AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shake my head, unable to look away.
“His girlfriend just overdosed on heroin and fentanyl,” Trent says, his gaze also locked on Kasen.
If this is hard for me, I can’t imagine what this is like for Trent.
The paramedics move around him and then give him something, both of them working efficiently, but their words are lost on me.The whole world feels like I’m in a tunnel, a whooshing in my ears as I try to process what’s happening.
But I can’t.
Because none of this feels fucking real.
The only relief is that these paramedics are moving fast and urgent, so there’s still a chance he can be saved.They get him on the stretcher and run him out, one of them already on the phone to a local hospital.
They tell us where they’re going, and we let them know we’ll be right behind them.Trent calls Tristan while I call Robbie, and we all agree to meet at the hospital.
But I have one more call to make, and just when I think it’s going to go to voicemail, she answers.
My voice sounds as broken as I feel as I urgently whisper, “I need you.”
Hospital waiting rooms have this weird effect on time.It slows to a glacial pace while you wait for relief or devastation.We’ve been waiting for thirty minutes when Tamsin walks through the automatic double doors like a vision sent from heaven.
She scans the room, her eyes frantic as she searches for me.I stand so she can see me better since there are several other clusters of people here and I need her.I need her more than I’ve ever needed anyone in my entire life.Our gazes connect, and it’s like a lock clicking into place.Suddenly my world doesn’t feel quite so off-kilter.
“Tamsin—” She’s up on her tiptoes, her lips pressed against mine before I can get any other words out of my mouth.I wrap my arms around her, holding her close against my body and absorbing her warmth.
When we break the kiss, I lean my forehead on hers and say, “I’m so sorry.”
“I know.We’ll talk about it later.”
“Are we going to be okay?”I can’t sit here with her and worry about where things are with usandworry about whether or not we got to Kasen in time.
She cups my cheek and brushes her thumb against my lips, her eyes softening as her gaze traces my face after so many days apart.Her gaze settles on mine, and she stares at me as if she’s searching for something.After a few moments, she must find it because she gives me another sweet kiss and then whispers against my lips, “We’re going to be okay.”
Thank God.
I settle back into my seat and pull her onto my lap, holding her as tight as I can without looking like a clingy bastard or hurting her.
Fuck, I never want to hurt her again.
After that, time slows again.Every minute feels like hours, hours feel like days, until finally a doctor walks out and heads in our direction.
“I’m looking for Kasen Stone’s family.”
“We’re his family,” Trent says, stepping into the band papa role he’s been designated all these years.“How is he?”
“He’s alive.You caught him in time, and fortunately he hadn’t been mixing his drugs.I understand there was an overdose by a friend of his?”
Robbie nods, Jolie at his side where she’s been holding his hand for the past several hours.“Kasen said she’d been using heroin and fentanyl.”
The doctor nods sadly, his eyes getting a faraway look in them that makes me think he sees a lot more of that than he’d like.
“Well, lucky for your friend—if you can call it luck—he only took heroin.He was given naloxone on site which was able to halt his overdose temporarily.We were able to further stabilize him here with more naloxone and IV fluids.He’s going to be okay, but it’ll be a long road to recovery.”
“When can we see him?”Trent asks.
“We want to observe him a little longer, even though he’s mostly in the clear, before we let visitors back, so it’ll be another hour or two at least and then I’d recommend only one at a time.He’s been through a lot tonight.”
We all have.
“I’ll stay,” Robbie says immediately.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, babe.You look beat, and you’ve taken like twenty Tums for indigestion.You’ve been running yourself ragged and were complaining about being lightheaded.We should go home so you can get some rest, and then we can come back first thing in the morning,” Jolie says, rubbing her hand in gentle circles on his back.
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” the doctor adds.“It’ll allow Kasen more time to recover before he sees visitors.”
“We’ll come back tomorrow and take shifts with him,” Trent declares, meeting all of our eyes in turn to check in and see how we feel about that.
We all nod in agreement and head out.As I step outside the doors of the hospital, I stop and take a deep cleansing breath of fresh air—or as fresh as you can get with the smog in LA.Tamsin stops next to me, her hand clasped in mine and offering more comfort with that one touch than she could ever know.
