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Scarlet
“Two plaits.”
“It’s late, baby. Let’s put it in a ponytail, and then I’ll plait it before school in the morning. You should be asleep already.”
“Fine,” she sighs, climbing onto my bed.
I smile at the back of her head and gently pull the brush through her soft waves. “What did you do today? Did Ralph and Elsie come over?”
“Yeah. We just played.”
“Whatdid you play?” I chuckle, wondering for the millionth time how my sweet and innocent seven-year-old grew up overnight.
“It was that game you, Uncle Mase, and Uncle Elliot used to play.”
“In the meadow?”
She nods.
“Sleeping lions,” I muse, smiling.
“Ellis made Sammy cry. He kept chasing him.”
“Well, I’d say Sammy gives as good as he gets, wouldn’t you?”
Her shoulders bristle, and I can sense her own smile. “Yeah.”
“All done,” I tell her, finishing off the last loop of the hair band. I quickly reach for her, sliding my arms under her legs as I lift her into my lap.
“Mum,” she groans, pretending not to need me.
“I need a cuddle, Ave. Just one.”
She twists in my arms, leaning up to wrap her arms around my neck. I close my eyes as she sinks into me.
“I missed you today, baby.”
“I missed you, too.”
“Scar.”
I open my eyes and find Nina in the doorway of my room, her face… Ave turns in my arms to see her auntie. My heart seems to beat twice as fast. “What is it?” I frown.
She shakes her head as if in apology. “It’s Lance.”
My feet don’t feel like my own as I run through the hospital carpark. I know that Mason is behind me. I know that Elliot is on his way. And I know that Charlie is already here.
“Lance Sullivan. Please. Where is he?” I say in a rush the second I reach the main desk.
“Scarlet?” Nick frowns at me.
Mason grasps my arm and steps around me, his breath short from keeping up with me. “Could you please direct us to Lance Sullivan. He was brought into the hospital a little over an hour ago after an accident.”
My eyes dart around the entrance of the hospital as Mason reels off Lance’s date of birth. The doors swish open and closed over and over. Nurses, doctors, patients stepping out for fresh air, loved ones heading home for the night.
“Lance Sullivan…”
I turn, catching Nick scanning the screen.
