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“I’m going with you.”
I smiled, loving that she wasn’t asking permission. “Yes, ma’am.”
Oak called a friend to work the door so that he could pull double duty as manager and hostess. Ten minutes later, Gia and I were out the door. When we got inside my car, she was still lamenting over the news I’d shared.
“I feel so bad for Lauren. She looked awful when she ran out. I hate to say it, because I’m certain she’s in a lot of pain right now…but she’s better off finding out now about Elliott. It would be so much harder for her to go through all of this if they had a family.”
I hesitated to put the key into the ignition. Crap.
“What’s wrong?” Gia asked.
I shifted in my seat to face her. “You make it fucking impossible to keep shit from you.”
“What are you talking about?”
I shook my head. “I left out part of what Lauren just told me. I didn’t want to upset you.”
“What did she say?”
I took a deep breath. “Lauren’s seven weeks pregnant.”
Gia stared at me for a long time. I don’t know how I expected her to react, but it certainly wasn’t what she did next.
She started to laugh. At first lightly, but that turned into a full-fledged belly laugh. I couldn’t help but join in. The entire fucking situation was just ludicrous. This shit was better than a Jerry Springer episode. We laughed so hard that Gia snorted and said she had to pee. Then we laughed harder.
But the sad part was…we were laughing at exactly what had happened to my mother and Elliott’s mother—twenty-eight years ago.
Round two, here we come.“You made the right decision.” Gia rested her hand on my bouncing leg to settle it. “The doctors are going to come through those doors anytime now and tell us that he’s fine.”
After we spoke to the doctors last night, I signed the consent forms for Edward’s surgery. We slept a few hours at the nearby Hilton again and then came back this morning in time to send him off for his operation. They’d wheeled him in about four hours ago, saying it should take about three and a half. Gia assumed what I’d been distracted and freaked out about was Edward, which was only partially true.
Even though Gia and I had a good laugh over the insanity of Lauren being pregnant, it brought a lot of bad memories back to the forefront of my mind. Lauren’s kid would be like Elliott growing up…the heir apparent. Gia’s would be like me in this awful family dynamic of having a father who didn’t give a flying fuck about his bastard child. I didn’t think I could handle another lifetime of shit that came along with being intertwined with that family. Of course, this new shit had to rear its ugly head just as I was easing my way back to Gia—thinking it could work for us. But doubt crept back in again now. And it made me fucking miserable. Because time was running out, and I knew I needed to either end this with Gia and let her move on, or get the fuck over myself.
A voice called my name and snapped me out of my thoughts. “Mr. Rushmore?”
Gia and I stood as the doctor who performed Edward’s surgery walked over.
He pulled the paper mask from his mouth and slipped the blue matching hat from his head. “Good news. Your father did great. We were able to remove the aneurysm and repair the artery wall without too much bleeding.”
“That’s great,” I said. I didn’t want to care, but at the same time, I couldn’t help feeling relieved that he pulled through.
“He’s got a very long road to recovery.” The doctor put a hand on my shoulder. “But I’m optimistic he’ll make it there. It won’t be easy. Your father’s going to need you now, more than ever.”
I was just about to thank him when a voice from behind me cut me off. A drunk, slurring, evil voice.
“No one ever needed you.”Rookie move. You never grab the arm of a guy in a fight.
That part I remembered. Yet I couldn’t for the life of me recall what Rush had said you should do when you break up a fight. He’d told me something after I stupidly got in the middle of that rooftop brawl at The Heights months ago. Rush and Elliott were nose to nose since the doctor left the waiting room, and I was pretty sure things were about to get ugly.
“Rush,” I said. He didn’t even hear me.
“Get the fuck out of here. We don’t need you hanging around.” Elliott slurred his words.
Rush spoke between clenched teeth. “Yeah? Someone has to act like a man and stick around to make decisions. By the way, your father had a fatal aneurysm in his stomach. He had it removed today and lived through it. You’re welcome.”
