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“They’re here. I called them. Do you want me to have them come in?”
“Not yet.” Her eyes drifted closed again. “Tackle, you and I need to—”
I kissed her to stop her from talking. Whatever we needed to do, didn’t need to be done right now. My guess was she wanted to talk about whatever it was that had made her hide from me.
The longer I sat by her side and watched her sleep, the more I realized I would do whatever I had to, to keep her in my life.
I’d already severed ties with Nick, but if that wasn’t enough, I was ready to do whatever would be.
I think I may have dozed off when I heard the bay’s curtain open.
“Tackle? What are you doing here?”
When I stood, I woke Sloane up. “Halo, um, did your parents call you?”
“My parents? No, I’m Sloane’s ICE.”
“Huh?”
“My number is listed on Sloane’s phone in case of emergency.”
“Oh. Right. Your parents should be in the waiting room.”
“If my parents are here, why are you in with Sloane?” Halo went to the other side of the bed and leaned down to kiss his sister’s forehead. “Hey, peanut, what happened?” he asked without waiting for me to answer his first question.
“Um…” She looked up at me.
“Something called placenta previa. Evidently, it causes bleeding. The baby is fine, though.”
Halo looked from me to his sister. “Why isn’t Mom in here with you?”
Sloane reached out and took my hand.
“Wait…no. No…fucking…way.” Halo’s face turned red, and his voice got louder with every word.
“Hang on,” I said. “Let’s take this conversation outside.”
“You sonuvabitch,” he seethed.
“Outside,” I repeated, grabbing
his arm and pulling him out of the bay. I picked up my pace, knowing this thing with Halo was going to escalate quickly. Whatever we had to say to each other, shouldn’t be said in an emergency room full of people.
I went out the double doors the ambulance had pulled up to when they brought Sloane in, out to the parking lot, and stopped. Halo charged toward me, grabbing my shirt with one hand, and punching me in the face with the other.
“You goddamn bastard. You got my little sister pregnant!” he shouted, continuing to throw punches that I did little more than try to block.
“Knox!” I heard his father yell. “Stop this! Now!” His words did nothing to deter the man who had been my best friend for more than half my life from pummeling me. Only when Ben grabbed the back of Halo’s collar and yanked him away from me, did he stop.
“You okay, man?” asked one of the paramedics I recognized from earlier. “Looks like he got you pretty good.”
“I’m all right.”
“Might be a couple gashes that need to be stitched up. Let’s go in and take a look.”
“I’ll be fine.”
The guy laughed. “Let’s at least get you cleaned up, so you don’t scare the shit out of that pretty girl you knocked up.”
