Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Late afternoon always felt different at the hospital. At least to Maude. It seemed to her that the morning’s urgency was gone, replaced by a quieter kind of routine that settled over the entire building. Even the people moving through the halls had a less frantic pace.
Maude stacked the last of the magazines on the hospitality cart, then straightened the blanket she’d just pulled up over an elderly woman’s knees.
The woman smiled at her, eyes tired but warm with appreciation. “Thank you, dear,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” Maude replied. “I’ll check back on you as soon as I can.”
She wheeled the cart into its usual spot, then slipped into the volunteer breakroom. She cleaned her hands with sanitizer and was about to get into her locker so she could grab a granola bar out of her tote when her phone vibrated against her hip.
She took it out of her pants pocket and glanced down, expecting a text from Cece, or one of the other Queen Bees.
Instead, it was from Tess and read: Come to the front desk asap.
Maude paused.
Tess didn’t usually text unless she needed something specific.
And she almost never pulled volunteers to the front desk toward the end of their shift.
That area was the hospital’s public face for admissions, visitors, information.
Volunteers sometimes helped out there, but only after they’d been trained for it, which Maude hadn’t been yet.
Maybe Tess wanted to talk to her about getting trained?
Maude left the locker room behind and started down the hall, the soles of her sneakers squeaking faintly against the polished floor. Nurses passed her going the other direction, some nodded at her, some were too absorbed to notice. The smell of disinfectant and someone’s lunch lingered in the air.
She’d met up with Ollie for lunch, which was becoming their routine. He’d asked her to come to dinner tonight and she’d said yes immediately. She was trying to guess what he’d make.
She adored him, but cooking wasn’t really his thing. Maybe he was going to get takeout. She’d be fine with that. Honestly, it wasn’t about the food so much as it was spending time with him. And the sweetest puppy that ever existed, Milo.
By the time she reached the front desk, she’d come up with a short list of possibilities of why Tess needed her. Could be a scheduling issue, a visitor complaint (she really hoped not), or maybe someone had asked for her by name.
Tess stood behind the desk, phone cradled between her shoulder and ear, one hand braced on the counter. When she saw Maude, her expression changed from concern to something like relief.
She covered the receiver. “Maude. Thank you for coming so quickly.”
“What’s up?” Maude asked, keeping her tone light even as her stomach tightened.
Tess didn’t answer right away. She lowered the phone back into its cradle and leaned forward slightly, bracing her hands on the counter. “Maude, I need you to stay calm,” she said. “Your brother is here.”
Maude shook her head, the words not really making sense. “Here where?” She glanced around. Had he come to see her at the hospital?
“In the ER,” Tess said. “He’s stable and he’s going to be fine. But he asked for you.”
Maude’s breath caught. “He’s hurt? What happened?”
“A laceration to his forearm,” Tess said, slipping into the gentle tone of someone who had delivered plenty of news like this before.
“He was working with a table saw. The wood kicked back and cut him. It’s deep enough to need stitches, but it missed anything vital.
No nerve damage that they can tell so far. ”
Maude nodded automatically, even as her pulse started to race. A table saw, which meant it could have been a lot worse. She tried to hang onto that as she pictured Robbie in his work clothes, sleeves pushed up, focused on his project, completely caught off guard by the mishap.
“Where is he?” she asked.
“Triage put him in ER Three,” Tess said. “They’re cleaning it now. He’s embarrassed and upset that he has to deal with it, more than anything, from what I can tell. Go now. I’ll cover if anyone needs anything. Your shift is almost over anyway.”
Embarrassed sounded like Robbie all right. Maude was already moving. “Thank you! And thank you for telling me.”
“Of course,” Tess said with a quick nod.
Maude turned and headed down the hall, her shoes squeaking louder against the floor as she picked up speed. The familiar hospital smells suddenly seemed stronger and more intrusive. Every turn took longer than usual.
She pushed through the ER doors and scanned the rooms until she spotted him.
Robbie sat upright on the bed, his jaw tight, his left arm stretched out on a tray. A nurse was irrigating the wound, taking her time to do it right. Blood had soaked through Robbie’s shirt and was spattered across his jeans. He looked pale. Maybe he was in a little bit of shock.
She knew the feeling.
He looked up when he saw her. “Hey,” he said, like this was no big deal. Like she hadn’t just had her heart jump into her throat. But that was his way. He wasn’t one to freak about stuff like this.
“Hey, yourself,” Maude said, coming to his side. “You okay? What happened?”
He winced as the nurse adjusted the angle of his arm. “Board slipped,” he said. “I should’ve stopped and reset it. As you can see, I didn’t.”
Maude exhaled slowly and rested her hand on the edge of the bed. “Tess, my supervisor, just told me you were here,” she said. “You scared me.”
His mouth twisted. “I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t going to call you until they said it needed stitches. Then one of the nurses said you were here today and she’d have someone get you.”
“I’m glad she did.” Maude looked at the long cut. It had jagged edges and looked awful. He was definitely getting stitches. And he’d probably end up with a scar. Knowing him, he’d create a story around it. Like he was bitten by a shark.
“You’re lucky it wasn’t worse,” she said. What if it had hit him in the chest? Or the head?
“I know,” he replied quietly. “I did have safety goggles on.”
Like that made it better.
The nurse glanced up. “He is lucky,” she said. “Another inch over and this would’ve been a very different conversation.”
Maude met Robbie’s eyes. “You hear that?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
Maude waited until the nurse turned back to her work before she spoke again. “Do you want me to call Mom and Dad?” she asked quietly. “Just to let them know what happened and that you’re okay.”
Robbie’s answer was immediate. “No.”
She searched his face to be clear that was a real no and not a kneejerk reaction because his pride was talking. “You’re sure?”
“Yes,” he said, without hesitation. “Especially not today.”
She nodded once, accepting that. She wasn’t going to force the issue. “Because of last night?”
He let out a breath through his nose. “Yeah. Because of last night. I can’t add to that. Not now.”
Maude stayed quiet and let him talk. She’d made him call and explain everything, but after that conversation on the porch, she’d gone inside and logged onto Nightforge.
With her headset on, she hadn’t actually heard anything he’d said to them.
“I have no idea what you told them. I was running raids.”
“I told them everything, just like you asked me to,” he went on. “That I’m staying with you. That I’m trying to make this custom furniture venture work as an actual business, not just a hobby.” He glanced down at his arm, then away. “I didn’t keep anything back.”
“How did it go?” she asked.
“Better than I expected,” he said, after a beat. “And maybe a little worse than I hoped. But it’s done.” He shook his head slightly, watching the nurse work. “I don’t want the very next update to be, ‘And by the way, I ended up in the ER.’”
“Yeah, I get that,” Maude said. She ignored the fact that now her parents knew she hadn’t told them Robbie was staying with her. Well, hopefully, they understood that part. She held her hands up. “It’s up to you to talk to them about this, then. However you want to handle it.”
He looked at her, something very much like relief flickering across his face. “Thanks.”
“If you change your mind,” she added. “I can make the call. Or I’ll sit with you while you do it. Whatever you want. But no pressure.”
“I appreciate that,” he said. “But not today.”
“Okay,” she said. She understood. He had enough going on without having to tell their folks what had happened. She knew how they’d react as much as he did. They’d be headed to the hospital the minute they hung up the phone.
The nurse finished irrigating the wound and stepped back. “All right, Robbie, I’m going to get the doctor so we can close this up.”
Robbie grimaced. “I’m going to get some pain meds for that, right?”
“Right,” the nurse said, smiling. “You’ll get a local and, I promise, you won’t feel a thing. You’re doing great.”
Maude stayed by the bed as the nurse left, keeping her hand on the edge of it like she needed to touch something connected with her brother.
He flexed his fingers carefully, like he was testing to be sure they still moved. “I’m really glad you were here today,” he said. “That you could be here now.”
“So am I,” Maude replied. “Even if I wish it had been under different circumstances.”
He gave her a lopsided smile that didn’t last long. He glanced down at his arm again. “Yeah. Me, too. Sorry about all this.”
She shrugged. “Accidents happen.”
He rested his head back against the bed. “I guess so.”
She squeezed his fingers once, gentle because of the IV tape and dried blood. Whatever else they’d have to navigate with their parents or their living situation or this small setback, they’d do it together.
All that mattered right now was that Robbie was okay.