Page 102 of Sweet Thing

He offered a parting shot. “Maybe pay attention the next time I call for it.”

“Eat shit, asshole.”

Real mature. We were losing this game for sure.

I headed down the tunnel. Theo was waiting for me outside the locker room in his game day suit, his face grim.Fuck, he’s found out.

But he wasn’t coming toward me, ready to fight. This was something else.

My heart crashed, instant awareness hitting me. “Is Mabel okay?”

“She’s at the hospital with a fever. Elle just called.” He pushed me into the locker room. “Get changed and I’ll drive you.”

I slammedthrough the ER doors and barreled up to the nurses’ station.

“My daughter is here. I need?—”

“Lars.”

My gaze snapped to the source of the voice. Elle and Adeline were seated in a cluster of chairs near a vending machine. Rushing over, I tried to get the words out.

“Is she okay? Tell me she’s okay.”

Elle squeezed my arm. “She threw up at the house before the puck dropped. And then she threw up again about ten minutes later.”

“Lars, the doctor’s assessing her now.” Adeline’s expression and soft voice beseeched me to be calm, but how could I be? “She went in about thirty minutes ago and they’re running some tests.”

“I need to speak to someone in charge.” I looked over my shoulder. Theo was chatting with the nurse behind the desk.

Elle guided me to a seat. “All my kids had bouts of this. It’s usually a viral infection, like gastroenteritis. It looks more serious than it is because a baby vomiting tends to be dramatic.”

I placed my head in my hands and leaned my elbows on my knees. I wanted to bow to Elle’s experience here but what if she was wrong?

I looked up at Adeline. “What happened?” Right now, she was the one person I could trust not to sugarcoat it.

“She seemed a bit fussy before I took her over to Mom and Dad’s. A little high in color, too. But she ate well, and I thought she’d be fine. Then she threw up. We didn’t want to risk it—” She broke off and shot a glance at her mom, then back at me.

“You did the right thing. I’m just—just worried.”

Ten minutes later, a doctor appeared disguised as a pimply kid. “Mrs. Kershaw?”

Elle rose to greet him. “That’s me. This is Mabel’s dad, Lars.”

The doc’s eyes went wide. “Lars Nyquist? Wow.”

“How’s my daughter?”

“She’s doing okay. Basically, it’s a bad stomach bug. We’re hydrating her and keeping her under observation.”

Theo clapped me on the back. “See? Usual kid stuff.”

“Can I see her?”

“Sure. Come on through.”

I took a couple of steps, then turned back to Adeline. “Come with me? I think she’d be more at ease with a face she knows.” Suddenly I felt like I knew nothing about parenting. If I’d been there, what would I have done? What if it happened at night while I was asleep or … having sex? I could have slept or fucked my way through her choking to death.

Adeline closed the gap. “Of course.”

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