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NICKY HAD SPENTthe entire time we were at the hospital in the room with his wife, so there wasn’t any true reason for Cam to be here. His niece and nephews—he and Jessica were their guardians now—were too young to stay at home alone all night, but at the same time too old to need much supervision. Still, we kept an eye on the three of them. Elin, the oldest, kept her two younger brothers in check without our help.
By two in the morning, the boys were dropping off, dozing in their seats in the waiting room. Elin occasionally got up to go visit her aunt and uncle, giving us status updates when she came back. More often, she had her nose right up against her phone, texting like crazy.
“Who do you think she’s talking to this late?” I asked Cam, dropping my voice so she wouldn’t hear me from across the way.
“She’s fourteen. I bet all her friends are up right now, whether school is happening tomorrow or not.” He laughed, slipping his phone out of his pocket to check for messages. “Soupy’s oldest is her best friend. Those two are almost inseparable. That’d be my guess.” He scrolled through a few screens before settling on something and pausing to read. “Sounds like Koz’s party was something else.”
I yawned, stretching my arms overhead. These waiting room chairs were murder on my butt. “You wish you were there instead of here?”
“Sara would kill me if I was there, based on the pictures I’m seeing.”
I raised a brow and stifled a laugh.
“Don’t say a word,” he grumbled, shoving his phone back in his pocket.
I drew my fingers across my lips, then tossed the pretend key over my shoulder. “Who sent you pictures, anyway? Is someone trying to land you in trouble with your wife?”
“Doubtful. They’re just being guys.”
His phone buzzed again, but he ignored it.
“You don’t want to see more?”
“Not particularly.”
“Liar.”
“Look who’s talking,” he shot back.
Better not to go back there, since I’d gotten him to drop the subject when we’d arrived at the hospital. I bit down on my tongue to keep from putting my foot in my mouth. “What if it’s someone else? Could be Nicky,” I pointed out.
Cam scowled and dug out his phone, glaring at me. Apparently someone was calling, not texting. He swiped his thumb across the screen and answered it. “What?” he demanded. I couldn’t hear the person on the other end well enough to make out what they were saying, let alone determine who it was. A couple of moments passed with Cam listening. “What the hell did you do?” He glanced over at me and shook his head, his expression not giving a darned thing away to me. “I’m at the hospital with Nicky and Jessica. The kids are here. I can’t go off and leave them in the waiting room.” Then silence again. “Because they’re fucking kids, Harry. Try 501 or one of the other guys at Koz’s party.” A couple more beats passed by, and Cam got up to pace. “Well, what do you want me to do? I can’t make those guys sober up in the next five minutes. I can’t wake Babs or someone else up if you can’t.”
I found myself leaning forward in my seat to hear him as he walked, trying to figure out what sort of trouble Harry had gotten himself into.
“Call Bergy or Webs. That’s what you should do.” He walked back in my direction, not paying any attention at all to me. “Because if you’re in jail, you’ve got to have someone bail you out. And they’re going to find out eventually. Might as well let them know what the hell’s going on now so you don’t surprise them with it. Maybe they can start figuring out how to deal with the media…” His voice trailed off as he stalked down the hall.
Jail? Admittedly, the only things I knew about Harry were that he was one of Cam’s teammates and his hair was as red as could be, but I never would have pegged him as one who’d do anything to land himself in jail. What on earth was going on?
I didn’t have long to wonder because as soon as my brother disappeared down the hall, Levi came walking in, filling the space Cam had vacated only moments ago. He was staring down at his phone, not paying attention to where he was going until he practically tripped over my feet, crossed at the ankles.
“Sorry, wasn’t paying attention to where I was going,” he said, slurring the words slightly and glancing up from his phone. Then his eyes met mine. He reeked of beer, but he smiled at me, sweet and cocky all at once. That combination only lasted a few moments, soon dissipating into a pained grimace. “Cadence,” he breathed. “Why are you at the hospital? Are you okay?” He felt my forehead with the back of the hand holding his phone, as if checking me for fever, of all the ridiculous things he could have done.
“I’m fine. Better than you are,” I teased.
He raised a brow, like he doubted me, but that slight change in his position was all it took to make him sway where he stood. He had to be as drunk as I’d ever seen a person.
I reached up a hand to grab hold of his arm and steady him. “Maybe you should sit down.”
“Maybe I should.” So he did. Not very gracefully. He plopped down into the seat next to me so hard it nearly skittered backward across the floor. If it had been against a wall, he might have caused some damage from the force. “I’m a bit drunk.”
“More than a bit, I’d say. Please tell me you didn’t drive here.” I had the awful sense that my note was behind it, too.
He shook his head. “Ghost has all the guys’ keys. Took a cab.”
That was a relief. “So why are you here?” Never mind the fact that he’d asked me the same thing and I hadn’t answered. As drunk as he was, I doubted he could remember his own name for long, let alone anything more pressing.
“Because there aren’t enough beers or strippers in the world to wipe your face from my mind.”
