Page 34 of Dr. Stone

I ended the call, adrenaline pulsing through me as excitement took hold. I’d confirmed with Brandt, and he’d be ready when we arrived.

Now came the part I had no experience with, acting like a parent and rushing a sick kid to the hospital for an ear infection.

As weird as it sounded, the thought thrilled me even more than the idea of taking her sailing for the first official date I’d been planning.

SIXTEEN

Andie

“Come on, buddy,”I whispered, scooping up my poor, sick little boy. He was dressed and ready to go the moment Jace arrived.

The fever that had spiked before he threw up all over me had finally broken after a lukewarm bath, but I could feel it creeping back.

“Damn it,” I muttered, collapsing onto the sofa with him in my arms. He whimpered and whined, miserable to the bone.

I kissed the top of his damp, curly brown hair, inhaling the familiar scent of Johnson’s Baby Shampoo. My heart ached for him, and that was why I gave in and let Jace play the savior tonight.

I’d been going nonstop since I called my parents, telling them to stay back because Brandon was too sick and uncomfortable with teething to go anywhere. I was running on fumes and hadn’t given much thought to what I’d miss out on with Titus tonight.

Thankfully, he’d understood my last-minute cancellation despite all the effort he’d put into planning the evening. The man had bought me a couture dress that looked ready for the Met Gala, not just a night at the opera in San Francisco. Still, none of it mattered when my baby was sick.

A few soft knocks at the door alerted me that Jace, my personal Uber and lifeline for the night, had arrived.

I stood, holding Brandon close, silently hoping Dr. Brandt wasn’t too put out with the last-minute scramble. Either way, I was damn grateful to both of them. All I wanted now was for my son to feel better fast.

“Hey,” I said, containing my hormones at the sight of the man standing in my doorway, “let me get my keys.” I turned, shifting Brandon to my left hip, and moved through the house to find my keys.

"No need for that, gorgeous," he said. "I’ve got a car all ready to go."

I smiled, grabbing the strap of Brandon’s backpack that I used as his diaper bag, “Cute, but Brandon’s car seat is in my car, and I need to get it out, or we aren’t going anywhere.”

“Right,” he said.

I shouldered the backpack, then turned and smiled at Jace, who looked sexy as sin on a Sunday. His dark blue button-down shirt was rolled up at the sleeves, convincing me that it should be illegal for a man to look so effortlessly attractive to a single mom holding a feverish baby.

“You’re sure you want to do this with me? I mean, once I?—”

“If I weren’t sure, I wouldn’t have traded one of my treasured sports cars—the one I allowno oneelse to drive—with Jake to borrow Ash’s car.”

“Damn, you aren’t messing around tonight, are you?”

“No. Now, I may not be experienced in having children, but I am not afraid to learn, either.” He looked at Brandon, who’dbeen gnawing on his fingers, watching the new stranger with deep intrigue.

“Poor guy,” he said. “We’re gonna get you taken care of.”

“This is Brandon,” I said, introducing the two as if my one-year-old son knew how to acknowledge some friend of his mom’s who was on a mission to impress her for some wild reason I still couldn’t understand.

Brandon instantly became shy on top of feeling horrible and grumpy. Instead of the beaming smile he usually greeted everyone with, he buried his face into my shoulder and avoided any contact with Jace.

I chuckled when I saw Jace frown in response.

“He feels like shit,” I said, locating my keys and snatching them off the counter. “Don’t take his moodiness personally.”

“I just feel bad for the guy. His little glassy eyes give away how badly he must feel.”

“I appreciate you doing this for me,” I said, tossing him my keys. “Here, do me a favor and grab his seat.”

We walked out of the condo without saying another word, and I grinned at how cute Jace’s gesture was, but I had to remember not to get attached.