Page 82 of Almost Beautiful (Beautiful 3)

I glanced over at him. His face was ashen, the sweat now beading and falling down his forehead.

“Fuck this, I’m taking you to the Emergency Room.”

Trenton said a few words that didn’t make sense, then passed out.

Dad held his head against his chest, staring ahead, clearly worried. “Travis,” Dad said. His voice was calm, but it was tinged with fear.

“Two minutes.”

Dad nodded, knowing I was driving as fast as I could.

We all bounced as I yanked the wheel and gunned the engine into the hospital entrance. The truck whined to a stop just inside the ambulance bay and I shoved the gear into park, running around to the passenger side. Dad was already stepping onto the cement.

I reached in, pulling Trenton out and lobbing him over my shoulder like he weighed nothing.

As soon as the sliding door sensed our presence and opened, the receptionist took one look at us and called for nurses. Three women in brightly colored scrubs rushed out of double automatic doors pushing a gurney.

I lowered Trenton onto his back, and the three women were already taking his vitals as they moved him toward the double doors again.

Dad looked at Trenton, and then at me.

“Go ahead, Dad. I’ll take care of it,” I said.

Dad nodded and followed his unconscious son. The doors closed, and I cleared my throat, looking at the receptionist. She seemed unfazed, using her mouse to click a few times before readying her hands to type.

“Name?” she asked.

“His name? Trenton Allen Maddox.”

She typed his name and nodded. “He’s in the system … fairly recently looks like.”

I nodded.

“Oh. He’s the one who …” Her voice trailed off, and she stopped before divulging any more information.

“Carried his girlfriend two miles with a broken arm and then set it without making a peep so he could be conscious when she woke up? Yeah, that’s him,” I said.

Her eyes widened and then she continued typing. Once she was finished, she turned to a woman behind her who was probably my age or even younger, a brunette with a pixie cut and hot pink scrubs.

“Ashley, take Mr. Maddox back to see his brother, please. They’re in two.”

Ashley stood, gesturing for me to meet her at the double doors.

We walked through triage, and then I followed her down the same white-washed hallway I’d walked down the night of Trenton’s accident.

“Your brother is pretty famous around here,” Ashley said. “People are still talking about him.” She stopped and gestured for me to enter Exam Room Two.

“Thank you,” I said, walking in. I brushed back the curtain to see Dad standing in the corner, watching the nurses just finishing up with an I.V.

Trenton was awake, but exhausted. “Hey,” he croaked.

I ran my hand over the stubble on top of my head and sighed. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Hi,” a woman in a white lab coat said, holding out her right hand. Her auburn curls framed her face, making her blue eyes look enormous.

“Travis, I’m his little brother,” I said, shaking her hand.

“Littlebrother …” she said, smiling at the tablet in her hand.