Font Size
Line Height

Page 33 of Second Chance Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings #5)

Caleb looked down at his phone, which was on his bag, and saw Viv was calling him.

“Hello,” he answered.

At the same time, he heard Josh answer the call from his wife, “Hey babe, I’m?—”

“Caleb, is Owen with you?” Viv sounded stressed. Viv neve r sounded stressed.

Even though he knew the answer, Caleb’s eyes automatically locked on Owen who was standing beside the purple-haired Hart twin.

“Yes.”

“Okay, don’t freak him out, but his mom passed out, we called an ambulance, and they are taking her to Pine Ridge General.”

“Is she okay?”

“The ambulance just left, she was still…out of it.”

Caleb felt his entire world stop spinning. It was as if time stopped, everything around him got quiet. All he could hear was the sound of his own breath and a high-pitched ringing in his ear. He’d heard people describe that happening, but he’d never experienced it before.

“Caleb? Caleb?!”

He heard Viv say his name loudly, and it snapped him back into action. In that moment, everything became crystal clear. It didn’t matter what he was feeling. The only thing that mattered was Owen. And Viv was right, he could not stress him out. But he also couldn’t lie to him.

“Sorry, yeah. I’m here. I’ll get Owen to the hospital and take care of everything. Thanks for calling.” Caleb disconnected the call, grabbed his bag, and stood.

Josh’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Do you want me to drive?”

“No, I’m good.”

His friend’s fingers squeezed tighter, preventing him from walking down the steps of the bleachers. “Are you sure?”

Caleb turned to look at Josh. “Yeah. I’ll call you if I need you.”

Josh held his gaze, staring into his soul for several beats before giving him a sharp chin nod and dropping his arm.

As Caleb crossed the gym with purposeful strides, he only had a few seconds to formulate how he was going to break the news to Owen without making him panic and possibly end up in the hospital himself, or worse.

He knew he needed to remain calm and composed.

The greatest chance of Owen staying calm would be Caleb projecting everything was okay, it would signal to his son’s brain that it was okay, even if it was only on a subconscious level.

Caleb said a prayer that God would give him the right words, the right energy, that he would be everything his son needed him to be and everything Taylor needed him to be.

He also prayed, no begged God to get Taylor through this.

Caleb tried to bargain, saying he would gladly take her place, even though he knew that wasn’t how God worked.

Whatever it was that she was experiencing, she did not deserve it.

Caleb had lived a privileged life, with loving parents and a supportive community.

She’d never had any of that. She wasn’t the one who should be in the ambulance right now, he was. Owen needed her, not him.

He was a few feet away when Jonah noticed him and motioned for Owen to turn around. Owen turned around with a mile-wide smile that radiated the carefree happiness of youth, something Caleb hadn’t seen Owen enjoy much of because of his illnesses. The second he saw Caleb, it dropped.

So much for projecting everything was okay.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Owen asked.

“Your mom’s not feeling so good, so?—”

Caleb didn’t even finish his sentence. Owen grabbed his backpack and rushed out the double doors of the gym. Caleb had to double-time it to just to keep up with him. When he heard whistling sounds, he knew that Owen was wheezing and going too fast.

“Hey, slow down. Do you have your blue inhaler?”

Owen didn’t slow down, but he reached inside the front pocket of his backpack, pulled out his blue inhaler, shook it, pushed the cap off, exhaled, put his lips around the mouthpiece, inhaled while pushing down the canister, held his breath for ten seconds, and then exhaled.

They approached his Jeep, and Caleb clicked the fob.

They climbed in and Owen took his second puff thirty seconds after his first.

Caleb turned his signal on as he came to a stop before pulling out of the parking lot, and explaining, “So?—"

“Is it him?” Owen spoke at the same time.

“What?” Caleb looked at Owen. Unshed tears pooled in his eyes as he stared straight ahead. “Who?”

“Martin.” His tone held no emotion even as a large tear slid down Owen’s cheek. He lifted his arm and wiped the drop off with the back of his hand. “Did he find her?”

“No,” Caleb quickly assured him. “No, he didn’t.”

And for Martin’s sake, he better hope Caleb never found him .

Owen’s head spun toward Caleb. “But you said…you just…you looked so upset.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. She was at the book club, and she passed out. They are taking her to the hospital. That’s where we’re going.”

“Oh, okay.” Owen exhaled a sigh of what sounded like relief and sank back into the seat. “It’s almost nine so Dr. Davies will be starting his shift soon in the E.R. He’s good and mom likes him a lot.”

Caleb wasn’t sure if Owen was just relieved it wasn’t Martin, or if he was jaded because he went to the hospital so much that a trip to the E.R.

didn’t seem like a big deal, or if Taylor had health issues and this was a normal occurrence.

He didn’t want to say anything that might upset Owen, but he also wanted to be up to speed.

“Has this happened before? With your mom?” Caleb glanced over and saw that Owen was calling someone.

“No.” Owen lowered the phone from his ear. “She’s not answering.”

“She probably just can’t hear her phone.” Nikki made it seem like she wasn’t conscious, but he didn’t want to tell Owen that.

Caleb looked over and saw that Owen was typing on his phone. “Are you texting her?”

“I’m texting Dr. Davies.”

“You have his cell phone number?”

“He gave it to Mom and said to call if we ever needed anything.”

I bet he did , Caleb thought to himself.

Caleb refused to give in to the jealousy that Dr. Davies was bringing up in him. The only thing that mattered right now was getting Taylor and Owen through this and making sure they were both okay. Nothing else. Certainly not jealousy over an E.R. doctor.

After that, Caleb’s next priority was to make sure Martin Watts never hurt Taylor or Owen again. He didn’t know exactly how he was going to do that, but they were his family, they were his to protect and he would do anything he had to do to make that happen.