Free Demanded by Him (Wanted Series #3) by Hazel Kelly Page A

gave her the white paper bag and watched her dig around. I
think she would’ve stuck her whole face in if the top of the bag had been big
enough.
    “How long have you been here?” Austin asked, sitting back down.
    “We arrived sometime before seven,” I said.
    “Oh, honey,” Karen said. “Do you want to go home and get cleaned
up?” She reached forward and pulled a small bunch of pine needles out of my
hair.
    “She doesn’t mean it like that,” Austin said. “She means if
you’re tired, you don’t have to stay.”
    “I know,” I said. “I just- I promised I’d stay until you guys got
here.”
    “Right,” Austin said. “I forgot to thank y-”
    “I can’t believe they’re here already,” Karen said, looking down
the hall.
    “Are those your parents?” I asked no one in particular.
    “Yeah,” Austin said. “I know Wyatt told me not to call them, but
Karen said he was in no position to be making decisions and didn’t know what
was good for him.
    Karen smiled. “That’s exactly what I said.”
    And suddenly my heart was beating in my temples. “I guess I
should get going then.”
     

Chapter 15: Wyatt
     
     
     
    She still hadn’t woken up.
    I usually loved when she slept like this, when her breathing was
steady and I could pretend she was having sweet dreams.
    But at that moment, I would’ve given anything for her to wake up
and try out a naughty new word she learned at camp or tell me about the kids
that didn’t know how to use the keyboard pedals. I wouldn’t even defend them
when she joked about the empty space between their ears. I’d just sit quietly
and let her lay into them as much as she wanted.
    “Mr. Jones.” It was half a greeting and half an expression of
surprise.
    I looked at the doctor, comforted by the fact that some of his
hairs were gray.
    “I was just going to take Sophie up to the fifth floor.”
    “Why? What’s on the fifth floor that you don’t have here?” I
stood up, letting my eyes linger over her pillow. Was it too stuffed for her
little head? I didn’t want her to wake up with a stiff neck.
    “We just have to take some bloods and change some of her bags.”
    I looked at the bags. “Okay,” I said, trying to figure out how I
would push one end of the bed while managing all the things hooked up to her.
    “I’m afraid you can’t come.”
    “I promise you won’t even notice me.”
    “We’ll update you as soon as there’s a change,” he said,
ignoring my previous comment.
    “And if there isn’t one?”
    “We can update you either way,” he said. “Would you like me to
escort you back to the waiting room?”
    “No. I can find it, thanks. If you could stay here with Sophie,
though, I’d rather she wasn’t alone.”
    “Of course.”
    I looked back at the horrible plastic thing covering her little
nose and mouth and then turned back to the doctor. “Can she hear me?”
    “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe.”
    I nodded. It was better than telling me no- kinder- though he
was probably just being honest.
    I turned back and squatted down beside my daughter’s bed,
scooping her lifeless little hand up in my palm. “I’m just going down the hall,
Sophie, but my friend Dr.-” I turned and looked at his name tag. “Dr. Crawford
is going to take excellent care of you. And as soon as you wake up, we can get
out of here. And we can go wherever you want and do whatever you want there and
eat whatever you feel like on the way. I promise.”
    I rubbed the top of her hand with my thumb. It was still smooth
as baby skin, unlike the pads of her fingers which were craggy and rough from
whatever the hell she’d been doing at camp the last few weeks.
    God I was going crazy. Why was this so hard? Could I be handling
it better? Should I physically force the doctor to let me stay by her side? Or
was me being out of the way really the best thing for everybody? For Sophie?
    “I assure you she’s in good hands,” the doctor said, still
standing at the