Page 25 of I Found You (Wilder #1)

Maeve

Five hours.

A lifetime.

Who knew anymore.

The medical staff had been great. They tested Jane for everything under the sun.

Viral meningitis.

They told me no less than two dozen times how lucky I was that it was viral and not bacterial.

I didn’t feel lucky right now.

I felt drained and heartbroken.

There wasn’t much the doctors could do for her. I had a prescription for antiviral medications, otherwise, rest and fluids were the only treatment. We should see some improvement over the next few days, but it would probably last about two weeks.

It was nearly midnight by the time we completed the release papers from the hospital. Jane was sleeping, which was good because that was exactly what she needed to be doing. But it was also terrifying. Everything about this ordeal was terrifying.

I kept thinking about Wyatt. How grateful I was that he was there. He knew what to do. I knew he would never let anything happen to her. If Jackson had been in charge, he would have waited for me to come back, which could have been catastrophic if it ended up being bacterial meningitis.

My legs felt like lead as I walked away from the pediatric emergency department. A nurse called me back just as I was about to leave.

“Ms. Graham,” she called.

Keeping in the sigh that I wanted to exhale, I turned around to see what she needed.

“The waiting room is to your left.”

“Why…?” I started to ask, but she was already walking away.

With my brow furrowed, I peeked my head into the waiting room.

Wyatt was asleep on one of the two-seater sofas. His legs dangled off the end, his hat perched over his eyes. My breath caught in my throat, and I walked toward him.

I took off his hat before I woke him and just spent a second looking at him. Really looking at him. His lashes were enviably long, and his lips were perfectly bow-shaped. His straight nose had the tiniest button tip. He was easily the most attractive man I had ever met.

“Wyatt,” I said softly as I gently shook his shoulder. “Wyatt, get up.”

His eyes opened, and I could see the moment he registered I was there. His eyes went from dazed and drowsy to alert and focused in a blink.

“Maeve, fuck. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” He sat up and rubbed his hands down his face, scratching at his beard .

“When did you get here?”

“I, um, I never left,” he said. I didn’t realize how close I was to him until he stood up and completely filled the space around me. He put a hand on Jane’s head and stroked her forehead with his thumb. “How is she? What did the doctor say?”

I hadn’t stepped back when he stood up, and being this close, I had to crane my head back to look at him.

“Viral meningitis. She’ll be okay, just needs lots of rest.” He looked down at me with so much care.

“Wyatt, I can’t thank you enough for being with her today.

For getting her to the hospital. There isn’t anyone in the world I trust more than you.

” My lip quivered as I tried to get through my impromptu speech.

“I never should have left her. I knew something was wrong before I left, and I didn’t take it seriously enough.

” Tears were falling now. I closed my eyes and tried to push the guilt back, at least until I was at home and could fall apart alone.

Thumbs brushed softly across my cheeks, warm hands holding either side of my face. “Hey, none of that. She was fine when you left. Just a little fussy, that’s it. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just been a long day. Let’s get you two home.”

I took a deep breath to collect myself and nodded at Wyatt. Thoughts of my bed, of sleeping for days, filled my head, and my legs must have thought that meant right now because every step felt like they were going to give out on me. Wyatt guided me out of the hospital with his hand warming my back.

We walked to my car in silence. Both of us were exhausted.

“I am dead tired. My eyes can barely stay open,” I told him when we got to my car. Wyatt pulled Jane from my arms carefully to get her strapped into her car seat and opened the passenger-seat door.

“Get in. I’ll drive,” he said.

Following his orders, I got into the car and immediately let my head fall against the headrest. I could hear Wyatt buckling Jane into her seat and closing the back door.

The driver’s door opened, and Wyatt’s presence filled the space, even with my eyes closed.

He had to adjust the seat, moving it back to give his legs enough room to fit comfortably.

Without warning, Wyatt’s body was leaning over me, his breath hot on my cheek.

My heart rate spiked, but I was too scared to open my eyes.

Afraid that what I would see would be too overwhelming to deal with right now.

He pressed his forehead to mine and just breathed with me.

After a minute, he pulled back and placed a kiss on my forehead, and then I felt him pull my seat belt across my lap and buckle me in, just like he did to Jane.

Just like he did to me that day at Millie’s.

Wyatt was pulling my car into my driveway in what felt like seconds.

He rounded the car to take Jane out of her car seat, but I had an overwhelming need to hold her to me, so I told him I would get her.

We made our way inside, and I collapsed on my sofa with Jane in my arms. She’d had fluids while we were at the hospital, but I wanted to give her a bottle, change her diaper, and get her into pajamas.

As if he could read my mind, Wyatt appeared with a newly made bottle in his hands. Jane drank about half as much as she usually would, but considering she was still sick and had already been pumped with fluids, I considered it a win.

“I need to get up and get Jane ready for bed, but my legs are just so heavy,” I said. My voice sounded whiny, even to my ears, so I quickly clarified, “Not that I’m complaining. At least we’re home, and Jane can recuperate in peace. ”

“Maeve, take a minute to fucking rest. You’ve had a helluva day. I got some rest in the waiting room. Why don’t I get Jane changed and into some pajamas?”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “I can imagine your day has been pretty stressful as well.”

He stood from the sofa, his arms outstretched to take Jane. I gave her a big squeeze and a kiss to her head before I handed her off to him.

“Thank you, Wyatt. Her pajamas are in my room, top drawer of the stacked organizer. Just put her in a short-sleeve onesie.” This man was too good to be true. Every time I needed something, he was there for me.

He walked upstairs with her cradled against him. I debated about allowing my gaze to track him up the stairs just for the view, but my heavy lids won out, and my eyes closed.

I must have nodded off because when I opened my eyes, it was half past one in the morning.

Wyatt must have put Jane to sleep and left quietly.

I hauled myself up from the sofa and went to use the bathroom.

Most of my earlier makeup had been cried away, but I washed my face anyway and brushed my teeth.

I forced myself up the stairs to my bedroom. I didn’t want Jane to sleep alone without supervision. The doctors told me that she was going to be fine, but I still didn’t like the idea of not having eyes on her at all times.

Apparently, I shouldn’t have worried about Jane sleeping alone because she was not.

Wyatt had never left. He was on my bed, atop the light blanket that I liked to sleep with.

He had taken off his boots and placed them neatly by the bed.

Beside his boots lay his shirt in a messy heap, as if he’d thrown it off rather than taking it off and folding it.

His chest rose and fell in a mesmerizing pattern, taking Jane along for the ride as she slumbered on top of him, her head resting on the tattoo across his pec.

His right arm was wrapped around her to keep her safe from falling.

My chest ached at the sight of him. Them.

I thought about waking him up, but he looked so peaceful.

I moved Jane to her own bed as gently as I could so as to not wake either of them.

Usually, I would sleep in my underwear and lounge bra, but that wasn’t about to happen if I was going to share a bed with Wyatt.

Maybe I’ll just sleep downstairs in the spare room.

That thought didn’t sit well though. I wanted Wyatt to know that he was free to go whenever he woke. That I would be there for Jane.

As quietly as I could, I dug through my pajama drawer and came up with a small pair of sleep shorts and my Bridgewater State University tee.

Wyatt had already seen me in this getup the first day we met, so I figured it was a safe bet.

Keeping an eye on Wyatt to make sure he was sleeping, I stripped out of my clothes and into the pajamas as fast as possible.

My heart was beating wildly as I approached the bed.

What if Wyatt woke up next to me and thought I was a crazy person for just assuming we would share a bed? Maybe he would want me to wake him.

No, don’t be ridiculous. We were both adults. When Wyatt woke up, he could, sadly, put his clothes back on and leave. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. It wasn’t like I was trying to jump his bones. We were just going to be sleeping together. Next to each other.

I flipped the blanket down and slid onto my bed. As soon as I started to relax, I could feel the tears well up again. I didn’t bother wiping them away before drifting off to sleep.

At some point during the night, I must have pushed the blanket off and managed to get myself on top of it instead of under it.

Which was really a shame. Partly because the weight of the blanket usually helped me sleep better, but mostly because had I stayed under the blanket, I wouldn’t have woken to find myself wrapped around Wyatt like a koala.

My left leg was crossed over his left leg, my upper body nearly on top of his, chest to chest. My arm was slung around him, my hand resting on his tattoo. I was pretty sure I drooled on him.

Swallowing hard, I started to extricate myself from him with agonizing slowness so as to not wake him up. As I started to move my leg, I brushed up against his hard length.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Wyatt said as his hand grabbed mine and held it in place on his chest.

“I’m so sorry. I… I have to check on Jane. She didn’t wake in the middle of the night.”

“I can see her. She’s still sleeping. Her breathing looks good. Face is a little pink, but better than yesterday.”

“Oh. Okay. Good.” I tried to pull my hand away from his so I could give us both some space.

“Five more minutes,” he said. I hadn’t thought about where his other arm was while he was holding on to my hand, at least not until I felt his hand brush up my back under my T-shirt. I sucked in a breath at his touch.

“Wyatt,” I warned.

“Maeve.” His voice was all playful cockiness.

I rolled away from him on the bed carefully and moved to sit up, my face probably now more pink than Jane’s. He moved to get up too, the bed dipping and bouncing with his shifting weight. “I really am sorry about that. That was a bit mortifying.”

“Maeve. Look at me.” He was no longer using that playful, smug tone. He sounded serious. My heart sank as a thousand thoughts about how inappropriate I was flooded my brain.

My head was down as I turned to face him. He was standing by the bed, his shirt in his hand, but he hadn’t put it on yet. I wanted to spend a second longer admiring him, but I forced my gaze up to meet his.

His eyes darkened, and the expression on his face changed from irked to intense. “If you don’t stop apologizing for every little thing, I’m going to have to teach you a lesson the only way I know how.”

His words were dripping in innuendo; even someone with relatively little experience couldn’t miss the message. My eyes widened, and I let out a small squeak. My head swiveled back around so I was facing away from him. My body heated up from my head to my toes, and I knew I must be bright red.

He was openly flirting with me, but what did he mean by it? Was he just messing around? He’d already made it clear he didn’t like me… like that. My body just hadn’t received the same message that my heart did.

I had to make my way over to where he was standing because that was where Jane was.

Gathering her in my arms, I quickly left the bedroom and went downstairs.

Wyatt followed me down a minute later without a care in the world.

As I made us coffee, putting Wyatt’s in a travel mug so he could take it to work with him, I couldn’t help but wonder if he felt this tension between us too. Or was it just one-sided?

He took the travel mug from my hands and broke out his signature smirk and wink combo. It still made my heart go pitter-patter whenever he did it. Outwardly, I just shook my head at him and pushed the mug into his grasp.

“Hey, with everything that happened with Jane yesterday, I never got a chance to talk to you about your dinner,” he said. “When I come by later, I want to hear all about it.”

Apparently, Wyatt was coming over later.

I liked how he said it like it was a simple fact.

There was no question of whether or not he would or could come over later.

Another reason for my heart to go pitter-patter.

If I didn’t get this under control soon, I would need to go see a specialist. “Yeah. It went really well, actually. I’ll tell you about it later. ”

He gave Jane a quick kiss to the top of her head before he left. I tracked his truck out my front window until I couldn’t see it anymore. The last few days had been an overwhelming blur, but the only thing I could focus on was the way it felt to wake up in Wyatt’s arms.