Let It Be Me by Becky Wade (top young adult novels .TXT) 📕

and relaxed, still hooked up to his IV, was cradled in his mom’s arms.

“Good news,” Sebastian told them. “After morning rounds, we discussed Josiah’s case, and we all agreed he’s ready to go home. I’m discharging him.”

Instantly, Josiah’s mom’s eyes filled with tears.

“Thank you,” her husband said, looking more grateful than if he’d won the lottery.

It strained families to have their child admitted here for weeks or sometimes months at a time. The opportunity to go home was always celebrated, and Sebastian was always glad for them. This was the outcome he worked toward—hearts with congenital defects, repaired as much as medicine allowed.

However, he understood better than Josiah’s parents did the difficulty of the road before them. The surgeons here could not cure patients. They could only exchange a life-ending condition for a serious chronic condition. Josiah’s needs—medicine, check-ups, vigilance—would demand a lot from his parents. He was at risk for leaky valves, arrhythmias, and more.

“I know the staff here has been teaching you how to take care of him,” Sebastian said. “I just want to remind you to keep an eye on his weight gain, his growth, and his oxygen levels. Call us if he has any feeding or breathing problems. All right?”

They both nodded.

Sebastian stepped forward and swept a few fingers across the top of Josiah’s springy hair.

The baby peered up at him with a trusting expression.

“Good-bye,” Sebastian said. “Stay healthy.”

Leah was about to be granted a peek into the hospital records of Baby Girl Brookside.

Who was her. Or . . . had been her for a short time. Before she’d been given to Erica and Todd Montgomery.

Over the past few days, after Jenna had delivered the court order to the hospital, she’d been half expecting a call informing her that Magnolia Avenue did not possess records for an infant girl named Brookside, born on her birthday.

But that call never came.

Leah waited for Sebastian and Jenna at the same table at Magnolia Perk where she’d waited prior to the last meeting with Donna McKelvey. Unlike last time, it was late afternoon. Like last time, she’d arrived early—

And there was Sebastian. Also early. The electronic doors whooshed open dramatically as he swept in alongside a sleek woman in her forties.

He had on a pale gray dress shirt and navy suit pants. All the vitality in the place seemed to pull toward him like ocean water whizzing back out to sea. Was Leah the only one who noticed? She glanced around. Everyone else seemed to be carrying on as usual.

When the pair reached Leah, Sebastian introduced the woman as Jenna Miles, attorney. Jenna promptly excused herself, making a beeline for the coffee counter.

He didn’t take the chair opposite Leah, so she looped her purse over her shoulder and stood. Together, they moved out of earshot of the other tables.

“Thanks for coming, Dr. Grant.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it, Professor Montgomery.”

“I’m not a professor.”

“You will be. Besides, the title suits. You’re more of a professor than most of the professors I had in school.” He was only thirty-two, but his life, his career, and the pressures he lived under made him look a few years older than that. There was nothing soft or young about Sebastian Grant. “So. We talked about Ben’s interest in you the last time we were here together.”

“We did, yes.”

“And you said you weren’t interested in him in return. I heard you, but—”

She arched a brow at him.

“What?” he asked.

“When a woman expresses her stance and a man responds with ‘I heard you, but,’ that doesn’t bode well for the quality of the exchange.” It was the honest truth, delivered teasingly.

To his credit, he laughed. “May I have permission to finish my thought?”

She nodded.

“I want to encourage you to keep an open mind where Ben’s concerned. I mean, it couldn’t hurt to go out to dinner with him, could it? What’s the worst that could happen?”

“A, I could end up ruining my relationship with my closest friend at work. B, and far more chilling, I could fall for him.”

“That would be great.”

“That would be a catastrophe.”

“You’re smart enough to keep it from becoming a catastrophe.”

“I’m book smart, not romance smart.” She looked toward Jenna, who’d moved to the side to wait for her drink. The attorney wore her auburn hair in a short pixie cut that flattered approximately one percent of women. Jenna was in that one percent.

Leah straightened her short-sleeved crewneck sweater—raspberry in color with dark pink flowers stitched across it in horizontal rows. She’d paired it with narrow gray pants and heels.

“You can learn to be romance smart,” Sebastian said.

She sighed. Ever since Sebastian had told her Ben liked her, that knowledge hadn’t been sitting well. “I’ve actually been considering going out to dinner with Ben,” she admitted.

“Hmm?”

“I’ve been considering it,” she repeated. When Leah glanced at Sebastian, she found him watching her. Dinner with Ben would give her a private, unhurried setting in which she could ask about his feelings and ensure that he wasn’t holding out false hope where she was concerned.

“You’ll go out with him?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He swallowed, and his jaw appeared to harden.

“Which is what you’ve been lobbying for. So I’m confused as to why you don’t look pleased.”

He shook himself slightly. “Sorry. I got distracted for a second.” A wide smile overtook his mouth. “I’m pleased.”

“Then that’s settled. Dylan and I are leaving in a few days on our trip. When I get back, I’ll have dinner with Ben.”

“Is it time for your doomed road trip to New England?”

“It is, but I take exception to your choice of the word doomed.”

“Right, because you’ll be taking a teenager and an Airstream trailer on a three-week-long road trip across the country. What could go wrong?”

“Many things. But the laws of probability suggest that none of those things will come to fruition.”

“Your trip’s as doomed as Han Solo’s trip in A New Hope, when he was supposed to transport Luke, Leia, and Obi-Wan to Alderaan.”

She grinned. “I admire the blunt way you just shoved