CHAPTER 16
Shep
I met Rhett at the clinic and slipped into the room behind Mills before he could close me out. Rhett was sitting on the exam table with Maxie in his arms and she looked worse than before. Her skin was paler than I’d ever seen it with bright red splotches on her cheeks from the fever she still hadn’t broken. I felt sick. Had we missed something? Was she sick, more than just the fever? She’d been acting differently than we remembered, but was it a symptom of a bigger illness? Had she hidden something?
I inched closer, needing to see for myself the rise and fall of her chest. The closer I got, the more I noticed, though. Her lips were bruised and looked raw. I watched the doctor pick up Maxie’s hands and sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of her bloody palms. “What happened?”
The doctor looked over at me and frowned.
“Who are you?”
“Shepherd Winston. We’re going to be taking care of Maxie. What happened to her hands?”
“I’m Doctor Bianca Shawn.” She looked at Mills. “You’re not going to be taking care of Maxie?”
Before Mills could answer, Rhett cut in.
“Does it look like he’s been doing a bang-up job of taking care of her, Doctor? Maxie’s coming home with us. She’ll have someone with her twenty-four seven. Just tell us how to help her.”
I looked between Mills and Rhett and stepped closer to my best friend and brother. Whatever I’d missed between the two of them, it hadn’t been pretty, I was guessing. Rhett was right, though. Maxie had gotten as sick as she was in Mills’ care.
“I don’t have the time or energy in my clinic to entertain testosterone-driven bullshit. I don’t care who takes Maxie home as long as they take care of her. From what you told me, it sounds like she’s under a lot of pressure and is exhausted. Her immune system is probably shot, so being in the rain today was enough to wipe her out. Whoever takes her home needs to be sure to get plenty fluids in her and—”
“I’m okay.” Maxie’s voice was hoarse as she blinked awake. She looked around the room and a crooked grin lifted her mouth on one side. “Is this a party?”
Doctor Bianca cupped Maxie’s face gently and smiled.
“Sure is, honey. A party just for you. I need to ask you a few questions before I prescribe you medicine. Is there any chance you could be pregnant?”
Maxie’s cheeks went even redder as she giggled. She tried to wave her hand and ended up just flopping it down on her leg.
“Can’t be pregnant unless it’s imac-, imaccu- Oh, what’s the word? When you get pregnant without sex?”
The doctor laughed.
“Immaculate conception?”
Maxie snorted.
“Yeah, that. I’m a…”
We all leaned in.
“A virgin.” Maxie turned unfocused eyes on me. “Coulda lost it at eighteen but no one wanted it. I’m an old… Old Maid! Like the game.”
Mills swung around like there was something he wasn’t supposed to see.
“Make her stop talking.”
I wasn’t sure I remembered how to breathe. I locked eyes with Rhett and he seemed to be as shocked as I was. My stomach twisted and sank all at the same time. She was a virgin.
“Bianca?” Maxie snuggled into Rhett’s arms tighter. “Your office chairs are great. This one’s a little pokey but I don’t mind.”
Rhett’s face went redder than Maxie’s. He cleared his throat and brushed her hair out of her face.
“Alright. So, medicine?”
I looked up when the door opened and four more Hellstones filed in, one being so massively pregnant that she was using her brothers to keep her steady. The small room got much smaller, especially when the door opened again and Arlo stepped inside.
“Okay, this is ridiculous.” Doctor Bianca shook her head. “Who even let you back here?”
“What’s wrong with her? Is she okay?” Vera wedged herself closer to her sister. “Maxie?”
Maxie’s head rolled back and forth on Rhett’s chest. “Whoa. Did someone die? Why is everyone here?”
“We’re here for you, Maxie. Tate called us and told us you passed out.” Nellie held Vera’s hand, both of their eyes filled with concern.
“No one comes for me. No one comes for Maxie.” Maxie’s bottom lip poked out, the state of it knocking a gasp from both of her sisters. She whimpered. “No one cares about Maxie.”
It didn’t make me feel less murderous to see tears in her sisters’ eyes. They’d let Maxie feel that way. I didn’t understand how but in the ten years we’d been gone, they’d somehow dropped the ball so magnificently that Maxie felt alone and uncared for with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
I moved forward, putting myself between Maxie and her family. “Just tell us what to do and we’ll take her home. To our home, where she’ll be cared for.”
“No, she’ll come back home, where she lives.” Tate shot me a dark look. “You don’t even know her.”
Rhett’s voice was quiet as he spoke, the darkness in it landing just as heavily as if he’d screamed in their faces.
“Home? To a place where everyone is so willing to take from her without giving a thing in return? That’s the home you want her to go to? The home that allowed her to get to this point? Where she’s so distraught that she’s dug holes in her palms and chewed her lips bloody? There is nothing any of you could say that would make me feel okay about leaving Maxie with you. No. We’ll take her to our home and we’ll take care of her, the way she should’ve been taken care of all along. She won’t be cleaning your house or cooking every fucking meal for you anymore. She’s not coming back there until she’s well enough to decide for herself.”
They all looked at Mills but he was staring a hole in the floor, shoulders hunched. With a deep sigh, he ran his hands over his face and shrugged.
“Fine.”
West and Tate started to argue but when Mills turned and left the room, they swore and hurried after him. Tate stopped in the doorway and glared at me.
“I want a text every other hour about how she’s doing.”
Vera looked conflicted about leaving Maxie with us but Nellie wrapped her arm around her sister.
“They’ll take care of Maxie. Maxie has her own little pack of rabid dogs protecting her now. Just like you. Just like me.”
Doctor Bianca snorted.
“Straight people are so strange.”
Vera looked at each of us, eyes watery but intense.
“Is that right? The three of you are going to be there for Maxie? For real?”
Arlo stepped away from the wall he’d been leaning against and I could see the way his eyes scanned Maxie, looking for more damage no one had noticed.
“Maxie is ours.”
Maxie had passed out again but she chose that moment to try to lift her head. Her eyes rolled as she fought to stay awake but she was fighting a losing battle. Still, it didn’t stop her from grumbling one more thing at us.
“Maxie is mine. Me.”
Nellie grinned.
“Seems that our sweet big sister is going to make you work harder than that.”