Page 99 of Blue Line

It’ll take a little while to figure out all the details, but I’m confident I can get it worked out.

I’m sad that means I’ll have to wait to talk to him. I just want to fix things between us. But maybe it’s for the best. We can both take time to make sure our feelings really are as strong as they feel right now.

Chapter thirty-eight

Hadley

“Hadley,” Holt hollers.

I frown, climbing off my bed, my heart hammering in my chest. It’s not normal for him to yell for me. Normally, he’d come up here or text me.

“What’s up?” I pad to the top of the staircase.

“Where’s your phone?”

“I …” I can’t remember when and where I had it last.

“Doesn’t matter.” He waves the question away. “Madison’s in labor.”

“Are you and Becca going to the hospital? I can watch Hazel.”

He shakes his head. “No, you’re coming with us. We’re going to drop Hazel at Caleb’s. Jenna’s sister is in town and volunteered to watch the kids.”

“Alright.” I glance down at my tattered leggings and my oversized shirt with holes in the hem. “Let me change.”

“Be quick.”

“Oh, you mean I don’t have time to take a shower and do my hair?” I sass.

“Hadley Jane.”

“I’m kidding,” I tell him over my shoulder as I hurry into my room.

Forty minutes later, we’re stepping into the lobby of the hospital.

“We need to go to Labor and Delivery on the third floor,” Holt says, staring down at his phone.

“Don’t we need to check in?” Becca asks as he leads us past the security desk and toward the bank of elevators.

“Caleb said we check in up there,” he tells her as the elevator doors open and we step inside.

The ride to the third floor is quiet and fairly quick, and soon, we’re getting off. I peer around the bright, sterile hallway.

“This way.” I point toward the sign guiding us to Labor and Delivery.

Caleb comes our way as we’re approaching the nurses’ station.

“They’re with us,” Caleb tells the nurse at the desk.

She hands us name tags with “Rhodes” and today’s date printed on them and explains that’s how they keep track of the people on the floor. She tells us to go on ahead to the waiting room, and we follow Caleb.

“They put us in one of their private waiting rooms. Lounge really. I think Coach pulled some strings,” Caleb says as he opens the door and we go inside.

The room is packed. There are only a few empty seats.

Elias and Sebastian are deep in conversation in one corner. Madison’s aunt and her husband are chatting on one of the two couches off to one side. Jenna and Sutton are sitting on the other sofa, Ansley perched on the edge of the coffee table in front of them. Jake is pacing the room, staring down at his phone, a to-go cup in his hand.

“Look who I found,” Caleb announces, and everyone turns our way.