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“Take your time, sweetheart. And tell him I love him,” she commented, knowing I was off to call Ian.
I found a stairwell and stood there with the cell phone in my hand. I tapped in Ian’s number, and a calmness settled over me when I heard his voice.
“Hey, Haze. What’s up?”
25
IAN
“The baby came, and she’s in the NICU. She’s not doing too well, but the nurses seem hopeful she’ll get a fighting chance at making a recovery,” Hazel said, her voice low and controlled.
“Are you okay?”
I could tell from the sound of her voice that she wasn’t. It all made sense that she’d gone radio silent that morning, because her world was taking a turn. She had a baby sister now who was busy fighting for her life.
“I don’t know. My mom is talking about giving the baby up for adoption instead of having Garrett and his mom look after her. That breaks my heart. I know it sounds stupid, but this little girl feels like the only family I have ... and now there’s the possibility of her going to someone else.”
“Don’t overthink that now. Try your best to focus on the baby getting better. Okay?”
She sniffled a bit. “Yeah, okay.”
“What’s her name?”
“She doesn’t have one yet.”
“Okay, then tell me about her. What does she look like? Tell me the good, Haze. There’s always some good in the bad parts of every story. What is the good?”
“She has a full head of hair,” she said. I heard the energy of her voice shift a little as she began to search her mind for the good.
“Yeah?”
“Uh-huh. It’s black as midnight. Thick too. Mama always said I was a bald baby and didn’t get hair until I was around two years old. But my sister has it all in abundance.”
“What else?”
“The nurse said her stats are looking up. With everything my mom did before getting pregnant, I’m surprised she doesn’t have more issues. She’s a fighter.”
“She must get that from her big sister.”
She chuckled lightly before she grew somber again. “What am I going to do, Ian? What will I do if they take her away?”
“Hey, come on. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“You’re sounding a lot like your grandma right now.”
“Over twenty years of life with Grams, and she has yet to be wrong about that fact. Just have a bit of faith. You don’t need much. Just enough to get you through until tomorrow.”
“Ian, what the hell? We need you inside,” Max said, barging outside of the studio to find me sitting against the curbside talking to Hazel.
Shit.
“You said you were going to the bathroom, and I find you out here on that damn phone of yours.”
Shit, shit, shit.
“Haze? I have to go. We’ll talk later, all right?”
“Okay. Talk later.”
