Page 50 of I Found You (Wilder #1)

Maeve

Saturday mornings were easily my favorite time of the week.

I got to wake up slowly, usually to Wyatt’s hands on my body, or his mouth on my skin, or his erection eagerly pressed against my butt.

It didn’t take long for me and Wyatt to find our rhythm during the workweek.

Each morning, we woke up in a tangle of arms and legs, and then Wyatt would start coffee while I showered and got ready.

We would leave together, me to head to work, Wyatt to head home to start his day.

He really should leave some things at my place or pack an overnight bag, at least. Besides the mornings where he would go home to shower and get dressed, he was always at my place.

We ate dinner together every night. He would watch TV while I reviewed the day’s assignments or upcoming lesson plans.

Ever since we made up, we hadn’t spent a single night apart.

But Saturdays were for sleeping in and cuddling. Apparently, not this Saturday though. Instead, I was woken up by my phone vibrating on the nightstand before I could even open my eyes.

Groaning, I pressed my face into Wyatt’s chest. “Tell whoever it is to go away,” I grumbled.

Wyatt’s arm stretched behind me, and he fumbled for the charging cord.

His brow furrowed. “It’s Kara,” he said just as the phone stopped vibrating.

I took the phone and sat up. Why was Kara calling first thing on a Saturday morning? My eyes locked on Wyatt’s as I called her back.

“Oh, thank God I caught you. We have kind of an emergency,” Kara started.

“What kind of emergency?”

“It’s Sunshine. She’s at the hospital.”

I scrambled to put my phone on speaker while still talking to Kara. “What do you mean? Is she sick? What happened?” My heart was beating too fast, and my hands were instantly clammy.

“The doctors think she ingested something, some sort of drug residue, most likely. They had to pump her little tiny baby belly.” Kara’s voice sounded absolutely devastated.

“The doctor said they didn’t like to do that if they could avoid it, but Sunshine was so weak they didn’t want to induce vomiting. ”

“Jane,” Wyatt all but growled.

“Huh, oh… is someone with you?” Kara asked.

“Yeah. Wyatt’s here. You’re on speakerphone now.”

“Oh, okay. Listen, I’m going to be honest here.

We’re lucky that she even got to the hospital.

I don’t think anyone at that house was going to bring her in, but Angela was talking to a neighbor with Sun—ah, Jane on her hip, and I guess he told her to call an ambulance for that baby, or he would.

Maeve, no one even came in with her. From the report that I received, Angela said she would be right behind them and just needed to grab some shoes.

But she never showed up at the hospital. I can’t send her back to that house.”

Wyatt had jumped out of bed, throwing clothes on from whatever he could find on the floor.

I threw on a pair of jeans, also from the floor, and was frantically trying to get my arms in the sleeves of a shirt when Wyatt wrapped his arms around me.

He plucked the shirt from my hands and passed me my bra while he righted the inside-out shirt I was trying to put on. “Oh, my bra, good thinking,” I mumbled.

A chuckling sounded from my bed. Shoot, I forgot about Kara.

“Sorry, Kara. We’re on our way,” I told her before disconnecting the call.

“Crap.” Stopping in my tracks, I looked at Wyatt. “I forgot to brush my teeth,” I said as we were exiting the house.

With his hand in mine, he pulled me forward into his arms. Grabbing my face in both hands, he kissed me hard. “You can brush them when we get back. Let’s go see our girl.”

Wyatt fidgeted the entire way to the hospital, tapping his hands against the steering wheel constantly.

He turned the radio off, then on, lowered the volume, changed the station.

The muscles in his jaw were so tight I was surprised he hadn’t cracked a tooth yet.

I wanted to hold his hand and tell him it was going to be okay, but he didn’t need me to placate him with false securities.

We both needed to see Jane for ourselves before we would believe that she was alright.

“I should have dropped you off at the door so you could go in. I wasn’t thinking,” Wyatt said as he pulled into a parking space in the lot across from the emergency room.

“No. This is better. I would rather go in together.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything more. We held hands as we crossed the street and into the hospital. I wasn’t sure if I was his lifeline or if he was mine at this point.

The lobby was bright, really too bright, with fluorescent overhead lights throughout the space, and clean, but did they have to use so many chemicals with those terrible cleanser smells?

The floors were outdated and scuffed, same as the paint on the walls.

It was a good hospital with a good reputation in our area, and I hated every second of being here, knowing that Jane was in this building by herself.

After waiting a few minutes while the reception clerks helped other people, it was finally our turn. Wyatt stepped up and asked where we could find Jane.

“What’s her last name?” the clerk snapped.

“Doe,” Wyatt answered.

The woman’s eyes narrowed like she thought Wyatt was just screwing around with her. Before she decided to jab her pen into Wyatt’s neck, I rushed to help clarify.

“Her name is Sunshine. Sunshine Stuart. She was a Jane Doe up until a few weeks ago. We’re her foster parents.

Or at least I am. Or was. Maybe again. Although he was just as involved.

We got a call this morning that she was brought in last night.

She needed to have…” I trailed off as Wyatt’s hands closed over mine.

“Sorry. Her name is Sunshine. We were called in by Kara Dawson at DCF.”

“She’s in pediatrics. Floor 4. Elevators are down this hall and to the left.” Looking over my shoulder, the reception clerk yelled for the next people in line.

The walk down the hallway to the nurses’ station felt like déjà vu, bringing to my mind that night not all that long ago when Jane was in the hospital with meningitis, when Wyatt stayed in the waiting room, sleeping on the far-too-small sofa. I squeezed his hand, and he replied in kind.

As soon as the doors to the pediatric ward opened, Kara was there and rushed to greet us. “Hey, thank you for getting over here so fast. Both of you.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’re happy you called,” Wyatt said as he reached out his hand to her, his other arm never leaving me.

Kara gave us the rundown of the events from last night through this morning.

My limbs felt shaky and my head heavy as Kara described the state that Jane was in when she was brought in.

Wyatt was gripping my waist tightly, and the pressure of his arm helped to keep me grounded.

She brought us into the recovery room, where Jane was being monitored. She looked good though. I turned to Kara to ask if I could hold her, but before I could even open my mouth, Wyatt was scooping her into his arms, being extra careful with the wires and IV lines.

“I’ll give you both some time with her. When you have a minute, Maeve, can you come find me? I’d like to talk to you about where we go from here.”

I nodded to Kara, my gaze glued to Jane, so much bigger than she was a few months ago when she first came into my life but still so small snuggled up to Wyatt’s chest. I leaned in and placed a kiss on her head as I examined her for any outward injuries.

Wyatt’s eyes locked with mine, anger, sadness, and determination all warring within their depths.

“She’s coming home with us,” he demanded.

“Yeah, I think so,” I agreed. “But Wyatt, that doesn’t mean she’s ours. This situation… It’s temporary. We are going to have to give her back again.”

“That’s fucking ridiculous. They’ve been responsible for her for what?

A month? And she’s in the hospital due to their negligence.

They allowed her to basically poison herself.

They put her in an environment where something fucking terrible could have happened.

Fuck. Something terrible did happen. She’s in here, with all these wires attached to her, monitors to make sure she’s still breathing.

She could have… She almost… She’s not going back to them, Maeve.

” Wyatt’s chest was rising and falling rapidly.

Jane’s hungry cries filled the room before she even opened her eyes. I sat with her while Wyatt went to track down someone who could provide some baby food. When he returned with a bottle for her, I asked him to take the feeding duty while I went in search of Kara.

When I found her at the nurses’ station, she led me into a small alcove where we could have a private chat.

“Thank you again for rushing down here today.”

“Of course. We’d do anything for Jane.”

“Well, that’s great to hear because I was hoping you would be able to take on her case again. I have the paperwork to remove her from her home completed, and if I could have a home to place her in immediately, that would be best.”

“Absolutely. We’re always happy to have her, Kara. Actually, we would prefer to have her,” I told her. “When do you think she’ll be released from the hospital? Do I have any authority to talk to the doctors or nurses about her care?”

“Sign here, and you will officially be her guardian again.” Kara smiled at me. “Or should I put both of your names down?”

“Just mine is fine. We’re not living together or anything.

” Despite telling Kara the truth of the matter, images of Wyatt and Jane raced through my mind.

The three of us playing in the sand by the docks.

Wyatt holding Jane in his lap while he read her a story.

Dinners around a dining room table, talking about our day.

I could see it all so clearly, as if I had already lived it. Jane belonged with us.

I stopped to talk to the nurse assigned to Jane before heading back to the hospital room.

They wanted to keep her for the day to monitor her for any ill effects, but we would be able to take her home first thing tomorrow morning, so long as she was eating, peeing, and pooping.

Since Wyatt was feeding her as we spoke, I had a good feeling that we wouldn’t have any setbacks.

The rest of the day went by painstakingly slow but uneventful. Jane was fully on the mend and had met all of her requirements, just like I expected. Wyatt stayed at the hospital with me, only leaving to pick us up some food, which was taking an excessively long time, in my very hungry opinion.

A few hours passed before he came back with our takeout, looking very proud of himself.

“You want me to ask you what you were up to, don’t you?” I asked him, humor lacing my voice as I unpacked the containers.

“I just picked up some stuff. We’re going to be here for a while, so I grabbed some things from the store so we can brush our teeth and whatnot. And it’s not like I’m dying to tell you that I’m the best car seat installer in the state. Even the fire department said so.”

“What?” My head whipped to his in surprise.

“Yeah. When I went to pick up our food, I stopped by the store to grab some essentials again. Figured we weren’t getting the other stuff back.

After I installed the car seat in your car, I went by the fire department to have them check it out.

Didn’t have to make a single adjustment,” Wyatt said proudly .

I handed him his takeout box and plastic cutlery, then grabbed his face in my hands and kissed him chastely. “That’s because you’re the best car seat installer in the whole state,” I whispered against his lips.

His chest vibrated with a low growl. “Why is everything you do so fucking sexy?”

“I could ask you the same thing, car seat installer extraordinaire.”

The next day, we watched as all the monitors and tubes were removed from Jane.

She was a trooper through the whole ordeal, only fussing a little.

We were finally free to bring her home after signing her discharge paperwork.

I held her tightly to my chest as we walked out of the hospital, for hopefully the last time for a very long time.

Wyatt opened the back passenger door and waited while I got Jane strapped into her new car seat.

He opened the passenger-side door for me next, but before I slipped into the car, I pulled him into a tight embrace.

He wrapped his arms around me and held me.

My chin quivered as I tried to hold back my emotions.

“I love her, Wyatt. So much. And I love you. And I want us to be together. I want us to be a family.”

“Hey, we are together. The three of us against the world, doll. You have me, and now we have her. I don’t know how long we’ll get this, but I know I’m not giving up either of you without a fight.

I found her, and she led me to you. I want the same things you want.

I want to watch her take her first steps and learn to ride a bike and help her with her homework, at least until she becomes smarter than me.

I didn’t see it coming, Maeve, but the moment I held her in my arms, I knew she was mine.

Just like I know you are it for me. This, right now, the three of us together, we’ll relish every minute of it.

And we’ll fight like hell to keep it.” Wyatt placed two fingers below my chin, gently lifting my face to meet his.

He swiped his thumbs along my cheeks, wiping away my tears. “Now, let’s get her home.”