Page 17 of Brokered Betrayals
With that assurance, Aggie nodded once and left them to their own devices.
Andrew dropped into the recliner and immediately reached for the remote, earning a “this guy” look from Sawyer. Royce went straight for the snacks to settle his nerves. They’d brought an assortment of nutritious whole-grain foods and outright junk. It was only a matter of time before the jingling nerves from earlier settled in his stomach, so Royce reached for a granola bar with a sugar-free strawberry center instead of the chocolate chip cookies. The family suite was nice, but it wasn’t spacious, so Royce put the room’s other inhabitants’ needs before his own by not getting an upset stomach. Andrew didn’t suffer from the same compunction and reached for the bag of chocolate sandwich cookies.
“You can eat our food and hog our remote, but you’re not stinking up our bathroom,” Royce said.
Andrew shrugged. “Fair enough. Look, they’re re-airingThe Ocho,” he said excitedly.
“What’s that?” Sawyer asked.
“An event on ESPN8 where they feature the oddest competitions,” Andrew replied. “We’re talking dodgeball, extreme archery, and pillow fighting.”
“They once had a mullet competition,” Royce added.
“No way,” Sawyer and Andrew said.
Royce chuckled as he sat at the foot of one hospital bed. “Yes, way. And outhouse racing too.”
Sawyer sat beside him instead of taking the second bed. “I’m up for this.”
“Me too,” Andrew said as he popped out the footrest and reclined.
The three of them armchair quarterbacked one weird contest after another for the next hour until their phones chimed simultaneously with a group text notification.
Royce bolted upright from the bed with his heart in his throat. “Is it time?” he asked without checking the message.
Sawyer loosely wrapped a hand around Royce’s wrist to keep him in place. “Relax. Kelsey isn’t in labor.”
“She’s wide-awake and lonely,” Andrew said, shutting the footrest and standing up. “I can’t have that.”
“Neither can we,” Royce said. “She’s putting herself through this for our benefit.”
Sawyer stood up and laced his fingers through Royce’s. “What’s the plan for dodging Aggie on our way back to the delivery side of the ward?”
“We could just tell her that Kelsey doesn’t want to be alone,” Royce suggested.
“Kels tried that,” Andrew said, reminding Royce that he still hadn’t read the message. “Aggie told her she wasn’t trying hard enough.”
Royce released Sawyer’s hand, retrieved his phone from the bed, and tapped the notification to read Kelsey’s text.
Kelsey:Can’t sleep. Lonely. Told Aggie I wanted my people back. She said I wasn’t trying hard enough. I can sleep after Darla arrives. I need my people now.
Royce tucked his phone into his pocket. “One of us needs to create a diversion so the other two can sneak into her room. The diversionist can circle back and join us.”
“Diversionist?” Andrew asked. “Is that a real word?”
“Yes,” Sawyer replied. “And Royce is usually the man for the job, but he’s in no shape to pull it off.”
“Hey,” Royce protested, even though he knew it was true.
Puffing out his chest, Andrew said, “I’ll do it.” He turned off the television and strode to the door, pausing at the threshold. “Tell my wife I love her if I don’t make it back.” Then Andrew disappeared from sight.
Royce and Sawyer stifled their laughter and followed, closing the door behind them. They trailed behind Andrew, who walked like a hero going into battle. When he made the last turn toward the delivery suites, Royce and Sawyer hung back at the corner. Sure enough, they heard Aggie’s voice as she stopped Andrew before he reached Kelsey’s room.
“So glad I ran into you,” Andrew told her before launching into full diversion mode, asking her for directions and repeating them so badly that she had no choice but to show him the way.
They waited until Aggie’s squeaking footsteps faded before they eased around the corner to find Trinity standing in the hallway with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Hiya,” she said. “Whatcha doing?”