the implications could begin to swim in his head, the nurse returned.
“It’s all set,” she said to Maggie. “They’ve got a room for you on the surgical ward. We’ll be moving you there now. I’ve talked to Dr Singh’s nurse. He’ll do the replacement tomorrow morning at nine.” As she spoke, she began to unhook Maggie from the monitors, eventually leaving in only the IV that was connected to the back of Maggie’s hand. When she finished, she stuck her head out the door and called for one of the orderlies to come help.
Then she turned to Yiannis. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid you can’t come with her. Since the flu outbreak this past winter, hospital regulations don’t permit children under fourteen on the ward.”
“He’s not mine.”
“But you’re holding him,” the nurse pointed out.
“But—”
“If you have someone with you that you can give him to,” she suggested, her voice trailing off, the implication obvious.
Yiannis shook his head.
The nurse shrugged and gave him a conciliatory smile. “Sorry. Rules, you know. Go home. Call her in half an hour. We’ll have her settled by then. Or she can call you. Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of her.”
“Yes, but—”
But the orderly came in then, and the nurse had other duties. She disappeared, leaving Yiannis holding the baby while he watched the orderly put Maggie’s clothes in a bag, then stow it in the bottom of the gurney. In a minute he was going to wheel her down the hall and leave him here—alone—with Harry.
“Maggie?” he said, as the realization came home to roost.
“I know,” Maggie said sorrowfully. “What will we do?”
“I don’t think you’re going to be doing anything,” Yiannis said flatly.
Maggie looked guilty. “I should have realized.”
“There’s no way you could have known,” Yiannis assured her. “Don’t worry. It will be fine.” He could cope for a couple of hours.
Maggie didn’t look too sure.
“All set?” the orderly asked Maggie, hooking the portable IV unit to the gurney and beginning to wheel it toward the door.
“You can manage until tonight?” Maggie asked over her shoulder.
“Tonight?”
Misty wasn’t getting back until evening? Yiannis tried not to sound annoyed, but he was. Not because of Maggie. But because it was just like Misty to impose like that. She was forever doing something and then expecting the whole world—mostly the world known as Maggie—to step in and pick up the slack. And now she’d taken off for the entire day and left her baby with an eighty-five-year-old. She’d probably never even considered that Maggie might fall and break her hip.
Well, he supposed, to be fair, if you knew Maggie, her falling and breaking her hip wouldn’t be the first thing you’d think of. For an eighty-five-year-old she was well-nigh indestructible. But still—
He hurried after the gurney as the orderly pushed it down the hall. “Don’t worry about it,” he said firmly, catching up, Harry bouncing along on his shoulders, hanging on to fistfuls of his hair.
“I know it’s an imposition.”
“For you, darlin’, I’ll manage.” He gave her a grin and a wink, determined that she shouldn’t fret about him dealing with Harry. “Really. It’ll be fine. But,” he added, “you’d better give me her cell phone number just in case.”
The least he would do was call and tell her about Maggie’s surgery. And if he casually chewed darling Misty up one side and down the other for taking advantage of her step-grandmother’s generosity, well, he figured it wouldn’t hurt Misty a bit.
Of course he didn’t say so. Maggie would not like him telling off Misty, not because of Misty’s failings, but because she wouldn’t want anyone to think she wasn’t as capable as she’d ever been.
“She put her number in the rooster bowl on the kitchen shelf at home,” Maggie said as they stopped at the elevator.
The orderly pressed the button. “This is as far as you go,” he told Yiannis as the door opened. The orderly pushed Maggie inside.
“Don’t worry,” Yiannis said to Maggie. He reached out and gave her hand a quick squeeze. “We’ll hold the fort, won’t we, Harry?” He tugged on the little boy’s foot. Harry giggled. “What time will she be back?”
“The fifteenth.”
He hadn’t heard her right. “Seven-fifteen?”
Maggie shook her head. “The fifteenth,” she repeated.
Yiannis stared. “What?”
Maggie sighed. “Of March.”
The elevator doors started to close.
Yiannis stuck his foot in between them. “That’s two weeks!”
Maggie nodded. “She’s hoping by the time she comes home, they’ll have things worked out and when he gets back they’ll get married. Actually I think she hopes they’ll get married over there.” Maggie managed to look bright at the possibility.
“Over where?”
“Germany.”
This time when Harry hit him in the ear it was nothing compared to what he’d just heard. “Germany?”
“Please, sir. Keep your voice down,” the orderly said sharply.
Yiannis did his best, demanding through his teeth, “Tell me Misty didn’t go to Germany.”
Maggie gave a helpless shrug. “I can’t. She went. Well, she went to London first. But then Germany, yes. Devin has two week’s R&R.”
“And he didn’t want to see his kid?”
“Er, I don’t believe he knows about Harry.”
“For God’s sake!” Yiannis exploded.
“Sir!” The orderly looked censorious.
“I’m so sorry, dear,” Maggie apologized.
Yiannis sucked in a breath. “It’s all right,” he lied because after all, it wasn’t Maggie’s fault. “I’ll call her. Get her to come back.”
“Not necessary,” Maggie said. “I’ve taken care of it.”
Thank God. He smiled his relief.
“You won’t be alone,” she added. Her smile brightened. “Cat is on her way.”
