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“Ma,” Connor said patiently. “She doesn’t want you to go. I’ll go.”
“Of course I’m going! You’re mydaughter. You’re my first priority.” Mom was scanning for Dad, eager to win the Concerned Parent award, not that there was any competition. “Oh, and Stan had to leave. Ulcerative colitis, very messy.” Mom groped for her free hand, hitting her in the sore spot on her head.
“Ow!”
Lucas’s hand tightened on hers. Was he about to laugh?
She yanked both hands free from both irritating people. “Gerard,” she said to the big guy, “don’t I get to pick who comes with me?”
“It’s usually next of kin, usually. How much is nine times seven?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never known.”
“Her IQ is somewhere around room temperature,” Connor said.
“Just for that, you can’t ride in the ambulance, either,” she said. “Gerard! Can we please get going?”
As always, it seemed as if the ambulance corps had to work on their novels or something. Emergency services has been ruined by iPads...she could’ve sworn that Jessica was looking at dresses on ModCloth.com. Jeremy, who’d been great the first few minutes after she’d come to, was now manipulating Carol Robinson’s right arm, earning plenty of giggles and squeals of delight.
“What’s twelve times nine?” Gerard asked.
“Can we stop with the math?” she snapped. “I want to get this over with and go home. Oh, hey, Levi. Where’s Faith?”
“I’m right here,” Faith said. “You okay? Want me to come with you?”
“That’d be great. Thanks, pal.”
“Oh, hang on, I have to puke. Be right back.”
“Next,” Colleen said as Faith bolted, Levi on her heels.
Gerard patted her leg. “Ready to take a ride?”
“I’ve been ready for thirty minutes, Gerard.”
“Are you complaining? Because I can tell Ned to hit a lot of potholes on the way to the E.R.” He checked something on his iPad. “Hey, Yanks are up by five. So who’s going with you?”
“I am,” Mom and Connor said in unison.
Lucas looked at her. “I am,” he said.
“He is,” Colleen agreed.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THECHAIRSINthe waiting room were ridiculously uncomfortable. That, and Connor O’Rourke glaring at him made for a long evening.
When they got to the emergency room, Colleen sent Lucas to wait, and the nurse glared at him until he obeyed. He didn’t like being away from her, and he didn’t like how quiet she’d gotten in the ambulance. She seemed fine, going through her shtick with Gerard, but there was something else going on, too.
Things were getting complicated.
For a long time, he’d very effectively put aside his feelings for Colleen. From that moment when Ellen had told him she was pregnant, he gave up the right to think about Colleen, and certainly to miss her.
But those feelings ran under his life like a subterranean river, and every once in a while, something would crumble, undermined by the current. He dreamt of her smiling with those clear, dark gray eyes, that wise, knowing smile, and he’d follow her into an empty room, thinking finally, finally they were together again...and then he’d jerk awake, and hear Ellen’s soft breathing and remember that he had a wife now. He’d taken vows. He couldn’t betray that with memories of someone else.
But.
She was always there, that river of dark, fast water.
