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“I will always be your friend, Mariana. Always.”
“Good.” She let out a small yawn and snuggled deeper into the seat, the barest hint of a small on her pale lips.
When we arrived at the hospital, I felt like a fish out of water, not the least of which because Mariana wasn’t my kid, but because I couldn’t answer any of the intake questions and Grant still hadn’t answered his phone. “Dammit, Grant. Where are you?” Mariana was curled up beside me in one of the hard plastic chairs, half asleep. “Luna! She’ll have answers.”
She didn’t answer either so I left an urgent message to call me back and turned my attention back to Mariana, whose groaning had increased considerably. Another good thing about small town living was that the staff didn’t stand on ceremony when it came to treating sick kids.
“All right, Munchkin, let’s get you into the exam room.” I got the little girl situated on the exam table and kept my hand in hers while the nurse took her vitals.
“We need to take a peek inside your throat now, Mariana. Is that okay?” The nurse flashed a kind smile and Mari nodded. Fifteen seconds later, Mariana struggled to breathe, her little limbs flailed frantically and I covered her little body with mine.
“Stop. We have to stop.” I looked in horror at Mari’s swollen, pale face and let out a sharp cry of surprise. “What in the hell?”
Just then I got a text message from Luna. “Allergic to cantaloupe and latex.”
“Shit. She’s allergic to latex.”
The nurse jumped back like she was coated in acid and stripped off the gloves, shoving them deep in the biohazard bin before ordering something to stop the allergic reaction. Two minutes later, Mari was calm—sort of—and the nurse wore some other type of gloves that caused no tears and no swelling. “All right, champ. Sorry about that but you did very good, Mariana. We’ll have your results soon.”
Alone again, I sat on the bed and wrapped my arms around a still sniffling Mariana and rocked her until she was calm again.
“Where in the hell do you get off?” Grant’s loud bellow scared the crap out of me and Mariana.
I pulled away from the little girl and rubbed her back. “Grant.”
“Well? Answer me.” He stood there, cutting an imposing figure with his arms crossed, his jaws clenched tight and fire bursting out of his eyes. He was angry but the truth was that he was scared, but in true macho man style, he refused to show any hint of vulnerability.
I sighed because there was nothing I could say to penetrate his anger or his fear in the moment. So, I went for a basic explanation. “The school called me because of gossip and since you weren’t answering your phone, I figured it was more important to get Mariana help. Period.”
“And you thought it was your place to get her to the hospital? She’s not even your damn kid!”
Ouch. His words hit me like a blow to the chest and I felt my skin turn to ice. “Right.” Nodding absently, I turned back to Mariana and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Love you, little girl. Feel better.” With a heavy heart and tears in my eyes, I avoided Grant’s gaze as I slipped out of the hospital room.
“Brenna, come back!”
I didn’t respond or acknowledge I’d heard his anguished plea, instead I walked faster until I was in the safety of my car. I was done with Grant.
Completely done.
I should have listened to my instincts, because they were never wrong. If I cared about a man then there was something wrong with him, always. Without a doubt.
Well that was a mistake I refused to make again. My last thought as the hospital faded from my view, was that I was glad I hadn’t told Grant how I felt about him.
Because right now, I hated him.
Grant
“You have reached Brenna and I am super busy and important.” I ended the call because I couldn’t stand to listen to her chipper voice mail message for the fiftieth time in three days. Three damn days. She never picked up the phone when I called and she didn’t respond to any attempts to reach her by text message. “This is ridiculous.”
“Problem?” Liam and Mason stood in the doorway of my office, doing a piss poor job of hiding their glee at my frustration.
“Damn right I have a problem. Brenna hasn’t responded. At all. Nothing but radio silence.” I knew I was a dick to her, knew it in the moment but my fear over Mariana had overridden all of that. “Is that all it takes for a woman to be done with you, one mistake?”
AT those words, my friends collapsed in laughter. “You haven’t even apologized yet, so it’s a little soon for you to be playing the victim, don’t you think?” Miles’ tone took the sting off his words but I wasn’t deterred.
