Free A Slice of Heaven by Sherryl Woods Page B

jeans on without letting go of the phone. “And now? Is she awake now?”

    “No,” Dana Sue said. “At least, I don’t think so. I just got to the hospital. I wanted to call you before I went inside, but couldn’t get a signal for my cell phone till now.”

    “It’s okay, baby. Everything’s going to be okay. It has to be. I’m on my way. Is there anybody there with you?”

    “Maddie drove me over and Helen’s probably already inside.”

    Now there was a confrontation he’d prefer to avoid. Those two hadn’t minced words when they’d raked him over the coals for what he’d done to Dana Sue. He knew, though, that they were exactly the support system Dana Sue needed right now. If he wanted her back, he was going to have to face them sooner or later, anyway. Maddie, at least, might be reasonable. Helen was bound to have her claws out, but so be it.

    “Good,” he told Dana Sue. “And I’ll be there before you know it. I promise,” he added, knowing that his promises probably weren’t worth a hill of beans, but he didn’t know what else to say.

    “Just hurry, please. I need to get inside and see if the doctors can tell me anything yet,” she said, and disconnected.

    Ronnie was slower to disconnect. Well, there you go, he thought. Fate has just stepped in.

    But if anything happened to his little girl, he didn’t even want to think about what the future might hold.

     

    “Okay, I called him. Are you satisfied?” Dana Sue said to Maddie.

    Her friend had stayed right by her side, almost as if she feared Dana Sue would renege on her promise to call Ronnie and tell him just how serious the situation was.

    “Is he coming?” Maddie asked, following her into the E.R. waiting room, with its bustling activity, icy temperature and antiseptic smell.

    “He says he is,” Dana Sue answered, not entirely sure how she felt about that. Ronnie had sounded genuinely distraught, and she had no reason to doubt that he was. She’d never questioned his commitment to their daughter, only to her. He’d stood up to Helen in court and insisted on having visitation rights. She knew how hard he’d tried to keep in touch with Annie. It must have killed him to be rejected again and again. Enough time had passed that she could almost feel sorry for him. Now, hearing his voice, needing his strength, made her remember too many things she’d been trying frantically to forget.

    “It’s good that he’s coming,” Maddie said. “Annie needs both of you right now.”

    “I need to see her,” Dana Sue said, heading to the desk to plead for permission to go into the cubicle where the doctors were working on her baby.

    Even before she got there, Maddie intercepted her. “What you need to do is let the doctors do their job,” she said, guiding her to a seat away from the other families crowded into the waiting room. Only after she was satisfied that Dana Sue would stay put did she leave her alone long enough to let the nurse on duty know they were there.

    Before Dana Sue could muster up the energy to make a desperate dash into the treatment area, Maddie was back, and then Helen came in with all the girls, explaining that she’d detoured to take one of them home.

    “Any news?” she asked.

    Dana Sue shook her head, then burst into tears. She turned away from the obviously terrified teens and buried her head on Maddie’s shoulder. “I don’t know how much longer I can bear this,” she whispered.

    “I know it’s hard,” Maddie said. “Waiting is the worst part.”

    “What if—?”

    Maddie cut her off. “Don’t you dare say it,” she said sternly. “Only positive thoughts, you hear me?”

    “Maddie’s right,” Helen said, though her normally composed face showed traces of the same gut-wrenching fear that was eating at Dana Sue. With no children of her own, Helen felt a special connection to Maddie’s children and to Annie. And now that Annie was in her teens, Helen loved to indulge her in