Page 47

The doors to the hospital swung open as we rushed through. The paramedics called out his name and vitals while I jogged alongside them.

It was a rush unlike any other. I was in the thick of it, feeling the danger at my fingertips, yet there were no bullets flying. I probably shouldn’t have been so excited at the moment, but a situation like this really got my blood pumping.

“Let’s get him to a bed and get him hooked up!” the nurse called out. “Sir, you’re going to have to stay here.”

And that was it. With one hand against my chest, she stopped me in my place and ended the excitement. My shoulders slumped as the doors swung closed. I was shut out.

Walking back to the waiting area, Scottie and Brock had already found their seats, lounging around as if they weren’t waiting for news on their friend.

“We need to call Harper,” I sighed, slumping down in the chair beside Scottie.

“Why would you do that?” Scottie snorted.

“Because he’s not waking up!”

“It’s been like a half hour. If that. Quit getting your undies in a bunch.”

“Quit getting my undies in a bunch?” I whispered in a deadly calm voice. “What the hell is wrong with all of you?”

“Us?” Brock tossed his magazine aside, getting to his feet. “For some reason, you seem to think that a knock on the head justifies a call home.”

“It does! He’s not waking up. This isn’t normal.”

“He looked fine to me,” Scottie muttered. “You know what we need?”

“If you say food, I’ll strangle you.”

His jaw dropped open, but the words didn’t come out. That was probably because he knew I was right.

Rubbing my hand over my eyes, I desperately tried to figure out my next move. I always knew the right thing to do, but as of now, I was at a loss. It was so close to Christmas. The last thing I wanted was to freak out Harper and Eden. Thankfully, Gracie was too young to understand, and James wasn’t even speaking.

But the longer this went on, the harder it was. We never should have come on this job. Edu hadn’t wanted to. He hated the idea of wearing a Santa Claus suit and pretending around the kids. Maybe he was right. Maybe we’d set him up for failure.

“Look, I’ll give it another half hour, but if he doesn’t wake up, I have to make the call.”

Scottie surged to his feet. “Why would you do that? Do you want to get me in trouble?”

“Get you in trouble?”

“Uh, yeah! You’ll get us all in trouble. Rule number one. The ladies want to know if one of us is injured. I didn’t call home. You didn’t call home.” His finger jabbed in Brock’s direction. “He didn’t call home. Do you see a pattern here? You’re going to get us all in trouble!”

“Could be worse,” Brock muttered as he flipped a page in his magazine. “You could be like poor Sheila. She has to take nude pictures to put herself through college.” He turned the magazine to the side and grinned. “Man, her hair is amazing. I wonder what products she uses.”

Storming over, I snatched the magazine out of his hands, ignoring his yell of outrage.

“This is not a game! How do neither of you see it?”

“Of course we see it,” Scottie sighed. “But give the man a chance to wake up on his own before you ruin Christmas for him.”

“There are procedures we follow,” I said, pulling out my checklist. “Look, it’s in the manual!”

They both groaned, which I knew would happen. Nobody liked my operating manual, but there was a reason we created it. Times like this were stressful, and things could get overlooked.

“See, right here,” I pointed to the top of page five. “In case of hospitalization, Call. The. Family!”

Scottie snatched the list out of my hands and held it out of reach. “Look, we get that you want to stick to the rules. Okay? You need the structure and the rules and crazy checklists. But this is real life, and he hit his head. He hasn’t even seen the doctor yet.”

“Because it’s busy around here,” I argued. “And by the time we see the doctor, he’ll have some massive brain bleed that will have ended his life!”