LITMIR.BIZ

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jerked around to look at him, his heart dropped. He knew that look. She was on the verge of a full-on panic attack. Dammit, he hated being right sometimes. He walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders, willing her to be strong. “What’s wrong?”

      Her words cut him like a knife. “The twins are sick.”

      For a moment, he couldn’t do anything but stare down into her worried eyes as a feeling of complete and total helplessness swamped him. “How sick?”

      He was not going to panic until he knew whether this was a case of the sniffles run amok or something more serious.

      “Mom said they started throwing up last night. She...” Sofia’s lips trembled and she clutched Eric’s arm. “Dad rushed Eddy to the hospital a few minutes ago. He wasn’t responding. Eric, what are we going to do?” That last part came out as a sob.

      He tried to make sense of what she was saying—but he wasn’t coming up with anything. “They were fine last night. Your mom sent that picture, didn’t she? Spaghetti?”

      Sofia was taking in huge gulps of air, but for all that, Eric wasn’t sure she was actually breathing. “She said Miss Rita was sick. And she didn’t want to worry me today because I was working and I was supposed to be having fun. She said she kept hoping that the kids would work it out of their systems today, but Eddy kept getting worse and worse and Addy isn’t much better and my baby is in the hospital and I’m in St. Louis! They need me and I’m not there!”

      He didn’t know anything about sick kids or hospitals but he knew that Sofia having a panic attack wouldn’t help anyone right now. He had to keep her calm and get her moving. “I’m going to get you there,” he promised. “We’re leaving. Now.”

      The color left her face. “But your deal...”

      He grabbed her hand and hauled her back into the hotel ballroom until he found Meryl and Steve. “Sofia’s kids are sick,” he said without any other introductions. “We’re leaving. I want you guys to stay, make my apologies. I don’t care how you get home. You can rent a car, take the train—charge it to the company credit card. I can send the plane back for you—”

      “That won’t be necessary,” Steve said quickly.

      “Go,” Meryl said, giving Sofia a hug. “Take care of your kids. We’ve got this.”

      Sofia let out a little sob. Eric hooked her arm with his and guided her away from the party. While they waited for the elevator, he called his pilot and said, “I don’t care how you do it, but we need to be in the air in an hour. If not sooner. Make it happen.”

      Finally, after what felt like a year, the elevator dinged and the doors opened. “It’s going to be okay, babe,” he said again as he guided Sofia into the elevator. Once the doors closed, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her tight. She clung to him and it just about killed him. She was so worried and he couldn’t snap his fingers and make it better.

      All he could do was the next best thing. He could get her to her babies a hell of a lot faster than anyone else could. He could make sure Eddy had the very best care. And, God forbid, if anything happened, he’d be there for her. Because that’s what friends were for.

      But that wasn’t true and he knew it. Because what he felt for Sofia went well beyond “friends” or even friends with benefits. What he felt for her wasn’t casual and it wasn’t friendly. She’d ignited a passion in his heart that he’d been missing for months. Years. Because he hadn’t felt this way about Prudence. He hadn’t fought for her.

      But Sofia? Eddy and Addy? By God, he was going to fight for them. The truth hit him with a lurch.

      Sofia and her children were his family. And he’d do anything for them.

      And that started now.

      He rubbed her back and said, “We’ll be there in a few hours. Everything’s going to be fine,” in his most reassuring voice.

      She began to cry and all he could do was hold her. “I’m sorry,” she blubbered, trying to get herself under control and, in Eric’s opinion, failing miserably. “It’s just that when David died...”

      He crushed her to his chest. “That’s not what’s happening here,” he said, even though he knew it wasn’t a promise he could make. “Eddy’s going to be fine. He’s a tough little dude.” He prayed. “Did your mom say where he was?”

      “St. Anthony.”

      Dammit, he didn’t know anyone there, at least not off the top of his head. If they could get Eddy to the Children’s Hospital, then he knew some of the staff there. He donated a lot of money to the Children’s Hospital.

      Then it hit him—Robert Wyatt. The man was a doctor and the scion of the Wyatt Pharmaceuticals empire. Even if Wyatt didn’t treat children—Eric wanted to think the man was a surgeon?—he’d be able to recommend the best for Eddy.

      Normally Eric would never call in this favor. He had a friendly rivalry with Marcus Warren—but there was nothing friendly about his rivalry with Wyatt. The only reason the two men hadn’t come to blows was that they were in different industries and even then, there’d been that one time...

      No, he absolutely shouldn’t call in this favor. But then Sofia looked up at him, tears in her eyes and he knew he had to. Eric would do anything he could to make Eddy better—even bring in Wyatt.

      “I’ll make some calls,” he said. Wyatt wouldn’t exactly jump at the chance to help Eric out, but frankly, he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. The man owed him.

      Sofia nodded tearfully and made a visible effort to pull herself together. Just then, the elevator slowed and the doors opened. “Let’s go,” she said, her jaw set.

      They all but ran to their rooms. It took less than five minutes for them to grab their things and then they were running for the elevator again. Neither of them wasted time changing out of their party clothes. Eric stopped shoving his clothes into his bag only long enough to call down to the front desk and tell them to have a car ready to leave for the airport immediately. Any car would do.

      He had to get Sofia to her son. Now.

       Fourteen

      Sofia hadn’t noticed the landing. She couldn’t have said if it was rough or smooth or perfect or a near-disaster. All she could think about was her children.

      “Well?” Eric said when she hung up with her mom.

      Sofia took a steadying breath, but it didn’t steady anything. Eric’s driver whipped the car around corners and ran red lights in true Chicago fashion and not even the seat belts could keep her from sliding all over the place. “She’s home with Addy. She said Addy’s drinking fluids from a bottle, which is good. She hasn’t thrown up in two hours.”

      “Good,” Eric said encouragingly, rubbing his thumb along the side of her hand. He hadn’t let go of her since...well, since they’d gotten into the elevator to leave the hotel. She might not remember much about the flight or the middle-of-the-night landing, but she knew that Eric had been there.

      Like he was right now. “And your dad’s still at the hospital with Eddy?”

      She nodded, her head feeling like lead. It was three in the morning and panic was exhausting. If it weren’t for Eric, she had no idea how she would have made it.

      “We’re almost there,” he said, all reassuring confidence. God, how she wished she could be reassured right now.

      But she couldn’t. All she could do was stare out the windows as familiar Chicago streets whipped by.

      If she hadn’t gone to St. Louis, then she would’ve been there when her babies got sick. She could’ve comforted them—and gotten them to the doctor sooner, at the very least. Her parents generally

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