Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
REECE
W hy did time move so much slower in a hospital than anywhere else on the planet?
I’d come in the ambulance with Booker, Xander following behind us in his car. Hank stayed to help Cole with Bullet, who’d arrived just as we were getting ready to pull out.
I knew what was going to happen to Bullet, and I was glad I didn’t have to be there when it happened. It felt so wrong when he’d saved Booker that we couldn’t do more to save him, too.
The doctors had taken Booker through some double doors, and Xander and I had been pacing a waiting room ever since. Even Delaney and Trace turning up barely registered for me as I watched those doors, waiting for the news that Booker would be okay.
The paramedics had called it a miracle on the way here, shaking their heads as they did their own examination. I’d kept my eyes on the heart monitor for the entire ride, not quite ready to believe that everything would be okay.
I needed tests and results. I needed proof.
I couldn’t let myself relax until there was absolutely no doubt, and only then would I even let myself consider how we’d gotten into this situation to start with.
“I’m not waiting out here,” Xander finally said when he couldn’t take it any longer, striding for the doors with a purpose that only a medical professional could have in a setting like this.
He’d made it three steps before they burst open, and we all seemed to hold our breath looking at the grim-faced doctor who walked toward us.
“The Farrington family?” he asked.
Trace and Xander moved forward as I stood there, wondering if I really had a right to be here right now.
“He’s a lucky man,” the doctor said as Delaney came and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Nasty break in the right arm, which is going to take some time to heal. But apart from the head lac and some bruising to his shoulder and side, he’s going to be fine. He’ll probably need some physical therapy on the arm, but I can’t see it giving him any long-term problems. He’s young, he’s healthy, he’ll be back on his feet in no time.”
“Thank god,” Trace sighed, turned around, and then strode to me and Delaney and wrapped his arms around us both.
This was the strangest situation I’d ever been in. Not just because of Booker being hurt, but because these people seemed to have accepted me as one of them so quickly.
Trace leaned back and gave me a smile. “He’s going to want to see you first.”
My eyes widened in surprise, and when I looked at the doctor about to ask if that was okay, he just nodded. “I take it you’re Reece?”
“Yes.”
“He’s asking for you. Perhaps you can persuade him to stay overnight at the very least. He seems to think that because he’s not dead he’s invulnerable, and I need him to at least pretend he needs my help, even if just for my ego.”
Xander barked out an unexpected laugh, and we all looked at him in surprise. “Good luck with that,” he said with a shrug.
My first instinct was to jump to Booker’s defense, but even in the short time I’d known him, I knew they weren’t exaggerating.
“I’m not sure even my powers of persuasion are that good,” I told them both.
“Oh, I’ve got an idea,” Delaney suddenly piped up, but then Trace’s hand slapped over her mouth before she could say another word.
“Let’s save it for ourselves,” he murmured, quickly kissing her on the cheek and then making a face, pulling his hand back in disgust. “Did you just lick me?”
I left them bickering in the waiting room and followed the doctor through the doors that apparently held no special powers and just led up to some examination bays. In fact, the other side of them was just anticlimactically an ordinary hospital suite.
“I kind of thought there’d be something else back here,” I mumbled, looking around.
“Nah, we keep the really cool stuff in the back,” the doctor quipped before he showed me to a curtained-off bay.
I could hear Booker’s irritated sigh before I’d even reached to pull it back.
“Don’t even think about sticking me with that needle,” he snapped. “I told you I don’t want the damn painkillers.”
“Mr. Farrington, please. It will just take the edge off while we get your cast on. You’ll heal better if you don’t move around too much.”
“And you won’t let me leave tonight if I’m flying high on whatever’s in there,” he countered.
I saw the guilty look on the nurse’s face before she looked at me beseechingly. “Maybe you can talk some sense into him,” she mumbled.
Booker’s gaze moved to me then, and the annoyance instantly melted off his face. “Come here.”
I moved like I was in a dream, needing him as much as he seemed to need me. As my hand slipped into his, I felt my heart settle. Seeing him sitting up and bitching out a nurse was a surprisingly reassuring sight. But touching him and knowing it was all real was even better.
“I might be slightly angry with you,” I told him, my head tipped to the side as the relief cleared my mind enough for me to realize just how true that was. “What did you think you were doing?”
“I was riding to your rescue like a goddamned knight. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“It was pretty brave,” I conceded. “I was so scared for you, Booker.”
“Not half as scared as I was for you, baby,” Booker said, pulling me closer and then wrapping his arm around my waist as he drew me into his side. He kissed the top of my head lightly before he rested his forehead against mine. “I’m so sorry, Reece. I should have made sure the gate was closed. I can’t believe I was so stupid to leave the damned thing open. If you’d been hurt, I don’t know what I would have done.”
My head reared back in surprise. “You didn’t leave it open, Booker.”
He shook his head, almost like he didn’t believe me.
“Trust me. I remember you closing it. I remember leaning on the gate and staring at your ass as you got on Bullet.”
The nurse snorted out a laugh, reminding me she was still there and had apparently gotten to work wrapping Booker’s arm up while I had him distracted.
“Sorry,” she apologized, continuing with her work.
“Did you open it?” Booker asked, and for an impossible moment, I’d actually forgotten what we were talking about.
“No. When you rode down to the fields, I went to the house to find Val, but she wasn’t in the kitchen. I came out to check the barn, and then I saw Xander getting out of his car. We started talking just as the horses came in from the field.”
Booker’s eyes squinted, moving side to side as he was deep in thought. “Val didn’t come out when you were in the yard?”
“No, I don’t remember seeing her.”
“That’s…not right. She would have come into the yard if she heard people talking.”
“I’ll get Xander to check around for her,” I told him quickly, not wanting him to get worked up. “She probably got stuck in a stable or something. Or maybe she’d been out with Hank. He turned up just as you fell.”
“I need to get back to the ranch,” Booker suddenly said, trying to sit up only to find me and the nurse pushing him back down.
“If you want to use this arm again, young man, you will stay where you are, and you will quit moving,” she snapped.
That she had to be about ten years younger than Booker should have made the whole situation funny.
Except it didn’t.
Because now that Booker had raised it, I was worrying about Val, too. The whole situation was off somehow.
Booker sighed, but it came out as more of a reluctant hiss than anything else.
“I’ll take that as a yes ma’am,” the nurse quipped and went back to her work. “This is just a temporary cast. You’ll have an appointment with orthopedics tomorrow to get fitted with something else. Be grateful you don’t need surgery. If you can hold still for five more minutes, I can get this done. You’re supposed to wait at least an hour to have this checked over, but I’m guessing that’s going to be no from you.”
Booker nodded, and she rolled her eyes.
“Your brother is a doctor, right?”
“Yes,” Booker rushed out. “He’s staying at the ranch with us.”
“I might persuade the doctor to discharge you into his care, but I’m going to need a hand on your heart, solemn vow that you’ll be back at this hospital tomorrow for your appointment.”
Booker nodded, giving her one of those rare Booker smiles that had her looking as swoony as I no doubt did when he did it. “It’s a deal. But my hands are currently engaged right now.”
Booker hugged me tighter, and the nurse tsked but got back to her work, and true to her word, she finished quickly.
“Wait here, and I’ll go find the doctor. Do you want me to tell the rest of your family that they can come through?” she asked.
“That would be great. Thanks.”
She slipped away, drawing the curtain back around the bay as she went, and we were suddenly alone.
“I wonder how long we’ve got?” Booker asked, the corner of his lips ticking up as he looked at me.
“Really? I have never been so scared in my whole damn life. I don’t know how you can even think about that right now.”
“It’s hard not to when I’m with you,” Booker said, kissing my cheek sweetly. “I was scared too, sweetheart. I just want to get home, figure out what the hell is going on, and then fall asleep with you in my arms.”
As nice as that thought was, I couldn’t bring myself to think about it right now. Because there was another in my head that I didn’t want to taint it.
“Do you think…”
“That the guy who trashed the cottage is still hanging around?” Booker asked grimly.
I nodded somberly.
What had happened today had been dangerous on so many levels. We could have all been hurt. Hell, someone could have been killed. This was beyond tearing up someone’s clothes, and I couldn’t even bring myself to be slightly outraged about my pie when I was facing the reality that Booker could have died today.
“It’s time to tell you my entire story, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, baby, it is. But it can wait until we get home. Just you and me, okay?”
Booker’s arm tightened around me, and I was opening my mouth to tell him I just wanted to get it over with and tell him everything now, but then the curtain was pulled back, and his worried family walked in.
I could wait.
Booker’s eyes found mine as the others started fussing around him, and I could see his understanding in them. He knew there were parts of the story I hadn’t wanted to tell him. In reality, he knew most of it already. The only question left about the whole thing was who .
Only Camden Carter.
And all the ways he could ruin our lives.