Chapter 5
Chapter Five
“ I just think maybe he isn’t the best fit for the team,” Brielle hedged, making a face as she waited for Elyse’s response. She didn’t normally just chat with her teammates when they weren’t on a run, but after Saturday, Brielle was more than a little desperate.
She had a small hope, after their non-fighting exchange at the office, that they would be able to get along. She hadn’t voiced any concerns, though her heart had sure felt them, when Levi had said that Ryan was going to be their last man.
But now? After he spouted off once again about women and being in charge? Clearly, he hadn’t changed at all. He’d been professional in the office, but he was still the cocky jerk who’d built her up, only to crush her in the end.
“Bri…I don’t know what your deal is, but I think it’s gonna be fine,” Elyse placated. “No one else has any concerns about him. He’ll be the slowest guy on the team, but he still made it through the run. That’s more than we can say for lots of other people we know.”
Brielle sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I? ”
“No,” Elyse said with a little snap in his tone.
Brielle knew she was pushing too hard.
“If we want to run, we need him. End of story.”
Brielle nodded before forcing her voice to work. “I get it. Thanks.” She hung up before Elyse could say anything else. Her heart was pounding against her chest, and she flushed all over as she ran over her words once again.
So you’re saying the whole team is run by women?
That stupid derogatory tone. It had every nerve in Brielle bristling, and she was so angry, she could spit. Why in the world had she ever thought he was cute?
Ha! You still think he’s attractive!
“Thanks for that,” she grumbled at her inner voice. Good looks and jerkiness shouldn’t be allowed to co-exist. Her phone buzzed, and Brielle glared at it, only to gasp and answer it as quickly as she could. “Maeve?”
“Hey, Bri.” Maeve sounded tired. “Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you.”
“No, no. Don’t worry. It’s fine.” Brielle walked to her couch and carefully sat down. Her whole body was on edge. Clearly, from her friend’s voice, things weren’t good in the Harrison household, and that sent an immediate red flag up. “What’s going on? Can you tell me anything?”
Maeve sighed. “Yeah…I mean…it’s not like anything’s a secret, but…” She sniffed, and Brielle’s heart stuttered. “It’s just hard, you know?”
Brielle nodded, her voice suddenly feeling hoarse. “Yeah,” she croaked. “What can I help with?”
“Nothing.” Maeve hesitated. “But he’s hurt, Brielle. He’s hurt badly.”
“You can tell me anything, Maeve. You know that.”
“I know. And I’ve already chatted with a few people, but it hasn’t gotten any easier yet.”
Brielle held her breath. She wanted to ask a million questions. She wanted to shake Maeve until she knew everything. She wanted to run over to the Harrison house and take them all under her wing, but her first instinctual rash behavior had never proven to be the right path to follow, so she held back.
“They’re going to amputate.”
Brielle’s breath wasn’t being held anymore. There was no air to breathe at all. Her lungs were frozen blocks, and her vision was starting to go black.
“Bri? Are you there?’
Gasping like a codfish, Brielle leaned forward, her forehead in her hand. “Amputate?” she whispered. “What happened, Maeve?”
The sniffling was back. “He was hurt. There was an explosion, but they couldn’t get to him right away.” Maeve’s voice was trembling. “It ended up being hours before he was taken to a medical unit, and even after everything, there’s been an infection.” Her voice grew faint. “He’s got burns on his right arm, and his right leg is going to be taken off, just below the knee.”
Brielle swallowed hard, her stomach suddenly nauseous. “Mae…I don’t know what to say.”
“I know.” Maeve’s tears were easily heard, and her voice squeaked at the end. “None of us do.” She cleared her throat.
Brielle’s head was spinning. Suddenly, her issues with Ryan seemed so small. She didn’t want to run with the guy who was a jerk. Who cared? There were soldiers fighting wars and risking their lives so that Brielle’s biggest worry was the fact that she didn’t want to run with an old enemy.
“What can I do, Maeve? How can I help?”
There was a long pause before Maeve sighed again, sounding a little more in control than before. “Nothing. At least nothing that I can think of. Right now things are a mess. We’re taking turns driving up to the hospital in Portland for his doctor appointments, and he’s barely speaking to anyone. He’s hurting, but the pain meds take the edge off, at least I think they do.” She scoffed. “He’s so silent. He barely looks at us, and I don’t think I’ve heard him say more than two words at a time since he got back.”
“It has to be a lot to take in,” Brielle said softly, her eyes blurring with tears. “His whole life has crumbled. I can’t imagine Antony like that. He’s always been so strong and able bodied.”
“I know,” Maeve responded, sounding exhausted. “I think there’s going to be a lot of mental healing along with the physical healing, if we can get him through the actual injury first.”
“Do you…” Brielle swallowed back more bile. “Do you have a date for the…”
“Amputation?” Maeve supplied.
“Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to?—”
“No, it’s okay,” Maeve assured her. She took in a shuddering breath over the phone line. “It’s part of it, right? We might not like it, but it’s still part of it.”
“Doesn’t make it any easier to talk about,” Brielle said without thinking. She made a face. My stupid mouth! “I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re right. It’s not easy to talk about, but I’m pretty sure if I don’t talk about it, I’ll end up as angry as Antony.” Another long breath came through the line. “It’s scheduled for tomorrow, actually. They want it done as quickly as possible so that the infection doesn’t spread any more than it already has.”
“Understandable,” Brielle murmured, her mind was still trying to imagine strong, handsome Antony with only one leg. She couldn’t grasp it. Her mind simply couldn’t picture the man she knew with the vision being presented to her.
The fact that he was too angry to speak made complete sense to Brielle. That was definitely something she could understand. Where she tended to explode with her feelings, Antony had always been more reserved. He’d been the protective hero type long before he ever went into the military. The artistic genetics seemed to have skipped him and gone straight into Aspen and Estelle. Antony and Maeve were far more logical and analytical, as if to balance the family of creatives .
“I’m sorry, Maeve,” Brielle offered into the silence. “I really just…I’m trying to digest. I don’t know what to say but I’d really like to help. I’m not a great cook, but would a meal help? Or are there errands I can run? My schedule is really flexible with the business, and I’d even be happy to drive him to appointments for physical therapy or after surgery. Anything, really.”
“That’s really sweet,” Maeve replied. “I really appreciate it, but I think for now we’re taken care of. Since all of us girls are here, we’re mostly able to handle the load.”
“I’m sure it’s hard with your dad, as well,” Brielle added. “I can certainly sit with him, if you’d like, while you’re taking care of Antony, I mean.”
Maeve laughed softly. “Bri…this is why I love you. No matter how much you show people that you’re strong and independent, you have a heart of mush, and I really need that right now.”
Brielle’s lips cracked a small smile. “I’m not sure if that was a compliment or not,” she teased.
“It’s a compliment,” Maeve assured her. “Trust me, Bri. Whatever guy finally breaks through your armor is going to be the luckiest man on earth.”
Ryan groaned and shifted the ice on his knee. How in the world did he get so old? “Or just out of shape?” he grumbled to himself.
Stretching across his lap, he reached for his computer sitting on the coffee table and fumbled it to his lap. If he was going to have to sit here, he might as well catch up on emails and paperwork.
A half hour later, he rubbed at his eyes, ready to drop down for a nap when an email at the bottom of the list caught his eye. “Ah, crud.”
Ryan pursed his lips and clicked the results of the blood testing they’d done on Sparky. His heart fell, and the acid in his stomach started churning. The worst case scenario he’d built in his head was looking like reality rather than fiction.
“She’s gonna hate me.” He ran a hand over his hair, grimacing at the thought of delivering the news. Things were already iffy between them, though he wasn’t exactly sure why and now he was going to have to tell her that Sparky was sick…like really sick.
From the look of the results, there was going to be very little for them to do.
Some pet owners chose to fight to the bitter end, and that wouldn’t entirely shock Ryan—Brielle definitely had a soft spot for the pooch, after all. But that path was often expensive and draining and he didn’t know how well she’d be able to handle either of those things.
Not to mention the end result was still ultimately going to lead to Sparky’s passing. He wasn’t just sick, he was old. By dog standards anyway. He’d had a good life. He’d spent a lot of years at Brielle’s side. And now it was going to be time to let him go. Spending time and money to prolong his life would be a useless effort at his age.
Ryan let his head fall back on the couch and sighed. His mind whirled, trying to figure out if he should call her personally, or let the office handle it on Monday. Calling her would give him a chance for sympathy and to explain everything, but it would also give her a chance to blame the whole thing on him.
“I guess the question is…how badly do you want to speak to her?” Ryan muttered into his quiet apartment. It would be nice if someone would answer back. Some advice would helpful now and again.
He picked up his phone, hesitating only a moment before dialing her number.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Brielle…” Ryan cleared his throat. “It’s Ryan. Ryan Thatcher.”
“Uh, hey, Ryan.”
There was an awkward pause, and Ryan swallowed hard. “Sorry to disturb your Sunday, but I wanted to let you know that I, uh, got Sparky’s test results back.” His heart started to pound against his sternum. This was a bad idea. He shouldn’t have called her. She was gonna hate him for sure.
“Oh! Right. What did they say?” She sounded wary, but anxious at the same time and Ryan closed his eyes.
“It’s not good,” he whispered.
She didn’t speak.
“Would you…would you like to come over for dinner, and I’ll go over them with you?” Ryan’s eyes widened. He had definitely not planned for that to come out of his mouth. He hadn’t even thought about inviting her over for dinner. Where the heck did that come from? And was there even any food in his fridge? It was something that he would have done when he was younger. He’d been young, carefree, brash, and ran his mouth just to see other’s reactions.
That’s probably how Brielle remembers you.
His eyes grew wide when that thought came pummeling through his brain. Her reaction to his joke on the trail flooded back with a little more understanding than before. If she still thought he was the same jock from high school, then of course she would take his words and make them mean something more. How did he not catch that the first time?
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Brielle said slowly. “Isn’t it like a conflict of interest or something? I mean, you’re the veterinarian over Sparky. I’d hate to cross any boundaries.”
I wouldn’t. Ryan shook the thought away. “I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable. I just thought it might be easier to talk about it if we weren’t under a time constraint at the office.” He hoped she couldn’t hear the anxiousness in his voice. Now that the invitation was out there, Ryan really, really, wanted Brielle to come over.
Of course, he’d have to hide the evidence of his aching muscles, but that wouldn’t be a big deal. Mostly, he just wanted to get to know her again and see if the spark they’d had in the office and the remembered one from high school, was worth pursuing.
Not very many women were like Brielle Underwood. Ryan knew that from sad experience. Which meant that if he had even the slightest inkling she could feel the same stirrings as him, it would be worth the work to repair the current rift between them.
“I…” Brielle paused again, and Ryan begged in his head for her to agree. “I guess that’s alright,” she finally finished.
“Great!” Ryan pulled back immediately, making a face at his too-enthusiastic response. “Around six? Is that alright?”
“Sure. I’ll need your address.”
“Of course. I’ll text it to you. Um…” He felt stupid asking this. “Do you have a favorite meal? I’m not an amazing cook, but I can manage a few things.”
Brielle laughed, and Ryan felt his heart flicker at the sound. Geez, I’m an idiot. What guy gets excited when a girl laughs?
“I’ll eat just about anything, I’m sure that’s pretty obvious.”
He frowned, not quite sure what she meant by that. “Okay, why don’t you bring Sparky? I’m sure he’ll enjoy getting out of the house for a few minutes tonight.”
Another short pause. “That’d be great. Thanks.”
Ryan smiled and mentally pumped his fist in the air. At least he’d done one good thing this evening. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
“See you soon.”