"Dad's gone," my cousin's voice was barely above a whisper. "You must come home for the Evaluations," she uttered and the phone line went dead.
*****
After Keri's Uncle - the Alpha of the Silver Bullets pack - loses his battle with cancer, the young...
A special treat awaits you at the bottom of the chapter: a teaser from the interview with Kennedy that will be up on February 16th!
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After an hour pacing around the waiting room, Everett finally took the empty seat between our parents. Dad gripped his shoulder and mom took my older brother's left hand in her own, smiling weakly, but reassuringly.
"It earlier than expected, but the pregnancy was going well," she told him. "I'm sure both Lisa and the baby will be fine."
"They've been in there forever!" Everett ran his fingers through his already disheveled hair and exhaled heavily.
"It's Lisa's first baby; it can take hours," my sister-in-law's mom - Diane, affirmed, but the fine lines in her forehead had gone deeper and she'd been clinging to her husband's elbow since they'd arrived at Woodville General about thirty minutes ago.
Our party took up most of the space in the waiting room. I'd phoned Riley immediately after Everett's call and with Mr. Philips agreeing to let my mate off early from work, I'd gone straight to the Milk & Cream and then we drove to the hospital; Everett was here, of course, scared out of his mind, sweat coating his forehead; mom and dad had already arrived with Carter, Melanie and Kennedy and were unsuccessfully trying to ease his panic; Keri, Anthony and his Lisa had arrived a little later; and then it had been Diane and Robert's turn to burst into the hallway, looking for us and information on their daughter and grandchild. One of Melanie's aunts - Daisy, was on shift at the ER tonight and she'd managed to pop by a couple of times in between patients.
Riley's stomach growled and he stopped drumming the tips of his fingers on the armrest of his seat.
"Sorry," he muttered as if his physiological needs were somehow an insult to the rest of us during this stressful situation.
"I'll bring you something from the cafeteria," I offered as I stood up and kissed his forehead.
"I don't think they'll allow food here," Lisa Greer said and Anthony nodded in agreement to his wife's words.
"Rhys, why don't you take Riley and the kids to eat?" Dad suggested. "We'll stay with your brother."
"No, you should go too," Everett said through another long exhale.
"Let the young ones eat and we'll go when they return," Diane insisted.
"We wouldn't want to meet our grandson with our stomachs rumbling," Robert added and just like mom, he tried to smile.
Everett nodded and I extended a hand to Riley who took it and got up. Kennedy also hopped from his seat, and Carter and Mel - both unusually quiet and remarkably cell-phone-free - followed us as we headed downstairs to the cafeteria.
The place was clean, the costumers a mix of patients' relatives and friends, and hospital staff. We each bought a sandwich - vegetarian for Mel and BLT for the rest of us - and sat on two faux leather, positioned around a white plastic table, speckled with shades of grey, to imitate marble perhaps.
