“You can go if you want to. I’ll keep you updated on her status. You’ve got to be exhausted.”

Vaughan looked at her for a really long time. Long enough she’d started to squirm. Finally, he said, “I’m done going.”

She knew he meant something other than just Maddie. She forced herself to ask, though she wasn’t entirely sure she was ready for whatever he might answer. “What?”

He shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere, Kelly. I’m just glad I stopped at your place. I’m here. This is our child. We can do this together.”

Maybe she was projecting and he hadn’t meant anything more than that. She was too tired to push. Her eyes burned. Her stomach hurt and she was jittery and emotional.

He was Maddie’s dad. And Kelly always encouraged the girls’ relationship with their dad and his family. Here was Vaughan trying and she decided to let him and be grateful. “Okay. I’m glad you’re here, too.”

“I have a proposal. There’s a twenty-four-hour joint not too far away. Nothing fancy, but I stop there with the girls sometimes before I bring them home. How about I go and pick some food up and bring it back?”

Her hands had started to shake a little so she balled them into fists a few times before shoving them into her pockets. Food would be good, especially since they’d be up hours more.

She also needed some time alone to get herself together and make some calls.

“Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks.”

“I’ll call it in so it’s ready when I get there. I should be back in half an hour or less.” Vaughan smiled for a second. “I said this already, but I’ll say it again. I’m glad I stopped by tonight.” He handed her his sweatshirt. “Here, you look a little chilly.”

He left quickly and she leaned her head back, closing her eyes.

She’d given up on Vaughan being there when she’d needed him at all a long time ago. Wished it didn’t matter that he’d been there that night.

It made a difference. And she was a fool to let it.

It seemed as if she’d been trying to get over Vaughan Hurley since before they divorced. Of all the people she’d sought attention and affection from in her life, only Vaughan still had a hold on her heart and it made her so stupid, but love did that.

With a groan, Kelly sat up and pulled out her phone to text her best friend. Stacey was across the country in Manhattan. She was attending some conference where she was presenting a paper. As much as Kelly wished Stacey could be there with her right then, this paper was a big deal.

So she kept her text pretty light. Gave the basic details and urged her to stay in New York. There really was nothing Stacey could do at that point, but Kelly would keep her updated.

That done, she texted Ross. He didn’t like Vaughan, though he never showed that in front of the girls. He was resentful of any time Kelly spent with him, even for family events, and jealous that Vaughan had a connection to Kelly through their children. She filled him in about the situation with Maddie and said she’d talk to him when he got up.

All that done, Kelly stood, stretching. She pulled on Vaughan’s sweatshirt, as it was indeed chilly in the waiting room. It had been years since her skin had been this close to his scent and it sent her reeling.

An ache that she’d grown accustomed to many years ago throbbed at the memories of what it had been for a brief, shining time. She slammed that shut by remembering the Hurleys would be showing up soon enough.

Of this she had zero doubt. They’d drop whatever they were doing and rush over because Vaughan needed them, and every damned one of them would show up to support him and Maddie.

Mostly she was grateful her children had that support and love in their lives. Mostly. Her former mother-in-law might hate Kelly, but she loved her grandchildren and her sons.

Kelly had no room to judge. Especially because she had absolutely no plans to call her mother. Rebecca Larsen was in the Hamptons for the summer—at the house Kelly’s money had bought—and Kelly liked it that way.

Kelly had grown up in an angry, turbulent household. At twelve, when she’d walked a show for the first time, she’d recognized it as her means to get away from Rebecca.

When she’d given birth to Maddie and they’d gotten home from the hospital, Kelly had been alone with her daughter and she’d made a promise right then and there to make a family with that tiny creature. To keep her safe and loved and to do her all to empower and raise a child who knew every moment of every day that she was worthy.

With a sigh, Kelly focused on the prerequisite black-and-white nature photo on a far wall as she sank into a chair. Letting herself go blank, a meditation technique she’d learned from an old roommate back in her modeling days, Kelly let go of everything that wasn’t Maddie.

Being a mother hadn’t made Kelly into a woman or anything like that. But it had dug roots into Kelly’s life in a way she’d never really experienced before. This was a toss-yourself-in-front-of-a-speeding-car-to-save-someone love, and it had revolutionized her entire existence.

She’d been strong in a way she could look herself in the mirror every morning and not flinch. Sometimes the only thing that gave her the ability to keep going was to always be a good example to her kids. Maddie would be fine because Kelly would rip the world apart to make it so.

* * *

THEY MOVED DOWN to the main waiting room once Vaughan had returned with the food. Only he and Kelly had been allowed in the one just outside the pediatric surgery, but they could see through to those doors from where they were seated now.