Page 18 of Until Delilah

There’s a commotion of voices, but I can’t make any of them out. My head feels light as I try to breathe in Beckham’s scent, but it’s muddled with the smell of antiseptic.

Someone tries to take him away, but I hold him tighter, unwilling to let him go. “No,” I cry out, “I need to be with my son. He needs me.”

“Ma’am, we can’t help your son with you holding onto him. You need to give him to us,” a kind, feminine voice says to my right.

“What if something bad happens to him?” I choke out.

“We’re going to do our very best to take care of him, but right now you’re hindering that. You can stay by his side, but you have to let us look at him.”

“Delilah,” Max’s soft voice, pierces through the cacophony of voices, “let them see Beckham so they can make him better. I promise he’s going to be okay.”

I know what I need to do, but it isn’t as easy as it seems. My son is my whole life and if anything were to happen to him, I’m not sure I’d be able to go on. Still, I open my eyes and arms and let a team of hospital staff take my son away from me. Once they whisk him away, I let my head fall onto Max’s chest and cry.

“You can follow us,” a man says.

As if I’m as light as a feather, Max carries me and follows along. Every few seconds his hold on me tightens. When we stop, I wipe my tears away with the backs of my hands. I try to focus on what they’re doing to Beck, but I can’t see past all the staff.

Max starts to move away, making me whip my head to him and glare. “What are you doing?”

“I’m only sitting us down so we’ll be out to the way and they can better attend to Beckham. I know it looked bad, but heads bleed alot. I’ve had plenty of gashes to the head in my time and learned early on they bleed more than most. He’ll be fine. I promise you.” His big hand runs down my hair and back and then up again.

“I told him to stay at the door. I went to get the taco meat and when I came back, he was gone,” I cry out, closing my eyes as flashes of what happened earlier keep looping through my head.

“Ma’am we need to take a look at your wounds as well if you could—”

“You’re hurt?” Max interrupts, his blue eyes tracing over every inch of me he can see.

“I… I don’t know. I don’t feel anything.”

A soft hand rests on my arm for a moment before lifting it. It’s then that I see blood coating my arm.

Pulling my arm away, I argue. “I don’t want to leave my son. It can wait.”

“Delilah, none of that,” Max stands and places me on my feet. “You don’t want Beck to have to wait for you to get taken care of once he’s done, do you?”

A sweet older woman comes to stand in front of me with a sympathetic smile on her wrinkled face. “The room right next door is open, so you won’t be far. If there are any problems, which there won’t be, they’ll come to get you.”

My eyes dart to Max and that’s when I see blood covering his light gray t-shirt and arm. “You’ll stay with him, right?”

He swallows and I watch as his Adam’s apple bobs. “If you don’t need me, I won’t leave this spot.”

“I want you here if I can’t be.” My eyes start to tear up at the thought of not being with Beck when he needs me. Even though I know my parents couldn’t do anything immediately, I wish I had my phone so I could call them and let them know what’s happening. I need to hear their voices. It’s then that I vow to myself when we get back to Max’s house, I’m going to call my parents and tell them everything that’s happened since I last talked to them.

8

Max

After four very longhours at the hospital, Delilah and Beckham are finally released. Although they might have to come back to receive rabies shots if we can’t find the dog that bit them. Hearing that news started another round of tears for Delilah. Not that I blame her. The night has been traumatic for everyone involved.

When I heard the gut wrenching scream she let out, my stomach dropped, and my feet raced out of the house before I had a chance to even comprehend what happened. And then when I saw poor Beck and his bloody head, my heart skipped a beat.

And damn if my heart didn’t ache for Delilah as she cried in my arms.

Now on the way back to my house, Delilah is leaning her head against the window looking at nothing with her puffy eyes while Beckham is asleep in the back.

I called my dad and told him the news once the nurses had reassured me both of them would be okay and had mentioned rabies. He and a few of the Mayson men are searching my property for the dog in question now. For Delilah’s sake, I hope they kept their women at home. I’m not sure if she can handle the full force of my family right now.

When we’re halfway home, Delilah breaks the silence. “After I get Beck in bed and I know he’s asleep, I’m going to call my parents to let them know what happened.”

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