Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Colby, you need to tell Sterling it’s time to get some rest, mate. He’s starting to look gray.” Seamus didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all.
The big cowboy’s lips tightened. “Yeah, I hear you. I’ll take him. I’ll get him all settled.” Colby clapped him on the arm. “You’re starting to look like a little worn-down yourself, man.”
“Naw, I’ve been catching catnaps as we go.” Catching catnaps and listening to Nick bitch about him keeping his foot up. They were going to have to get another boot. This one was starting to stink.
This whole thing was insane.
Topher had needed to bring in security to work shifts and cover Dad. Dad was talking about bringing his damn husband in, which was a whole additional set of security.
There were cowboys, Topher and Nick, Jess.
It was wild—not necessarily in a bad way.
He was sure he was learning something from all this. He wasn’t sure what it was.
Maybe that really he was a little bit worthless when faced with real-life situations.
It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since the wreck, and it sure felt to Seamus like it had been a million years.
He couldn’t imagine how it felt to that kid lying there in the bed.
Deuce had to be so fucking scared, and Seamus couldn’t blame him. He was praying it was pressure keeping the guy from feeling his fingers and toes and stuff, but what if it wasn’t? Then what would he do?
Colby was talking to him, so he put a smile on his face and tried to listen.
“I’m going to take Sterling to the hotel. You call us if there is any change or have somebody call us if you decide to go take a nap.”
“You know what? Wait. You’re on the phone tree.”
“Good deal.” Colby clamped him on the shoulder, which damn near knocked him down. The man had some grip strength. “We’ll be back in a bit.”
“I’ll be here.”
It was kind of quiet in here right now because most everyone had gone to rest. Deuce’s family had come and, as soon as that happened, the bull fighters disappeared to God knew where.
It seemed that they were walking in a huge circle around one another.
He’d ask Dawson about what was going on, but that would require him and Dawson to be alone in a room for a half a second, and it didn’t seem appropriate right now to ask to be alone in a room with Dawson for half a second so…
It was just him, sitting here in this waiting room with a teenage girl who kept staring at him.
He offered her a smile. “Hey, I’m Seamus.”
She nodded, her ponytail bobbing. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Peanut.”
“Peanut?” Jesus.
“Uh-huh. Peanut Porter. It’s not my real name—my real name is Penelope.”
“Oh.” That girl did not look like a Penelope.
“You get it. I go by Peanut.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Everybody’s always called me that, even before I was born.”
“Deuce is your brother?”
“Yeah.”
“I can see the resemblance—”
The other shoulder went up. “Deuce is big—his mom was good-sized, tall, and she had tall people so… I’m just… well… You’re an actor, right?”
“I am.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen your movies. I have to tell you, man, you’re kind of pretty even in person. I thought it would be mostly makeup.”
“Makeup helps a lot, but thank you.”
God she was adorable.
“Do you know…I mean why are you even here?”
Oh, Seamus didn’t know how he was supposed to answer, but he didn’t like to lie. “I’m here for Dawson.”
“I know Dawson. He’s cool. My dad’s real mad at him.”
There was the story. He hoped his nose wasn’t twitching. “Oh?”
“Yeah, he didn’t want Deuce to be a bullfighter, and Dawson went ahead and hired him even though he said no, but you know, Deuce is a grown-up man.
” She sat up and set to saying her piece.
“I’m not a kid either. I’m going to college next year.
I’m a senior. but he just keeps treating me like a kid. ”
“Well, my dad says that all parents feel like their kids are still children when they’re in their thirties.”
She gave him a horrified look. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. He swears it’s a biological imperative.”
She made an argh sort of noise. “Fantastic.”
“I know. You’re at the age where you feel like you’ve got to prove you’re an adult.
But at some point, it’ll come back around and it’ll be nice to have somebody to parent you a little bit.
Then you start parenting them, too.” Seamus thought about his mom and how sometimes he had to rein her in.
“I’ve been on my own for years, you know, but my father flew in, and he’s staying here so he can help with things. ”
She sighed, slumping back. “So, I guess it never gets better?”
“No, I don’t think so You’re always gonna be his little girl just like Deuce is always gonna be his little boy.”
“Well at any rate if you need anything I’m here.” She was absolutely adorable, this tiny little blonde firecracker.
“So, what are you going to go to college to study?”
“Well, my mom wants me to be a reporter like she was. My dad wants me to stay home and raise horses. I want to become a ceramic engineer.”
Seamus’s eyebrows flew up, and he didn’t pop out with the “wow” that he wanted to because he figured that would be insulting. “That’s really cool. What exactly would your field of expertise be? Remember I know a thimble full about ceramic engineering.”
She expounded for a few minutes, then Jess bustled in with her tablet and her stylus in hand. He had to tear himself away from Peanut so he could discuss a few things with her.
By the time he was done, Peanut was off with her mom, and in walked Dillon Walsh.
“Coke’s settled at the hotel. Flying gives him a headache.”
Seamus did not point out that there were probably tons of people here who could handle things, and that Mr. Coke didn’t need to be here, but what did he know?
This was not his place, and he supposed they had three generations, four now, of bull fighters dealing with things. He knew Dawson sure felt responsible for everyone and everything, so why not Mr. Coke?
“I’m glad he’s at the hotel.” Seamus smiled, pushing his hair back off his face. “You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t stand.” He waved a hand down at his air boot.
Dillon snorted. “Trust me, I’m used to people being laid up.”
Seamus had to grin. “Yeah, it is sort of your job, just a little bit.”
“You know it, kiddo.” Mr. Dillon winked at him. “What do you need me to do?”
Seamus shrugged. “I don’t know. Mr. Porter is in there with Deuce, I believe, and I know that the bullfighters are all ghosting me. My dad is sleeping, and Nick is somewhere. Topher is right there.” He pointed because, the fact was he was never alone not really.
Topher was his shadow.
“There’s food being delivered a few times a day here for people who come to wait in the waiting room.
Plus decent coffee for the nurses’s station — I think that helps.
They’re going to move him into surgery pretty quick, from the rumor mill, but I’m afraid I don’t understand what little I’ve been told. ”
Because he didn’t really belong here. He was here because of Dawson, but he didn’t really belong here.
Michael Boe popped up next to him like a jack-in-the-box. He was wiry and lean, sort of attractive without his makeup on.
Seamus personally thought, with the makeup on, he kind of looked mean, grumpy, but maybe that was Dawson rubbing off on him.
“You’re doing amazing, man. You are damned organized.”
Dillon winked at Michael, shaggy gray hair bouncing. “No shit, I was convinced I was going to be flying into a pure-D shit storm, but Shay—can I call you Shay—has it all ironed and buttoned up.”
Seamus kind of grinned because everybody had started calling him Shay. Apparently rodeo men were big on nicknames, which the Aussie side of him appreciated the hell out of. “Sure, of course. Really, it’s more that my dad—”
“Nope.” Michael cut him off. “Seamus has been amazing. Sure, he’s got a nutritionist-physical therapy guy, and a bodyguard, and a personal assistant, and his dad. But honestly, he’s the one that’s at the crux of it all. And he’s been wrangling everything.”
Dillon just grinned. “It’s a good thing. You suck at it, man. You are the least sociable and put-together entertainer barrel man I know.”
Michael shook his head. “I am. I don’t like people. Especially you.”
And with that, Dillon and Michael hugged. It was a back-slapping, manly sort of thing.
Seamus shook his head. He was never sure until this sort of thing started who was serious and who wasn’t.
“Okay, I’m gonna go talk to the nurses.” Dillon did a little butt-shaking dance sort of thing, rolling his head on his neck. “I’ll be right back. Shay, keep up the good work. If you need to rest, you let me know and you can go back to the hotel, and I’ll stay here.”
“Will do.” He gave Dillon a thumbs-up because he really had no idea what else what he was supposed to say.
“Hey,” Topher came over to stand in front of him. “It looks like the second shift is here. I’d say we round up Dawson and go sleep.”
“I would love that if I knew where Dawson was. I know Deuce has got his dad in there with him now.”
Topher grinned. “Dawson went out the other end of the ICU to go to the bathroom and get washed up a little bit. I’ll go around and grab him. You tell that Mr. Dillon fella that you’re going to go back to the hotel, and I will meet you with him in the hallway.”
That sounded fucking amazing. So he got up, glad he didn’t have to use crutches to lever himself up anymore. “Michael, can you hold it down right here until Dillon gets back?”
“I got it, man.” Michael took his place on the sofa. “Thank you again.”
“I’m sure we’ll be back, and you’ll see me.
No worries, mate.” He winked, exaggerating the Aussie in his accent.
Then he clumped out into the hallway to wait for Topher and Dawson.
He really wanted to believe Dawson would come back to the hotel with him instead of wearing himself to any more of a frazzle.