The Brightest Sunset (The Darkest Sunrise #2)

“I am your—”

“Brady, don’t!” I snapped, cutting him off.

He wanted his dad.

And, suddenly, so did I.

Squaring my shoulders, I took a step toward my son. “Hey, Travis. I’m Charlotte.”

His dark-brown eyes, which matched my own, slid to me, and then he sank deeper into the corner.

“I won’t touch you. I promise,” I assured, moving to the other side of the large conference table. I slid a chair out and sat. “I’m really sorry about all of this. Especially for when I freaked out on you back at your house. That won’t happen again. You have my word.”

He didn’t move or relax, but he continued to wheeze.

I had no idea what I was doing in the parenting department, but his every strangled breath was my territory.

“I met you once before today. At the doctor’s office. You stood outside with my best friend, Rita, while your dad and I talked. Do you remember that?”

He nodded cautiously, and just that little acknowledgment sent a wave of relief crashing over me.

“Okay, good. Then maybe you remember that I’m a doctor too, right?”

He nodded again.

“Perfect,” I breathed, leaning forward on my elbows. “Now, listen. I know you’re scared. Today has been crazy. But I really need you to sit down and try to relax. Did you bring your inhaler?”

His eyes cut to the social worker in question.

“Oh, right,” she said, jumping into action. After grabbing a small, neon-green backpack from the corner, she carried it straight to me. “There’s a lot of medicine in there. I’ll be honest. I have no idea what’s what.”

I smiled up at her. “I think I can manage.”

And then my smile fell when I unzipped the bag. She hadn’t been lying. There was a lot of medication inside. At least thirty prescription bottles, a full nebulizer including extra mouth pieces and tubing, packets of individual saline, and three inhalers.

Jesus, my baby was sick.

Clearing my throat, I laid the inhalers on the table and then zipped the bag back up, saving that nightmare for another day.

I recognized all of the labels, but handing him the right one wasn’t going to win me any affections.

“Hey, Travis?” I called. “Do you remember which one of these Dr. Laughlin gave you for emergencies?” I hazarded a glance up and found that he’d come unstuck from the corner.

“The blue one.”

Another one of those waves of relief hit me.

I purposely picked up the wrong one. “This one?”

Shaking his head, he took a step toward me and lifted his finger to point. “No. That one.”

I offered it his way. “Right. Of course. Silly me.”

He stared at me for several seconds, the scales in his head visually shifting as he weighed his options. Then he lifted his gaze to Brady, who was still standing near the door.

Understanding dawned on me.

“Brady, can you do me a favor?” I asked while keeping my eyes on Lucas. “Go see if you can find a first aid kit for me.”

“What? Why?” Brady asked.

I peered over my shoulder and flared my eyes at him. “Please. Now.”

His back shot straight for only a second before he rushed from the room.

“Why do you need the first aid kit?” Lucas asked.

“Oh, I don’t. He was just making me nervous standing back there.” I winked.

And then it happened. The most beautiful thing I had seen since the day he was born.

He grinned.

It was small. Almost imperceptible.

But it was there. And it was aimed at me.

Do not cry. Do not cry. Do not cry.

I bit my tongue to distract myself and shook the inhaler. “Here.”

His frail body swayed as he walked toward me. I tried not to stare, but I was desperate to memorize his every movement. To fill even the deepest recesses of my mind with ten years’ worth of memories, for fear that that moment was all I would ever get.

Our fingers brushed as he took the inhaler from my hand, and I once again ignored my overwhelming urge to cry.

Sucking in hard, he drew the medicine into his lungs with a practiced ease. He immediately started coughing, so I pushed the chair beside me out for him to sit. He didn’t delay in accepting the offer.

“There ya go,” I soothed, my fingers twitching to touch him. But I somehow managed to keep them in my lap.

His brown eyes flicked up to mine, but he didn’t say anything.

“Better?” I asked with a tight smile.

He nodded and then asked, “When can I see my dad?”

My stomach clenched, but I answered him honestly, “I don’t know.”

His chin quivered, and his eyes filled with tears. “I want to go home.”

Oh God.

There was nothing I wouldn’t do to ease that pain for him.

Even if that meant igniting my own.

Digging in my back pocket, I retrieved my cell phone. Then I pulled up my text messages from Porter.

The last message had been a picture he’d taken of us the night before. I was laughing, my eyes closed and my mouth wide. He was kissing my cheek, his nose smooshed against my face, and despite that his lips were puckered, he was still smiling. We’d been lying in bed when he’d told me that we needed a picture together. I’d argued because, well…it was what I did with Porter. So he’d held me down, tickled me, and then snapped the selfie when I’d been too lost in hysterics to stop him. When I’d sobered, he’d shown it to me, and it was the craziest thing. I hadn’t recognized myself. That woman was beautiful. And not in the conventional way where her hair and makeup were done to perfection, but rather because the woman in that picture looked genuinely happy.

And the man kissing her did too.

The truth was that, while I couldn’t think about my relationship with Porter without acknowledging the darkness, I also couldn’t think about us without remembering the overwhelming, life-altering happiness I felt when we were together.

I’d never forget his proud grin as I’d used his phone to message the picture to myself.

My whole body ached as I briefly looked at that woman on the screen. She’d only been gone for a matter of hours and I already missed her. I wasn’t brave enough to look at Porter. I was barely keeping my emotions in check as it was. Add his gorgeous, smiling face into the mix and I would have lost it.

Passing the phone to Lucas, I said, “This was taken last night.”

He looked at it for only a second as if it were merely a picture and not the most stunning image ever snapped, which was exactly the way it felt to me.

“Are you his girlfriend?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I think I was. But today has been pretty crazy for all of us. Look, the reason I wanted to show you this is because you know your dad. He wouldn’t just kiss anyone like that. He trusted me…” The L in Lucas was on the tip of my tongue, but I managed to stop it before it rolled off. “Travis.” I faked a smile. “He even asked me to be your doctor when we first met. And I’d like to think that he would still trust me to do what is best for you in this situation too.” A lump lodged in my throat, and my nose began to sting. I had no idea if I was lying to him or not.

I hoped I wasn’t.