The buzz of a pager yanked his attention back to the present. All three Garrison men reached to check their devices.
Parker winced. “Mine. Sorry. From my receptionist. Business will just have to wait.”
Parker Garrison actually putting off business? A shocker, but one Jordan was too preoccupied to wonder at right now.
The double doors swished open and the doctor emerged, a woman around fifty who, thank God, had sharp eyes he would trust in a boardroom. They’d only briefly exchanged greetings before Brooke had been swept away into an E.R. examining room.
The doctor nodded to Parker Garrison’s pregnant wife, Anna, before turning to the whole group. “Brooke is stable. The baby appears to be fine.”
Appears? He stepped closer to the obstetrician, wanting, needing more details, damn it. “I’m Jordan Jefferies. We didn’t have a chance to speak when Brooke came in, but I’m her fiancé and the baby’s father.”
The woman nodded. “You’re still not technically a relative, but Brooke has given me the go-ahead to speak with you. She knew you would be worried, that her whole family would be concerned.”
Worried? Understatement of the year. It was all he could do not to blast through those double doors to be with her.
Brittany drew up alongside him, her brothers standing behind her in a wall of support, for once united against something beside him. “And what’s the diagnosis?”
The physician stuffed her hands into her lab coat. “Brooke’s blood pressure is elevated, enough so that I’m ordering an overnight stay in the hospital.”
His mind raced with options. None of them good. “Are you saying she has preeclampsia?”
Brittany reached out a hand to both him and Emilio at the same moment. Jordan wasn’t sure if she was steadying herself or offering comfort, but he damn well couldn’t bring himself to pull away.
His mind raced down daunting paths, thanks to the pregnancy and delivery books he’d read over the past week. Women who developed preeclampsia could have seizures or die. Babies could be deprived of air and nutrients to the placenta and be born with low birth weight and other complications.
The doctor relaxed her official stance and gave Jordan a sympathetic look. “Dad, stop thinking ahead and imagining those worst-case scenarios. Her problem hasn’t progressed to preeclampsia as of now. We’ve caught this early, which is a hopeful sign. But this is definitely a warning that her body is under stress.”
Stress had caused this? Of course. He’d seen firsthand the toll taken on her from family confrontation. No wonder the evening had sent her blood pressure skyrocketing.
Jordan’s jaw clamped tight. This wasn’t the time or place to confront Bonita Garrison, but he planned to put himself between Brooke and her family in the future. If Brooke wouldn’t protect herself from them, he damn well would. “What do I need to do for her?”
“For now, I want Brooke on bed rest for a couple of weeks, low-key living and a special diet.” She gave his arm another pat. “Hang in there, Dad, you can come back to her room and see her in about five minutes. She’s been asking for you.”
Brooke wanted to see him? Thank God he wouldn’t have to figure out how to angle his way into the place where he needed to be most right now. Relief rattled through him so intensely, he barely noticed the doctor leaving and Bonita sobbing her way toward the ladies’ bathroom.
Five minutes and he could see Brooke. Jordan swallowed hard and wondered how one willowy woman and a barely formed baby could knock the ground out from under him in a way nothing else had before.
He didn’t like this feeling one damn bit.
When he looked up from the ugly tile floor, he realized that he wasn’t alone. Emilio stood silently on one side. And what the hell? Parker waited on the other, his black eye from their fight still not fully faded.
Jordan stared at the line of Garrison offspring and while they unquestionably loved Brooke, he didn’t trust they could keep her safe from Bonita’s talons. There was only one way he could make sure Brooke had total peace and her every need met. “I’m taking Brooke home with me.”
Her brother Adam quirked a brow. “Isn’t that for her to decide?”
Jordan planted his feet and his resolve. “Like any of you would handle the situation differently if you were in my shoes.”
He watched her three brothers wince with chagrin, then resolution as they glanced at the women beside them. Her brothers might be his adversaries in the Jefferies-Garrison war for power, but they certainly shared the same drive.
Emilio grinned. “Good luck convincing her without upsetting her, bro.”