Watson by Kathi Barton (ebook reader txt) 📕

again, not in all these years. That occasionally he’d be cornered by any one of them, and they’d remind him again, harshly.

“Then one day, after Tina had left, Holly came by. She wouldn’t come into the house. Didn’t want to sit on the back deck either. She just wanted to make sure I was all right. That nothing too bad had happened to me.” Dad cried harder. “I was so worried that Tina would find her there. Don’t you see what a coward I was? Instead of making sure my sixteen year old sister was all right, I was worried that I’d get caught by my wife and her friends.”

There were no words for him to give to his dad to comfort him. Wats had felt the wrath of his mother and her friends. It hadn’t stopped him from seeing Holly, but he had friends. There were the other cousins there to help him. Not that it was a good reason for his dad to have gone for his own comfort over his child sister. But Wats also knew to hold this against his father wasn’t going to make either of their lives any better.

So, instead of telling his father he was a coward—Wats never thought that—or that he was ashamed of him—which he wasn’t—he did the only thing that would heal them both. He pulled his father up from the floor and hugged him as tightly as he could.

Dad held onto him as if he was never going to let go. Wats thought it might be the thing they both needed, to hold onto each other like it meant their very lives. Because in a lot of ways, it did. When Dad seemed to calm down, he sat on the couch after picking up AJ.

“Do you know why I think you’re going to be good at being a father? Because you’re braver than I am. Smarter too.” He started to tell his dad that it wasn’t true when he handed him AJ. “I have to take a walk for a little while. I’ll be back in time for dinner. I need this. Just a few minutes to me. All right?”

“Yes. So long as you know to come back here.” Wats knew what he was telling his dad, not to do something stupid. It took his dad a little longer than he thought it should have for him to answer. However, he said he’d be back. He promised. When he left, Wats looked at his daughter. “You’re going to have to keep an eye on Grandpa, little one. He needs you more than we do, I think.”

After a while, he and AJ took a nap on the sofa. The room was nice and warm, her diaper was dry, and she had on the cutest little sleeper that Rayne had picked out. He still had to tell the rest of his family that he was a father.

Sitting up, Wats nearly spilled AJ to the floor. “Holy Christ, honey, I’m a father.”

He didn’t tell Rayne his revelation. He was sure she’d call him a dork or something like that. So when she came into the room with them, he shared the couch with her and didn’t say a word. Sometimes things were better left untold. Wats knew he’d be teased less if he kept that little part to himself.

Chapter 7

Rayne didn’t want to go to work today. She had gotten the shift she wanted and more money than she’d thought she’d be making at this point in her career, but she wanted to be home with AJ and watching her grow. Rayne was sure AJ was growing every thirty seconds, and if she wasn’t there during that time, she’d miss something important.

“Nurse Wilkerson? Mr. Elliot wants you to come to his office. He said to tell you that you’re not in trouble, but he would like to speak to you.” Nodding, she left the floor she was on to head to his office. She was glad for the break, actually. They’d been busy all day.

The football season had started up three days ago. Seven injuries were game-related, and she had to laugh every time she thought of the parents being hurt and not the kids. Apparently, when you used your screaming voice at a close game for nearly four hours, things were painful to swallow.

She knocked on the door before going in. Mr. Elliot was sitting there with not just the head of nursing but Wats as well.

“Everything is all right, honey.” She didn’t care. Kissing him on the mouth, she took AJ from him and held her. It was that or hurt someone to make them tell her what the hell was going on. “You’ve gotten your test scores back. Mr. Elliot wouldn’t tell us until you arrived. That’s all.”

“I failed, didn’t I? I knew I should have waited to take my exams. Now I’ll have to—” She looked at Wats, then at Mr. Elliot. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“You had the wrong test given to you. I don’t know why you’d be aware of that, but you just took the test like you should have without questioning anything.” Mr. Elliot laughed hard. “I’ve never in all my life been so happy to tell someone that. You took the wrong test, and not only did you pass it with flying colors, but you aced it. You got every single question correct. Even the ones that most people get wrong. Congratulations, honey.”

“I don’t understand.” She was handed her paperwork. But only giving it a little glance, she handed it to Wats. “Shouldn’t you be upset? I mean, this means I can’t work in the hospital until I take the correct one, right?”

“Usually, but the board had a special meeting concerning you and your test score. They decided, after a few hours of research and deliberation, that your score stands as is.” She looked at Wats when he laughed. “You took the state boards for being a medical doctor, Rayne. You passed