Last Call (A Place to Call Home Book 3) Read online

  He put the SUV in gear and moved toward the exit, but as if he no longer had control, he turned the vehicle into the parking lot and found a space. He couldn't get Jonah's frightened gaze out of his head.

  "Shit!" Caleb pressed the button again to initiate another call. "Dial Mom." His mother sounded a bit puzzled that he had been the one to take Leah Scott and her son to the hospital, but her first concern—as always—was the child. As soon as Caleb hung up, he switched off the ignition and exited the SUV.

  It was as he was getting out he noticed Leah's purse still sitting on the backseat. Damn. She was going to need that, he felt sure. After reaching over the console, he grabbed her bag and pulled it toward him, but the whole thing fell off the seat and spilled onto the floor. Double damn. Caleb opened the rear door and began scooping everything up. After he thought he'd gotten it all, he did one more check and spotted the corner of an envelope protruding from beneath the seat.

  Scrawled across the front were the words Jonah's birth certificate. Caleb had a good idea how Pandora must have felt holding that box. He turned it over. The flap was open. He pictured again Jonah's moss green gaze, but shook his head. Pure coincidence. Caleb blew out a puff of air as he tapped the envelope against the seat.

  It wasn't as if he were going to blab it all over town.

  "Shit."

  He pulled the folded paper from the envelope and flipped it open, fully expecting to see the line for the father's name was blank because he didn't believe the story of a husband at all.

  But it wasn't blank.

  Caleb read it twice. Then read it a third time.

  "What the hell?" He jammed the envelope and certificate into Leah's purse and all but sprinted toward the ER doors.

  Chapter 7

  Doc Jenny and the orderly rushed Jonah through the ER lobby, through another door, and into a small treatment room. While Leah explained how often she'd used the inhaler, Doc Jenny was getting a nebulizer sent in.

  "It might be easier if you get in the bed with him and hold him while we do the initial treatment."

  As Leah settled herself in the wide hospital bed, Doc Jenny's gaze bounced from her bandaged hand to the bruise on her face. Leah chose to ignore her questioning gaze. There was no time for any explanations or for her to fabricate any more lies. She was too sick with worry over Jonah, and too sick with worry, period. She was positive the confusion she was feeling must be due to stress over Jonah, but she couldn't think straight.

  In no time at all, they had the mask on Jonah's face. With him cradled against her, Leah understood firsthand how he fought to draw air into his lungs. She thought about all the flowers at the store and wondered if she hadn't moved him from a bad situation with her father's smoking into an even worse one, but he had never seemed to have a problem with the flowers or the plants before. Of course, they'd never spent the night around all those plants before either.

  As soon as Jenny returned to check on Jonah's progress, she put the question to her. Doctor Owens, well Richardson now, saw most of the town's citizens, so she had an accurate idea of how extreme Bill Scott's smoking habit was.

  The doctor shook her head. "If you've had him at the nursery before without a problem, it's probably related to something else." Her gaze settled on Leah's face again. "Has anything happened recently that might be causing him stress?"

  Leah started to mouth the same lie she'd told Caleb but stopped. Jonah shifted restlessly. "Let's talk about that a little later."

  Jenny pursed her lips, then nodded. She finished checking Jonah and glanced at the nurse on the other side of the bed. "Keep an eye on him. I need to speak with Mom outside." She stroked Jonah's curls. "This will only take a moment, Jonah, and I promise your mama will be right back here with you. Can you be a big boy for me?"

  He nodded a little weakly.

  Leah was backed into a corner. There wasn't much of a way she could avoid a conversation with Doc Jenny. She could only hope its focus was Jonah and not her. After slipping out of the bed, Leah leaned over and pressed a kiss to Jonah's forehead. He felt cool and clammy, but he did seem to be breathing a little better.

  As she straightened, she fought off a wave of dizziness, masking it by grasping the handrail on the bed. Given how critically Doc Jenny was eyeballing her, Leah wasn't sure she'd fooled anyone. Once she was sure she was steady, she stepped out into the hallway with the doctor right behind her.

  "So is he going to be all right?" Leah hoped to steer the conversation toward Jonah.

  "He is responding to the nebulizer, but not as quickly as I would like. His blood oxygen levels are too low for me to be comfortable sending him home."

  As Leah tried to figure out what to say, how to explain that she had no way to pay for a hospital stay, the doctor continued. "Where might home be, Leah? You mentioned that you had left your parents' house. Do you have a place of your own?"

  Leah leaned against the wall, letting her head thump back. "Not exactly. I was hoping to get that done, but...I had to speed up my timetable a bit. Things happened."

  Doc Jenny's gaze narrowed. "Things like the bruise on your cheek, and whatever happened to your hand?" She stepped closer. Although she was short, her personality was forceful enough, Leah wanted to take a step back. "You can press charges, Leah. Did he hurt just you? Or is Jonah's asthma attack a result of something your father did?"

  "That's what I would like to know."

  Leah's gaze lifted to a furious Caleb, standing behind Doc Jenny's shoulder. He must have rounded the corner as she was speaking. He glared at her now without blinking. Clenched in his right hand was her purse, and in his left—Jonah's birth certificate.

  Doc Jenny turned to include him in their conversation. "Caleb, I appreciate you helping Leah out, but you can't be back here."

  He uttered a short, unamused laugh and held up the paper in his hand. "According to this, I can. Care to explain why I'm listed as Jonah's father on his birth certificate?"

  All at once, both Caleb and Doc Jenny's gazes were glued to her. Leah felt as though all of the air had been sucked out of the hall. A trickle of cold sweat ran down the side of her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again. She'd known from the moment she'd had Caleb listed as Jonah's father that this day would someday arrive. She just hadn't expected it to be now or like this.

  In her mind, Leah had built up a fairytale in which Caleb came back and rescued Jonah and her from the confines of her parents' farm. He would have some wonderful explanation for why he'd never responded to her letters, like maybe he'd joined the Peace Corps or traveled with Noah into the depths of Central America. As soon as he'd realized he had a family waiting for him, though, he'd come straight to save them. He would be overjoyed, and she would too because now they would have a chance to make a life together.

  But that wasn't what she saw. The man confronting her wasn't charging to her rescue, nor did he look anything other than completely, totally pissed off...because she had listed him as Jonah's father.

  "I don't even know you other than having seen you more than a decade ago. Why would you do this?" He waved the paper at her. "If you need help, there are ways to get it other than trying to claim some stranger fathered your kid!"

  Doc Jenny stepped forward. "Whoa there, Caleb. Now's not the time for this. I think you really should step into the waiting area. Once we get Jonah settled..."

  She trailed off. Caleb tucked the paper into the chest pocket of his dress shirt and crossed his arms. Eyes narrowed first on the doctor, then on Leah, he said slowly and succinctly, "No. If he's my kid, I'm not going anywhere until I understand this miraculous conception."

  They turned their gazes on her. Leah's heart pounded and cold sweat once more trickled down her neck. Jenny's gaze was questioning and frazzled. Caleb, on the other hand, looked angry and accusing. Leah leaned back against the wall for the only support she was likely to get.

  What on earth had she been thinking to put Caleb on the birth certificate? She had
all but handed him the means to take her son away from her.

  "He should stay," Leah finally murmured.

  Jenny's brow furrowed. "Leah, I'm not sure that's a good decision. Y'all need to discuss this, but not in the middle of a medical emergency. I'll be honest, Jonah isn't the only one I'm worried about."

  "What do you mean?" Caleb asked.

  Leah couldn't pay attention to either one of them. Her heart raced, her head and her hand throbbed, but worst of all, whatever was buzzing in the hall was drowning everything else out. She should tell Doc Jenny about it, and she planned to, except she was having trouble seeing either her or Caleb. They were fuzzy. No matter how much she blinked, she couldn't bring them into focus.

  As if from a distance, she heard the doctor call her name. Strong arms wrapped around her as she began to list sideways.

  She didn't think she was out for long, but when she awoke, she was in a hospital bed inside a treatment room similar to the one Jonah had been in. Doc Jenny was standing next to the bed while Caleb leaned against the door jamb, his arms still crossed and his expression still thunderous.

  "When's the last time you ate?" the doctor asked.

  Leah tried to clear her head. "I-I'm not sure."

  "Breakfast?"

  She shook her head imperceptibly. She had made sure Jonah had something, but she had been too busy and too nervous to eat. She'd still been going through everything she could think of to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything at her parents' house when she'd left in such a hurry during the night. And as it turned out, grabbing all her paperwork was what had landed her in the current mess. She glanced at Caleb, but looked away before he caught her.

  "I'm sending a nurse in to take some blood," Doc said. "Damn it, Leah. After the difficulties with your pregnancy..."

  "I'm okay. Please. Take care of Jonah."

  Doc glared at her and pressed the intercom. "I need a tech down here to draw blood—new patient." She released the button. "I suspect you're anemic again. You're going to have to rest."

  How was she supposed to do that? Leah didn't say it out loud. She was too weak. She had to find them a place to live. She had to get a car again. She had to...the list continued on and on. Leah couldn't take anymore. She hated the feeling of tears sliding down her cheeks, but she felt so overwhelmed and alone.

  "Maybe you should back off a little, Doc," Caleb said. The anger was gone from his voice. What remained was a wealth of weariness that Leah didn't even want to examine.

  Jenny sighed. "You're right. Listen, Leah, we're drawing blood, but I want to go ahead and start you on some fluids. I believe part of the problem is that you're dehydrated."

  "Jonah?" she managed to ask.

  "I want to keep him...and you...overnight."

  All Leah could think about was how much money that was going to cost. Money she didn't have. She would do anything for Jonah. "Treat him, not me."

  Doc Jenny shook her head. "This isn't a negotiation."

  "I can't afford—"

  "Don't worry about that." Doc and Caleb said it at the same time before the doctor continued, "Jonah needs his mother healthy. You have to take better care of yourself."

  "Doc," Caleb interjected. "Don't lecture her right now."

  Leah’s head jerked his way, but she saw no softening in his expression. She had known he would be angry, but seeing him now, she was sure what she glimpsed was only the surface. He aimed that dark green gaze on her.

  "I'll keep an eye on Jonah. You rest and get better. When you are, we need to talk."

  Chapter 8

  Caleb stared into Leah's worried gaze, but he felt nothing. At least nothing he wanted to examine too closely. There wasn't such a long line of women in his past that his brain hadn't begun to put two and two together. What he'd come up with, combined with Jonah's looks, meant he had a new name. Daddy. Leah might not at all resemble the mysterious Lee he'd hooked up with, but the math was right. She had to be who he'd slept with following Jake and Holly's wedding. Jonah was the right age. No use wishing now that he hadn't given up on trying to find her at the time.

  One thing for sure. He'd get the rest of the story out of her, but as angry as he was, he still wasn't going to kick her while she was down. One glance at her washed out face and the circles under her eyes was enough to know she was a woman at the end of her rope.

  There was another story he had every intention of hearing too, and that was how she'd ended up with that bandage on her hand and the bruise on her face.

  He followed Doc Jenny into the hall.

  "Can I see him?"

  She arched a brow. "So you're owning what's on that birth certificate?"

  Caleb ignored the faintly breathless, choked feeling that gave him. "My name's on it. And I don't need a paternity test to see I'm a major player in that gene pool. Just surprises me no one's noticed before now."

  "He's a scared little guy at the moment. How well do you know him?"

  "Not at all. I saw him last night and again this morning when I stopped by Mountain Plants to drop off some vases for Mom."

  Jenny tapped her toe, her arms folded across her chest. "Don't introduce yourself as his daddy."

  "I'm not an idiot,” he snapped. “Of course I'm not going to do that until Leah and I have a very long talk."

  Jenny shook her head. "Sorry. We get a lot of people in here who wouldn't have gone all the way through that thought process."

  Hell, he hadn't gotten all the way through that thought process, but he had gone far enough to know that little guy didn't need any more surprises at the moment.

  "I'll keep it to friends and let him know that his mama asked me to keep an eye on him. Before I go in there, though, I would like to know a bit more about him and his health issues."

  "Let me ask a question. To your knowledge, does asthma run in your family at all?"

  Caleb shook his head. "Not that I know of. No asthma, no allergies. We've been a disgustingly healthy bunch. I've even had all my shots."

  "Funny."

  "Wasn't trying to be. Why is knowing about the asthma important?"

  "Sometimes it runs in families. The fact it doesn't in yours lets me know a lot of his problem may be due to environmental factors, maybe stress."

  "Okay. Bill Scott smokes like a chimney, so that's a pretty obvious place to start, but stress?"

  Jenny nodded. "Think about it. Strong emotions trigger a change in breathing. For someone with irritated airways, this could also trigger an asthma attack. I'm not saying that's what it is. Respiratory infections are also a big trigger in kids. Whatever it is, if I let you in the room with him, you need to make sure you go nice and easy and keep your mouth shut."

  "I can do that."

  When Caleb slipped inside the room, the nurse was sitting next to the bed, making sure Jonah was getting the full benefit from the nebulizer.

  "Thanks, Katelynn," Doc Jenny said. "You can get back out on the floor." As Jenny stepped up to the bedside, her whole demeanor relaxed. Caleb waited at the foot, watching as she touched Jonah's arm and smiled at him. "Your mama is right next door. We have to give her some medicine too because she's very tired. Do you understand?"

  He nodded, his glance darting to Caleb before going back to the doctor. "This is Caleb. You saw him at the wedding yesterday and at Mama's work today. Your mama wants him to keep an eye on you while she's getting all better."

  Caleb smiled, trying to make himself appear as nonthreatening as possible. "Hey, sport. You mind if I sit down next to you? I see you have a car there in your hand. You like cars?"

  Jonah's head bobbed again.

  "Me too."

  Doc Jenny stayed for a few more minutes. Caleb supposed it was to make sure he and Jonah were going to be fine together. Caleb wasn't at all sure what he talked to the boy about over the next hour, but he was fully aware when Jonah's breathing eased enough that the little boy drifted off to sleep. Caleb sat back in his chair, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.
/>   All he'd intended was to do his good deed for the day, help Leah get her kid to the hospital, and then take off for his parents' house. Instead, it now appeared he'd become an instant parent. He stared at Jonah's dark hair. Although all he could see of his eyes were the fan of lashes lying against his cheeks, Caleb had a clear memory of the deep green of Jonah's irises—as deep a green as Noah's and his.

  He itched with impatience. He wanted to charge into Leah's room and demand to know just what the hell was going on. She had to be Lee. There could be no other option. How could he not have realized? Why hadn't she contacted him, let him know?

  The questions rattled around in his brain, bouncing back and forth like ping pong balls until a dull ache started behind his eyeballs. He knew nothing about being a father. He knew nothing about Leah Scott. He'd had a one night stand with a woman named Lee Jones, a sexy, dark-haired woman who appeared to be after the same thing he had been—one night of some good sex, period.

  The problem was he hadn't been able to walk away. He'd gone to embarrassing lengths to try to find her without any luck. He glanced at Jonah again. He'd sure as hell found her now.

  Caleb was still trying to figure out exactly what he was going to do, or for that matter, what he was going to say to her, when the door to the room whispered open. Doc slipped back inside. After a brief smile for him, she touched Jonah's forehead and checked the blood oxygen levels on the monitor next to the bed.

  "Good. His levels are coming up. I'm going to keep him and Leah here overnight. They could both use the rest, not to mention some decent food."

  "I want to stay with them." Where the hell had that come from? Caleb wasn't sure what had made him say it, but once it had left his mouth, he realized he did need to stay. He wanted to make sure he got a chance to talk to Leah. As impossible as she had been to find before, he was afraid she'd do another disappearing act if he let her out of his sight this time around.