Chapter 10
ATLAS
“Kellan. Come on. You need to let us back there.”
My childhood friend and the current town doctor ran his hand through his hair, a motion that looked as if he did it often, considering his hair was sticking up in all different directions.
“I need to talk with Will or a nurse and see if you actually can go back there. I’m sorry. You’re not his emergency contact or family.”
Lizzie squeezed my hand at those words before she rolled her shoulders back.
“Then go. I love you, Kellan. But go back there and tell Will that we’re here. Thatcher called us for a reason. We’re his family.”
The way she shouted that surprised me, and yet it didn’t. Although everybody in the waiting room paused and stared at us. We weren’t holding hands or even touching at this point, even though I wanted to. But they did have curious glances.
I didn’t care. They could know everything they wanted right then, I just needed to make sure that Will was okay. Because if anything had happened to him when we hadn’t been there, I would never forgive myself. And I knew for damn sure Lizzie would never forgive either one of us.
“Our two admin nurses quit, and we’re a little behind. Give me a second.”
“Kellan, I’ve got this, and Will already said that they can come back there.
” Thatcher moved forward with an authoritative grace in his steps.
He had been a decent hockey player along with me, as well as a football player with Callum.
But instead of going into sports, he’d ended up barely going to college.
But that’s what happened when you had twins when you were eighteen.
He had raised those twins as a single dad with his parents’ help, and then eight years later, he’d ended up with another kid.
Still a single dad, working odd hours and kicking ass.
Our lives had diverged so much in the past decade that it was hard to believe we had ever been on a similar path.
But now he was the captain of the entire firehouse, taking my dad’s old job, and it almost felt full circle.
“The sheriff and his deputies had to go out and take another call. Drunk and disorderly out in the trailer park, and I think you’re going to get a few people in here,” Thatcher said to Kellan. The doctor looked exhausted and nodded.
“Do you want to call Tess, or should I?” he asked.
Tess was their shared nanny. Although each of them had older teenagers who could stay home alone and watch the younger kids, neither one of them wanted to put the responsibility of raising their younger siblings on their shoulders.
So Tess bounced from each home, making sure the kids got to every sporting event and appointment that both Thatcher and Kellan missed.
It was an odd situation that somehow worked well because the families got along so nicely.
But at that moment, while I cared about both families, I knew Lizzie was about to break free and smash through the closed doors behind them.
“Okay, you can go back there, but I need to talk with Will to make sure that I can tell you exactly what happened.” Kellan held up his hand.
“I realize that this is a small town and we’re all practically family, but there are rules, and Will is eighteen.
An adult. And considering who his emergency contacts are listed as, well…
” He let his voice trail off, and Thatcher winced.
Lizzie was already moving, and I followed her with the doctor and fire captain right on our heels. My phone buzzed, and I took a quick glance at it, though Lizzie and Will were more important at the moment.
At the sight of the unknown number and threatening texts, my blood chilled even further. Thankfully, Lizzie didn’t see me, and I blanked my expression before anyone could ask me what was wrong beyond the obvious. I’d deal with it later.
Just like I’d dealt with the other eleven texts so far.
“What happened?” I asked Thatcher.
“Let Kellan do his job first. I jumped the gun by even calling you guys. But Sheriff Grayson told me what happened with Elizabeth, and I figured she’d want to know.
I was mighty surprised that you were the one answering her phone.
” He stuck his tongue against the inside of his cheek, and I narrowed my gaze.
“Not now.”
“Considering your woman just shouted that Will was your family. As in both of your families, I don’t think you’re going to be able to keep anything private anytime soon.
And once the town knows, there’s only so many secrets we can keep.
” His eyes darkened for a moment, and I had to wonder exactly what secrets Thatcher had to keep on a daily basis.
“Will,” Lizzie gasped, and then she was by the kid’s side.
As a hockey player, I had been hurt before. I had seen my fair share of black eyes and busted lips, loose and lost teeth, fractured collarbones, and, of course, my infamous skate to the eyebrow.
And yet nothing could have prepared me to see Will in that hospital bed.
“I’m fine,” the kid rasped through swollen lips, and what I hoped wasn’t a busted eye socket.
“You’re not fine, but we’re here. And you’re stuck with me being a mother hen. It’s what I do.”
“She’s always been this way,” Thatcher drawled, and I swallowed hard, not sure what I was supposed to say.
“While you and Thatcher were speaking, I went over a few things with Elizabeth, but come on, let’s talk,” Kellan said, running his hand over his five o’clock shadow.
Or was that a fourteen-hour shadow at this point?
Kellan usually wasn’t this jumpy or nervous, but then again, with apparently two nurses calling out, or quitting altogether, he had to be exhausted.
Ashford Creek didn’t have a full hospital.
But we did have a decent clinic that was turning into a decent hospital.
I knew there was going to be funding and other shit that had to come with it, things and bureaucracy that I had no idea how to even comprehend, but Kellan and a couple of temporary traveling doctors made this place work.
Along with the nursing staff, who I knew worked their asses off.
There were other clinics in every nearby town, and a large hospital less than an hour away, but Kellan took the brunt of it in this area.
“When was the last time you slept?” I asked as I turned to follow the doctor.
“I’ll be right back,” I said to Lizzie and Will before I walked away completely. “Do you want some coffee?” I asked Lizzie.
“We’re good. We’re just going to sit here for a minute, and Will is going to stop shifting and hurting himself.”
“I’m fine, Ms. E.”
She gave him an exasperated look, but I saw the panic in her eyes. I nodded tightly and hoped she saw the determination in my face. We’d figure out what happened and get down to the basics. There was no way we were going to let Will leave this hospital without us.
I didn’t know exactly when we had become an us, maybe we had always been, and the town would just have to deal with that.
As were we.
“She wouldn’t want this coffee anyway,” Kellan stated as he walked into what had to be some form of lounge. The lighting blinked in and out, and the fridge looked as if it had seen better days.
“Holy hell,” I grumbled.
“County kickbacks, and well, the town does what it can, but there’s only so much shitty insurance can do.
It’s not much, but it’s home.” He poured dark coffee into a cup, and I told myself right then and there, I was going to buy this man and his people at least a better coffee machine and coffee.
Maybe a fridge that didn’t look as if the door was going to fall off. And a fresh coat of paint.
I had all this money, and I tried to donate where I could and help my family, but this was my town. I might not live here full-time, and I might have avoided it for reasons of my own, but if this is what my town clinic looked like, I needed to find a way to fix it.
“Don’t look at me like that. We’re doing fine. The patient rooms and our equipment are much better in terms of the era we’re living in. The staff room doesn’t really get much love.”
“Seriously though, when have you slept last?” Thatcher asked, taking the offered cup of coffee. I shook my head, knowing that I was going to be the bougie prince at that.
The fire captain and town doctor didn’t seem to mind.
I’d catch heat for it later, but then again, I would catch heat for a whole shit ton of things I had done tonight.
“I was supposed to be off six hours ago, and I’m pissed, but there’s not much I can do about it now. I missed chicken nugget dinner with Quinn, and I’m going to have to make it up to him.”
Quinn was his youngest, and I knew his most sensitive. With what they had all gone through over the past few years, it was no wonder.
“They haven’t hired another full-time doctor yet?”
“It’s not in the town budget.”
“And town parades are?” I growled. “Fuck, please tell me that they didn’t use hospital money in order to have that stupid parade when I came home?”
“Yes, dearest prince. Our hard-earned money goes towards you and your beautification, just so you know how much you’re loved. The fatted calf was expensive this year, but we made do.” Thatcher winked as he said it, and I grit my teeth.
“Thatch.”
“It’s a different budget. A different thing altogether. Any town events come from donations and the Rotary budget. Not taxes. Don’t worry, you are not taking vitamins out of babies’ mouths.”
“I don’t know shit like this. I just stop pucks.” I shook my head. “I should probably learn how to do things like this.”