AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I place my hand on her arm. “It’s okay. I wouldn’t have known.”
“Danil is deathly allergic to peanuts and tree nuts.” She tugs on her ponytail. “Allergies can be genetic, right?”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Nat. She’s gonna be okay.” Danil lifts an eyebrow. “But I’m not okay with you making something that could kill me with no warning. I thought I was your favorite brother-in-law.”
She giggle-sniffles and gives him a punch in the shoulder. “Jerk.”
“Only ‘cause you know it’s true and you didn’t want the other guys to hear it.”
A smile tugs at my lips as the other guys grouse and grumble. The circumstances are less than ideal, but the tight-knit relationship between them all is sweet. It reminds me of how things used to be with me and my brothers before Tato died.
Before our world imploded.
A few minutes later, after some more ribbing of Natasha, the roar of an ambulance siren approaches the house. Danil slides on her pants, and Luka runs to open the front door. EMTs appear almost immediately afterward with a gurney. They secure an oxygen mask around Daniela’s head and do a check of her vitals.
“She looks good. You were smart to use the EpiPen on her. It’s not always a good idea to use the adult dose for little kids but this was a severe reaction.” The EMT flashes a light, peers into her mouth, and marks something down on a chart. He then gives the order to load her into the ambulance.
“Mom, Dad, are you coming with us?” he asks.
Danil and I exchange a look. “Yes,” we both answer in unison.
Mom and Dad.
It sounds like we’re a family.
A pang jabs my heart.
But we aren’t. Not really. And according to Danil, we never will be.
I swallow hard, holding Daniela’s hand as the EMTs wheel her out of the house. I hover at the rear of the ambulance while they lift her into the back, then I hop up beside her.
“We’ll be right behind you,” Luka calls out.
Heavy footsteps thump over the driveway pavers. Tears sting my eyes as all of the guys jump into their cars to follow the ambulance. Danil laces his fingers with mine and squeezes tight. One of the EMTs smiles at us.
“She’s going to be fine. Quick thinking saved her.” He nods toward the ambulance. “Hop in so we can get her to the hospital.”
I grab onto a bar on the side of the door and hoist myself up. My pulse hammers a hole in my throat. I sit next to Daniela and hold her hand against my lips.
Her eyes flit between me and Danil, wide with fear.
“Hey, they’re gonna take real good care of you,” Danil murmurs, smoothing her hair away from her face. “And we’ll be with you the whole time, okay?”
Daniela nods, a stray tear streaming down her cheek. It hits the top of the oxygen mask and streams down toward her ear. I swipe it away before clapping my free hand over my mouth to choke down the sob that threatens to escape.
She’s just a baby, and if Danil didn’t have that EpiPen…
Danil puts an arm around my shoulders and hugs me close. For the first time, I don’t feel my shoulder slam into a brick wall, his ever-present emotional shield.
Minutes stretch into what feels like hours before we pull up to the Emergency Room at Sunnyside Medical Center. The scent of antiseptic cleaner wafts under my nose, making my stomach clench. The EMTs rush her in through the glass doors and a nurse appears. She flashes a sympathetic smile at me after getting a report on Daniela’s condition.
“Come with me,” she says, waving us toward the black double doors. “She’ll need to be here for the next six to twelve hours for observation because of the severity and her age. But you can stay with her the whole time.”
“Thank you,” I say, walking fast to keep up with her quick gait.
It isn’t long before the nurse has Daniela settled in a bed and hooked up to an oxygen tank. She places a hand on my arm. “Have a seat and relax. I’ll be back with the doctor to check on her.”
Danil paces the length of the area, tugging his hair and muttering to himself. I sit next to Daniela, rubbing her arm until her eyelids get so heavy, she can no longer keep them open. She loves when I rub her arm. It used to calm her when she’d wake me up in the middle of the night, fussing for no good reason. I only needed to trail my fingers down her arm for a few minutes before she’d succumb to sleep.
