Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Deacon
The stars sparkled brighter in the sky here than anywhere else in the world. I swore the constellations above Prickle Island were my favorite . . . not that I had any intention of ever seeing them again after we finished filming. The family dinner had confirmed it: Dove and I were never going to rekindle our friendship. She was determined to hate me forever, and I probably deserved it.
My watch started vibrating and I looked down to see Zeke was calling me. I fished my phone out of my pocket. Before I could even say hello, Zeke asked, “How quickly can you gain twenty pounds of muscle?”
“What time is it in LA?”
“It’s not even midnight, D-man,” Zeke said. “And money never sleeps.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I don’t know how quickly I can gain twenty pounds of muscle,” I said. “I pay Ricardo to know that stuff.”
“He just flew out for a photoshoot with Chris Hemsworth in Australia,” Zeke informed me. “He probably won’t pick up for another . . . five hours.”
“And you need an answer in five hours?”
“I’ll just tell them yes.”
“Wait—”
“ Hasta luego , D-money,” Zeke sang and hung up before I could reply.
Great. Why did I have a feeling I was about to be relegated to six months of chicken breasts and protein smoothies? God, I wanted to eat some cake and not think about my fucking macros for a few weeks. I hadn’t had to think about any of this shit when I’d been a musician. Nowadays, every single role wanted me to be shirtless . . . even one where I was voicing a CGI alien, which they still hadn’t quite explained to me.
I was lost in my thoughts of already missing bread and cheese when a figure darted past me through the shadows. Even only in silhouette, I knew it was Dove. Knew it from her height and gait and smell of her lavender shampoo.
“Dove!” I called, darting after her. “What’s wrong?” Even being two heads taller than her, I had to jog to keep up. “Dove.” Her eyes were wide and frantic as I caught her arm. “What’s going on?”
She wrenched her arm free, her eyes scanning back and forth, and I couldn't stop myself. I took her face in both hands and brought her eyes to mine.
“Hey, hey,” I hushed, trying to calm her enough to speak to me. “Tell me what's going on.” Something about the contact of my hands on her cool cheeks seemed to snap her out of it.
“Hannah's water broke.” Her voice thick. “And her contractions are really close together and we're hours from the hospital and oh god, she can't have her baby in that gross ass boat. I haven’t cleaned it yet and I—they were supposed to leave the island tomorrow and?—”
I released her, already grabbing for my phone. Luca answered on the first ring.
“There's an emergency. Call James and have the chopper ready to lift off immediately,” I instructed, trying to remain calm. “Going to . . .” I looked at Dove, whose eyes were still blown wide with panic. “Where?”
“Yale New Haven Hospital.”
“Yale New Haven Hospital,” I repeated. “When you get off the phone with James, call them so they're ready for her.”
“Got it,” Luca confirmed and immediately hung up to ring the helicopter pilot.
I thanked every lucky star right then that Cody had insisted we take the chopper to the photoshoot in New York the following morning. I’d wanted to drive, but since we had to be back for shooting the following day, Cody had called the chopper to arrive the night before. Fortunately, the Holloways had a helipad.
Dove was already on her phone, relaying the new information to her family.
“Thank fucking God.” I heard Hawk's voice on the other end, the sound of a very much in labor Hannah shouting curses in the background.
That same shout echoed down the hill, and I stared up into the darkness of the nighttime zoo. A truck peeled out and screeched down the back road, speeding toward the Holloway Estate.
“The chopper will be in the air within the next five minutes.” My breath curled into the nighttime air. “They’ll be at the hospital in no time.”
“Can the chopper hold four passengers?” Dove asked, hyperventilating.
“It can.”
“Good, uh, Finch is going with them, and Mom.” Her voice wobbled. “In case she has the baby in the helicopter.” She rubbed her hand over her eyes. “Oh god, she can’t have her baby in a helicopter.”
“That’s a pretty badass story to tell his friends one day,” I countered, trying to lighten the mood.
“I guess.” Her voice was hoarse, like she was holding back tears.
Dove was a hard one to make panic, at least when it came to herself, but when it came to her family, that was something else entirely.
I took a step forward and rubbed my hands up and down her goose-bump-covered arms. “They’re going to be fine. The chopper will be at the hospital before you get back up the hill to your house.” Her hands were still shaking as she frantically nodded. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I should go make sure everything is sorted back home,” she said but didn’t step out of my comforting touch. “They probably left a bunch of doors open in their race to the truck, and, uh, I think I’m going to go crazy if I try to sit still right now.”
“When my anxiety gets bad, I can’t sit still either,” I admitted. “Doing something active sometimes helps. Do you want to go for a walk?”
Her movements were starting to slow, I could see the peak of her panic was slowly ebbing, but I knew her nerves would be boiling over until she heard news of the baby’s arrival.
“No, it’s fine,” she said. “I might just do some diet prep. We’ll probably need to all help with some extra keeper work tomorrow, so it would be good to get a head start on the day.”
“I like chopping things,” I offered. “Put me to work. I won’t be able to sleep until I get an update either.”
The truth was, I really, really didn't want to leave Dove alone when she was so clearly in distress. I knew some of her siblings must still be at the zoo, but they might not even know that their sister was freaking out, or maybe they were freaking out just as much and needed a levelheaded person to pull them back into a state of calm.
I also knew Dove was too stubborn to accept my offer if she thought it was out of pity. “Please? I will just be walking around the house in circles and I have no one there to talk to about the latest Dimension 20 campaign.”
Her eyes lit up at that, finally finding mine instead of frantically searching the darkness. I seized that glimmer of recognition, adding, “Did you watch the latest episode? I was literally laughing so hard I thought I was going to pass out.”
She cracked a smile, and I felt all of my muscles ease. “It was so good.” She grinned, slowly coming back into herself.
I released her arms and took a step toward the zoo, and then we just started walking. Jedi mind-tricking her into talking about our favorite TTRPG show was a surefire way to get her mind off it. There were a lot of things I was proud of, but knowing Dove Lachlan well enough to ease her mind was high on that list.
I pressed my lips together, trying not to smile. I watched more nerves lift off her shoulders with every step as a helicopter took off into the night sky.