AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ativan,” he yawned.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“I’m not sure anyone loves you that much.” I bent down and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I’ll be back soon.”
“But I love you that much,” he grumbled. “I love you Ativan amounts.”
I chuckled and kissed him on the lips too. “I love you so much that I’m ready to become your worst enemy if you don’t get better. How’s that, sweetheart?”
He smiled drunkenly. “Sweetheart.”
Great. He’d heard the last word.
* * *
On my way out to the waiting room, I had my assistant’s wife’s voice going on a loop in my head. You don’t know how much shit nurses have to take, KC!
Rein it in, man. Rein it in.
My assistant at work was great, but his wife was next level. She took no prisoners. At the office holiday parties, she was the one who arrived with homemade cookies, the very picture of a ’50s housewife. But then she also dabbled in day-trading, online poker, and busting balls. All the partners at the firm loved her. She’d been a nurse before deciding to stay at home for a few years to raise the kids.
I pushed play on her voice over and over so that I wouldn’t put my foot in my mouth and tell Lucian’s nurse to go to hell.
Only one visitor in the ER after eight PM, and the patient has to give their consent first.
Good luck getting Lucian to consent to another visitor when he was walking on Ativan clouds.
We’d do our best, but it wasn’t even worth trying with Noa. He and I could see Lucian tomorrow; it was much more important that Cam got to go in. I suspected he’d spend the night as well.
Either way, Lucian needed to sleep. Who got to see him tonight was, in the grand scheme of things, not what mattered.
I clenched my jaw as the prickling and numbing sensations in my legs started becoming more than I could handle, and I pushed through the last set of doors. Slow night in the emergency room; aside from two older ladies, I only spotted Noa, Santiago, and Gael.
“Finally!” Noa bolted up from his chair, visibly tense and worried, and grabbed my braces from the seat next to his, then ran over to me.
A breath gusted out of me as soon as he was in my arms. One of the crutches clanked against the floor, and I squeezed him tightly.
My sweet boy—I needed him as much as I needed air. His mere presence centered me, reenergized me, and calmed me down.
I trapped the other crutch under my arm and cupped his face in my hands. Forehead to forehead, I kissed his freckled cheeks, his eyelids, his nose—and I hated the redness around his eyes. He’d been upset.
“He’s going to be okay,” I promised.
He sniffled and nodded. “What happened?”
I…didn’t know how to respond. “We don’t know for sure yet, but I guess the gist of it is that his body can’t handle that amount of stress anymore. He needs to slow down.”
Noa’s eyes welled up, and he inched away to glare at nothing. “I hate his stupid job,” he whispered.
Noticing Santiago walking toward us, I gathered Noa close and kissed the top of his head. I hated Lucian’s job too. It’d been years since he’d actually enjoyed it. Whatever drove him now was… I didn’t even know. A compulsive need to deliver. Pressure. Habit.
As Santiago reached us, Noa eased away from me, only to bend down and pick up my braces. I hadn’t even noticed he’d dropped them.
“Thanks for being here tonight,” I said.
“Don’t mention it,” Santiago replied.
I split my focus temporarily while Noa got busy with putting on my braces outside my pants. He grunted and made it as tight as he could, then slapped the Velcro straps into place. The relief was instant—not enough, but it would do for now.
