he stepped to the elevators, a slightly built, pretty black woman in a white lab coat and black Nikes stepped off.

His mind cleared. “Dr. Hopman.”

“Mr. Parsoni, how’s Katie?”

“It’s Tony, and she’s trying to rest. Everything’s good. No contractions for the last hour, and the babies are both fine. They want to keep her at least overnight, probably for a few days. She’s asking about her mom, so I was coming up to check.”

“Why don’t we sit down over here?”

He’d worked in his family’s sports equipment store since childhood—managed the main branch now. He knew how to read people.

“No.”

“I’m so sorry, Tony.” She took his arm, guided him to the chairs. “I told Dr. Gerson I’d come down, but I can have him paged, have him come talk to you.”

“No, I don’t know him, I don’t need that.” He dropped down, lowered his head into his hands. “What’s happening? I don’t understand what’s happening. Why did they die?”

“We’re running tests, looking for the nature of the infection. We believe they contracted it in Scotland, as your father-in-law had symptoms before he left. Katie said they stayed on a farm, in Dumfries?”

“Yeah, the family farm—a cousin’s farm. It’s a great place.”

“A cousin?”

“Yeah, Hugh, Hugh MacLeod. And Millie. God, I need to tell them. Tell Rob, tell Ian. What do I tell Katie?”

“Can I get you some coffee?”

“No, thanks. What I could use is a good, stiff drink, but…” He had to be strong, he remembered, and wiped at his tears with the heels of his hands. “I’ll settle for a Coke.”

When he started to get up, Rachel put a hand on his arm. “I’ll get it. Regular?”

“Yeah.”

She walked over to the vending machines, dug out change. A farm, she thought. Pigs, chickens. A possible strain of swine or bird flu?

Not her area, but she’d get the information, pass it on.

She brought Tony the Coke. “If you’d give me the contact information on Hugh MacLeod and for Ross MacLeod’s brother, it may help us.”

She took it all, keyed them into her phone. The cousin, the twin brother, the son, even the nephews, as Tony offered them.

“Take my number.” She took his phone, added it to his contacts list. “Call me if there’s something I can do. Are you planning on staying with Katie tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll set that up for you. I’m sorry, Tony. Very sorry.”

He let out a long breath. “Ross and Angie, they were … I loved them like my own ma and pop. It helps to know they were with somebody good, somebody, you know, caring, at the end. It’ll help Katie knowing that, too.”

He walked back to Katie’s room, walked slowly, even deliberately taking a wrong turn once to give himself more time.

When he went in, saw her lying there, staring up at the ceiling, her hands protectively cradling the babies inside her, he knew what he had to do.

For the first time since he’d met her, he lied to her.

“Mom?”

“She’s sleeping. You need to do the same.” Leaning over the bed, he kissed her. “I’m going to run home, pack us some things. Since the food probably sucks in here, I’ll pick us up some lasagna from Carmines. Kids gotta eat.” He patted her belly. “And need some meat.”

“Okay, you’re right. You’re my rock, Tone.”

“You’ve always been mine. Be back before you know it. No wild parties while I’m gone.”

Her eyes glimmered, her smile wobbled. But his Katie had always been game. “I already ordered the strippers.”

“Tell them to keep it on till I get back.”

He walked out, trudged to his car. It started to snow in anemic wisps he barely felt. He slid into the minivan they’d bought only two weeks before, in anticipation of the twins.

Lowering his head to the wheel, he wept out his broken heart.