Page 88 of Just One Kiss

“Yes,” Dr. Roby said coolly. “He’s in recovery now. The nurse will take you down. I’ll be by to check on him in the morning.” He walked away.

Carly couldn’t be certain, but if she had to guess she’d say all her questions had just landed her at the bottom of the candidate pool for the unit manager position.

She pulled out her phone. No new messages.

Same old Josh.

A frizzy-haired nurse Carly didn’t know led her to a large room that had been sectioned off by curtains. “He’s just in here.” She pulled the curtain back and revealed Carly’s still-asleep son on a bed next to a technician who was running some post-op tests.

The tech’s name was Aaron, and Carly had met him a few times. He looked up at her and smiled. “Heard we got to work on your son today.”

“How’s he doing?”

“He’s doing really well,” Aaron said. “He’s going to be groggy, maybe a little nauseous. You know the drill.”

She did. She knew some people came out of surgery nauseous and vomiting while others felt tired and run down. She prayed Jaden wouldn’t be sick, that he’d bounce back like a champ, and—one more time for good measure—that his father would show up.

He’d promised.

Josh, you promised.

“You can talk to him if you want to,” Aaron said.

She set her bag down and took Jaden’s hand. Her son lay limply under the covers, slack-jawed and breathing heavily. She perched on the edge of the bed.

“Jaden?”

She almost didn’t want to wake him—she wanted to give Josh more time to come through. He’d done everything he’d said he would do the last few weeks—why now, on the most important day they’d had in years, had he chosen to go MIA?

But Jaden stirred. His eyes dragged open and he pulled in a breath. “Hey.”

“Hey, kiddo,” Carly said with a smile.

Jaden pressed his lips together and made a smacking noise with his mouth. “So dry.”

“That’s normal, buddy,” Aaron said. He clicked around on a machine. “How are you feeling otherwise?”

Jaden closed his eyes. “Nauseous.”

Aaron looked at Carly. “We’ll get him something for that.”

She nodded, then turned her attention back to her son. “You did great, Jay. Dr. Roby said everything went just like it was supposed to.”

“Throat’s sore.”

Aaron nodded. “From the tube. It’ll feel raw for a little while.”

Jaden nodded slowly, letting them know he’d heard. “Where’s Dad?”

Carly’s own mouth went dry then. Years of practice should’ve given her plenty of excuses for where her ex was in that moment, yet she had nothing. No good reason for him to be missing.

She thought back to the way he’d reacted when his parents had shown up in the waiting room. Had something happened to set him off?

Even still, it shouldn’t have been enough to make him disappear.

Why do you always leave when we need you most?

“He, um, he left for a bit,” Carly said.

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