“You cannot be serious,” Haleigh said, cutting off the introduction Cooper was about to make.
“Relax, Haleigh Rae,” the newcomer said. “I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”
In her youth, Haleigh had gone by both her first and middle names, but dropped the Rae during college. Unfortunately, few people in her past ever adapted to the change.
“Who is she?” Jessi asked, the rebel teen back in full force. “Are you my new nurse or something?”
“Or something,” Abigail said. “I’m Cooper’s sister. You can call me Abby.”
“Why would I call you anything?”
Gesturing toward the patient, Abby turned on Cooper. “This is the child you want me to take home?”
“What?” Jessi bristled. “I am not a child.”
Cooper ignored the outburst. “Abby has a big house with plenty of room for you and Emma.”
“But I don’t even know her.”
“You don’t know me, either,” Cooper pointed out.
Haleigh couldn’t believe that Cooper would ask this of his sister. The woman was still mourning her husband. Still reeling from having her entire future pulled out from under her. Didn’t he understand how badly Abby wanted a baby? Having Emma around would be a constant reminder of what she’d lost.
Abigail Ridgeway and Haleigh had been best friends since the first day of third grade when Abby had saved a scared little blonde girl from the clutches of Constance Beauregard, the class bully. From her father’s death to Haleigh’s downward spiral in her college years, Abby had been her rock. Watching her grieve for Kyle these last six months had been heartbreaking, made even more frustrating by the fact there was nothing Haleigh could do to help.
And now Cooper wanted to make things worse.
“Do you have a family of your own?” Jessi asked, making Haleigh want to slap everyone in the room, especially Cooper.
A shadow fell over Abby’s face. “No, I don’t.”
“Back in the hall!” Haleigh barked, stomping toward the door.
“What?” Abby asked.
“This is their thing,” Jessi said. “Every time the doc needs a Cooper fix, she drags him into the hall.”
Abby snorted. “A Cooper fix? What have I been missing?”
Haleigh didn’t stop to correct the teenager or explain to Abby. Instead, she grabbed Cooper by the arm and said, “We’ll be back.”
Haleigh spun on him the moment the door clicked shut. “How could you do this to your sister?”
“Do what?” Cooper asked. “Jessi needs a place to go. Abby has plenty of room, a doctor in the house, being you, obviously, and it’s only temporary anyway. This is the perfect solution.”
“For you, maybe,” she hissed. “You know what Abby has been through.”
“It’s been seven months, Hal, and she’s been stuck ever since. Having Jessi and the baby around is exactly what she needs to get unstuck.”
“Wrong,” Haleigh snapped. “Having a baby around will be a constant reminder of what she lost.”
Abby didn’t lose a baby, she lost a husband. “What are you talking about?”
“Their plan was to get pregnant during Kyle’s next leave. That would have been mere weeks after he was killed. Which means that right now your sister should be preparing for her own baby, not some stranger’s.” Haleigh motioned to the narrow window in the exam room door. “Look at her, Cooper. She’s practically crying just looking at Emma.”
He’d had no idea. It wasn’t as if his sister talked to him about this stuff. Abby had been a mess after Kyle died, but any woman would be. If he’d known about the baby plans . . .
“She never told me,” he said. Cooper would rather take a tire iron to the knee than hurt his sister. “I didn’t know.”
Haleigh continued the guilt trip. “What’s going to happen when she gets attached to Emma, and then Jessi takes her away?”
“What do you want me to say?” Cooper asked, throwing his hands in the air. “I said I didn’t know, but there isn’t much I can do about it now. I mean, what other choice do we have? There’s nowhere to put them at my place, and you live with Abby.”
With a frustrated sigh, Haleigh pinched the bridge of her nose. “I know, I know.” She glanced through the small window. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. She’s been so obsessed with Kyle’s death that a new life in the house might not be such a bad thing. But we need to find this girl’s father or prove he isn’t around before Abby gets too attached.”
The collective we caught his attention. “I’ll start asking around tomorrow. Might as well start with our moms. One of them might remember the guy, if he really did live here.”