Page 26 of I Found You (Wilder #1)

Maeve

All morning, my emotions were spinning around me like a sandstorm.

Dinner with Josie, finding out Jane was in the hospital and I wasn’t there with her, being with her in the hospital and watching her get poked and prodded, finding Wyatt waiting for us, waking up in his arms. It was all too much.

A few months ago, my only focus had been on work and creating a lesson plan for my students that would hold their attention for more than ten minutes.

Now, I hadn’t even started to put together my syllabus for this upcoming school year, and it was starting in a few short weeks.

Jane was still sick, alternating between sleeping like a rock or crying and moaning. When she was awake, she didn’t want me to put her down. She was being unusually clingy, but it was understandable.

My phone vibrated where it sat on the coffee table in the living room.

I immediately thought of Wyatt. He’d only left my house a few hours ago, but I already missed him.

I needed to get my head out of the clouds, but that felt like too much effort, which I was in short supply of already.

The screen showed that it wasn’t Wyatt but Jane’s social worker, Kara, calling.

Dumping the armload of toys and blankets that I was in the midst of cleaning up into the storage bin where they belonged, I hurried to my phone to answer it before it went to voicemail.

“Hello?” I answered and then looked back at the screen to see if it connected or if I had missed it.

“Maeve. It’s Kara, returning your call. I got Wyatt’s voicemail message last night. Is everything okay?”

Putting the call on speakerphone, I explained to Kara everything that had happened.

“I wasn’t home with her when she got real bad.

But I promise, I left the best person I know in charge of her, Kara.

He was the one who called the EMTs in to assess her.

” My heart rate started to speed up, and I hastened to explain, “I’m sure you have to put that in your notes, but please don’t think that I don’t take my responsibility for Jane lightly.

I’m not out galivanting every night or anything.

I had an important dinner. Usually, I would take Jane with me, honestly.

We are never apart. This was actually the first time I had someone else taking care of her.

I know I shouldn’t have done it. It won’t happen again.

” I was talking so fast at this point I paused to take a breath.

“Maeve, relax. You aren’t in any trouble. You are allowed to have a social life, even as a caregiver. Children get sick. You didn’t do anything wrong, okay?”

I didn’t even realize how worried I was that someone was going to take Jane away because of this. Kara’s words helped calm my racing heart, at least a bit. All of the guilt that I was feeling last night when I read Wyatt’s messages after dinner rose to the surface again .

“Can you walk me through the events of yesterday? When did she start showing signs that she wasn’t feeling well?”

“It was right before I had to leave. She was fine earlier in the day. We played for a bit, sat outside to get some fresh air and sunshine. She started to get fussy at maybe four o’clock in the afternoon.” I answered all of her questions, walking her through the events of the day.

“And you said that Wyatt was the one babysitting? Wyatt Wilder?”

“Yes. Wyatt has become a friend of mine, and he offered to watch Jane for me. Is that going to be an issue?” I asked concerningly.

“No. Not at all. I’ll admit I was a little surprised when I got his call though. I didn’t realize you two were close.”

It was probably a good thing that Kara was on the other side of the phone line and not sitting in front of me.

All concern from a second ago had disappeared and was replaced with righteous indignation.

“Why was that surprising? Wyatt’s been great.

And he’s so good with Jane, it’s incredible. He’s incredible.”

What? Was the idea that Wyatt and I were friends so crazy?

Or was it that she didn’t think Wyatt was the kind of guy to volunteer for babysitting duty when someone was in a jam?

Calla Bay was a small town. I was sure Kara knew Wyatt, at least by name.

But if she was going to pass judgment on him and his character, she should get her facts straight first.

“I shouldn’t have said anything. Let’s get back to Jane.”

We continued a series of questions and answers as Kara documented the incident.

She didn’t utter another word about Wyatt during our conversation.

Once she was caught up to speed and we were just about ready to hang up, Kara seemed like she wanted to say something else and was hesitating. I asked her if there was anything else.

“I’m sorry if I upset you earlier. I didn’t mean anything by it.” Now that the moment had passed, I realized I might have overreacted just a little. All she said was that she was surprised. In fairness, I was surprised when he showed up on my doorstep the first time or three.

Just at that time, my phone indicated another incoming call. “It’s fine. Hey, my brother is calling. If you’re all set with your documentation, I’d like to take this.”

“Of course. I hope the baby gets better soon. We’ll talk again at our next check-in.”

I switched the call over to Jackson, answering with a gruff “Hello.”

“Jesus, Mae. What’s got your panties in a bunch? I’m the one who’s mad at you.”

“Sorry. I just got off the phone with Kara. She said something I didn’t like. Not your fault though. Wait, why are you mad at me?”

“Because I had to hear from my boss that my sister spent most of the night in the hospital and didn’t call me.”

“Oh, shoot. I’m sorry, Jackson. It wasn’t me in the hospital—it was Jane. I was just at the hospital.”

“Not the point, Mae. You should have called. I would have been there if you needed me to be.”

Despite the crew he ran with, my brother was, deep down, a really decent guy.

I hoped that I had some involvement in him turning out that way.

He still had a lot of growing up to do and could probably use some new friends and a diploma or GED—it was a work in progress.

But as a human, they didn’t get much better than Jackson.

Except maybe Wyatt, but I would never tell him that.

Bribing him, I told him, “I know. If you forgive me, then I’ll tell you all about dinner with Josie.”

“You were going to do that anyway,” he huffed. “But I’ll forgive you this time. If something like that happens again though, I want to know about it.”

I agreed to his terms easily. It was a reasonable request, and I couldn’t imagine having to hear the news that Jackson had spent the night in an emergency room from a third-party person.

Speaking of which… “Hey, did you call Wyatt your boss? Are you working for him now? I thought he was just letting you use one of his bays and some equipment.”

“Yeah. At first, he was just showing me how to do some things on my Rod Hall, but then he started asking for me to help him with some repairs and shit. I didn’t mind helping him out, but at the end of the week, he threw me some cash.

So I guess that means he’s my boss now. It’s kind of an unofficial thing. ”

“That’s great, Jackson. You should spend all your time over there. It’ll keep you busy and out of trouble. And I’m sure it’s better than late-night shifts at the gas station.”

“You think he can handle us Silvas all day and all night?”

I knew what he meant, but the way it sounded made me blush. Had Wyatt told him that he spent the night last night? “I’m a Graham,” I responded lamely.

“In name only, Mae. Now, tell me about Mom. What was she like?”

He was trying to sound unaffected, like it didn’t really matter what I said.

But I knew better. Jackson wanted her to be better, to be around.

He barely remembered having an actual mother.

I couldn’t be sure how it affected his development, but I wasn’t blind to the fact that it had an impact on who he was today.

“Honestly, Jackson… she was really good. She seemed completely sober and drank iced tea with dinner. She said she’s been clean for ten months, and I want to believe her.

She showed me pictures on her phone with her and another woman, maybe in her sixties.

She said she was her sponsor. She showed me text messages of them talking about sobriety. ”

“No shit. You think she’s going to stick around for a while?”

“I don’t know. She wants to. She seemed really excited about building a relationship with you.

I think she was as genuine as she could be.

But that doesn’t mean the wind doesn’t change direction tomorrow and it all goes up in smoke,” I warned him.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy for Josie. I was. But I was also a realist.

“Would you be mad at me if I reached out to her?” Jackson asked. He wasn’t usually so cautious of my feelings, but I think he understood my perspective on this.

“No, I wouldn’t be mad at you. I wouldn’t have been mad at you if you told me to pound sand last week and forged ahead with a relationship with her. But thank you. Thank you for letting me feel the situation out first. It means a lot to me, Jackson.”

“Yeah, well, don’t make it weird.”

I couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped. It could have been because he was a nineteen-year-old guy, or maybe it was just who he was, but overt displays of emotion made him uncomfortable.

I could hear some noises in the background on the other end of the line, but I couldn’t make out what was going on. Jackson was silent for a minute before he spoke again.

“Uh-oh,” he whispered. “One of Wyatt’s brothers just came storming in. He looks pissed. He’s screaming about something. Wyatt just took him into the office.”

“Which brother?” I asked.

“How the fuck should I know?” Jackson was back to his usual helpful self, clearly.