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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

When the blue curtain on my hospital stall whips back, I crack open my tired eyelids, expecting to see Nurse Hardass glaring at me.

My scowl instantly vanishes.

It’s Avery. Her eyes are wild. Tears have streaked down her face. She’s shaking all over.

My heart catapults right out of my chest.

Her lip trembles as we stare at each other. She exhales my name before her hand covers her mouth.

I can hardly breathe as my throat clenches hard with emotion.

When she launches herself at me, I catch her in my arms and pull her into my lap. Burying my face in her hair, I drag in her sweet scent. “Hey, it’s okay.”

Crying hard, she buries her face in my neck. “It’s not okay.”

“I’m fine. It’s just a flesh wound. Some cleaning, some stitches, and I’m all good.”

Her breath is ragged against my good shoulder. Her fingers dig into my hand like she’s about to slip overboard.

“I’m okay. Really. I promise.”

“You should have called me, you jerk.”

Fuck, I should have. Guilt hits me hard. “I’ve been a little busy. My phone is in the truck, which is still on the scene. The men wouldn’t let me drive. Made me ride in a damned ambulance.”

She squeezes me harder. “I don’t care. You should have called me.”

My heart’s flipping around like a kid on a merry-go-round. I kiss the top of her head. “Take a breath, babe. I’m alive and kicking.”

“I can’t believe no one said you were just getting stitches. All the info that I got was that you were injured and at the hospital. Tim looked like he’d lost his best friend. I almost keeled over on the spot when he told me you were at the hospital. I tore out of there like a mad woman. I didn’t even tell anyone where I was going."

She sits up suddenly in my arms, her eyes wide with distress. “Oh, my god, Brock. They’ll know. They’ll know about us because I ran out of there like a maniac.”

When I cup her face in my hands, I hear a very unwelcome, “Ahem,” from across the room.

Son of a bitch. As if taking a piece of flying metal in the shoulder wasn’t bad enough, standing at the edge of the curtain’s circumference is a trio of disbelieving faces. My friends Raven and Bryce Archer, and my very unhappy son.

Well, fuck.

Avery goes instantly rigid, then climbs off the bed. She wraps her arms tightly around herself and presses her lips completely flat.

Linc blinks at last, and closes his gaping mouth, but it’s only to hiss angrily at me. “See. I knew it.”

Before any of us can say a word, he turns on his heels and storms off.

Bryce looks about as uncomfortable as anyone I’ve ever seen. “I’ll just go check on him.”

“No, I’ll go.” I kick my legs over the side of the bed. “I just need to find where they stashed my boots.” Inconveniently, at that exact instant, Nurse Hardass shows up, pushing her way between Bryce and Raven.

“You will not!” she snaps as she glares at every one of us at one time.

Physically, it seems impossible that her eyes can do that, but somehow, she does. With a voice like a drill instructor, she says, “Now! Get back in that bed.”

“I’ve got a situation?—”

“You’re about to have another situation. Sit down or do your own damned stitches.”

The woman and I stare at each other through slitted eyes. She raises a brow. “I’ll give you a suture kit. You and your girlfriend can watch YouTube and figure it out.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” I throw my feet back up on the bed.

Bryce, grimaces. “I’ll just go check on Lincoln. You guys do your thing here. I’m sure it won’t take long.”

Avery holds up her hands. “Wait. Don’t go. I think it might be best if I talk to Lincoln. We have some things to work out.”

Before I have time to say anything, she’s gone, ponytail flying as she races beyond the curtain heading the same direction that Lincoln went.

I barely even feel it when the nurse starts roughly debriding my shoulder. The pain in my head and my chest is too great.

Raven looks like she’s got a migraine too. “I’m sorry if we made a mess out of this. I didn’t know anyone was back here with you. Linc wanted to see you.”

“Don’t worry. How did you know I was here?”

“Linc saw it on the news. He called us to come get him and bring him here.”

Jesus. I bet the kid was scared out of his head. Then to see Avery in my arms…

“He didn’t know about your… friend?” Raven asks.

“No. I haven’t told him yet.”

Bryce pinches the bridge of his nose and shakes his head. “Sorry, man. That’s heavy. I know things have been tense with Lincoln.”

“This convo was coming. I just didn’t know how to tell Linc, so I put it off. I guess that backfired.”

I grunt when the nurse sticks my shoulder with a needle full of lidocaine. She grins triumphantly. I close my eyes and drop my head back on the bed.

If I weren’t so happy about Avery caring about me, I’d say the day was totally fucked. But all I can think about is the look of relief in her eyes when she saw I was okay.

Now I just need to figure out how to make amends with Linc because I know he’ll eventually learn to love her too.

He has to. There’s no other choice.

Oh yeah, and I’ve got to figure out how to save our jobs.