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I winced.
Visibly and mentally.
And, of course, Landry chose that moment to wake up fully and get with the party as well.
I parked myself in the corner and listened, adding my two cents here and there while I soaked in her words. All the while, I watched Pru…and she was pissed.
***
An hour later, after making sure that Wade was settled, and he wasn’t going to lose his shit, I went back down to the ER in search of the woman that probably wanted to throat punch me.
“She’s been called to the principal’s office.”
I turned to see her sister, Phoebe, leaning back in a chair staring at me with sympathy.
The feeling of dread slithered its way through my body once more.
“Kelley?” I guessed.
“Kelley,” she confirmed.
“Why?” I questioned.
“Kelley found out that she allowed y’all to stay in the room, and that she begged the doctor to allow you to. He wasn’t happy about it.” She paused. “Neither was my mother, who had to come down hard on her in the middle of the ER about five minutes ago.”
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Pretty much,” Phoebe confirmed. “Have fun dealing with that. You might want to get her something to eat from the cafeteria. She’s on her lunch break as of right now.”
I walked to the hallway the security guard had led me to a couple of days ago, and then waited down the hall, out of sight, but close enough to hear every single word that came out of Kelley’s mouth.
And, with each word, I wanted to rip his balls off.
“My girl can hold a grudge.”
I looked over to find Cheyenne standing with her arms crossed over her chest, staring at not me, but the open door that she could also hear Pru getting ripped a new one.
“If he’s head of the board of directors, why does he deal with the reprimanding of ER staff?” I asked, sounding calm but feeling anything but.
“Kelley is head of the board of the directors, but he’s also the son of the CEO of the hospital. His grandfather is a huge donor as well. Essentially, he’s my boss, minus my firing and hiring powers. So, really all he can do is lecture and bitch. If he wants to fire someone, he has to go through me. If I refuse, he’ll have to go above my head, which I have no doubt in my mind that he’d do.”
I wanted to junk punch the man.
“He’s a douchebag, and I want to fuck his face up with my fist,” I muttered as Kelley droned on.
“Welcome to the club,” she snorted. “I came down here from labor and delivery about four years ago because I wanted a change of pace. Something that would allow me to come home at normal hours. And it was the worst mistake of my life. Kelley has done nothing but make my life a living hell since I made the decision.”
“And now your daughter works for him, too,” I muttered, my fist clenching when I saw Kelley through the open doorway stop too close to Pru and touch her shoulder. “I want to rip his hand off.”
Cheyenne laughed softly. “Sam’s already claimed that right if the time ever comes that he’s no longer mine and Pru’s boss. You’ll have to claim his foot or something.”
I gritted my teeth. “She’s pissed as hell at me, isn’t she?”
“You shouldn’t have put her in that position,” Cheyenne agreed. “But, she’ll get over it. She’s used to catching flack from Kelley.”
“But not from you,” I pointed out.
Cheyenne shrugged. “I had to make it look good. Honestly, had I been in the same position I would’ve done the same thing. But it’s also not my decision to make whether I like certain protocols or not. And she realizes the same thing. Hopefully this never comes up again for us to have to worry about.”
My head dropped, and I studied the dirty, scuffed up soles of my boots.
I had a week left.
Seven days. One hundred and sixty-eight hours. How many fucking ever seconds.
It wasn’t long enough.
I knew that it wasn’t.
We’d known each other for a very short amount of time. Not even a drop in the bucket.
And hell, I wasn’t even sure that she’d talk to me after tonight.
“My girl’s got a good head on her shoulders,” Cheyenne said, drawing me out of my inner contemplation of how bad I’d fucked up. “If this had been her sister, Piper, I might say that you should run for cover. But Pru has always been very pragmatic and understanding. She knows the score, honey. She won’t say or do anything that’ll hurt any more than what you’re saying to yourself.”
I brought my head up and looked at Pru’s mother, who looked so much like the woman I was slowly starting to fall in love with. Hell, if I was being honest, I was already in love with her, just unwilling to admit it just yet.
