she’d been sitting. No bag. So she latched on to the carrier with her left hand and went back into the nurses’ station. She immediately spotted the diaper bag on the floor next to the station desk.
She also spotted the pair of nurses seated at the desk, one of whom had shown her to the private lounge. The woman was now on the phone, and the other nurse was discussing something with a young couple standing directly in front of the desk. The nurses probably hadn’t noticed the diaper bag because it was tucked just out of their sight.
Mia also noticed the tall, lanky man in the passageway by the nurses’ station.
Even though he was dressed in green scrubs and likely a doctor or nurse, her heart went into overdrive. Simply because he was there, partially blocking her view and path, he felt threatening. It was a familiar reaction, one she couldn’t totally control and she stepped back into the lounge. But he didn’t even glance in her direction.
“Collena Drake will be in recovery soon?’" he asked the nurse on the phone.
She checked the computer screen in front of her, nodded. "She should be on the way to the PACU in the next ten minutes or so," she said. The woman continued her phone conversation as the man walked away.
The PACU, the post-anesthesia care unit. That meant, hopefully, that Collena had come through the surgery just fine.
Mia waited to make sure the man was gone, then cursed her wussy reaction. She couldn’t keep doing this. She had to try to maintain some kind of normalcy for Tanner and that wouldn’t happen if she thought of every stranger as the bogeyman.
She only hoped the shooter wasn’t anywhere near the hospital. And while she was hoping, Mia added a wish that Collena Drake would be all right. She had enough guilt without adding Ms.
Drake to the list. After all, the woman had been shot while trying to help Logan and her.
Mia put Tanner back into his carrier, picked up the diaper bag and went into the corridor.
Logan was thereat the other end, on his cell phone. He was also pacing, but he stopped when he spotted her.
“Dig deep " she heard Logan say. It was an order."Find out how the devil this could have happened. And get someone over here now just in case the police don’t put a guard on Collena Drake."
This time Mia didn’t mind Logan’s orders because they weren’t aimed at her and because Collena obviously needed protection. They would also likely need to dig deep to find out what was going on. They had a lot of questions, few answers, and the answers they did have only created more questions.
“Collena just got out of surgery." Logan let her know, “The doctor should be out soon to talk to us."
He took the diaper bag and led her to the unoccupied seats on the far side of the room. She sat next to Logan and purposely put the carrier on the other side of her—away from him.
The ploy didn’t work.
“Is he okay?’" Logan asked, looking into the carrier. He reached over her, his arm brushing against her breasts, and used his index finger to pull back the blanket so he could see Tanner’s face.
Mia moved his arm away."He just finished eating. He’ll sleep for several hours now."
He frowned, probably because she hadn’t let him touch the baby."Does he need anything?"
“No. That’s the advantage of nursing. I don’t have to heat formula or wash bottles. And as for diapers, I had some with me in the bag."
This time, Logan didn’t touch Tanner, He touched her. He used his finger to push a strand of hair out of her eyes. It felt…intimate.
Mia moved away again.
No frown this time. But he did put some distance between them.
Logan leaned his head back against the wall and folded his arms over his chest."What about you?" he asked."You have to be exhausted. It’s nearly I0:00 pm."
Yes, she was exhausted. With Tanner not sleeping through the night yet, she was usually in bed by nine so she could get up for his 2:00 a.m., nursing. The fatigue was only