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“I didn’t, either.”
“Mmm.” A low sound came from the bed and we both shot to our feet to lean over Jude. Her small form was wrapped in a pale green cotton blanket, and she was frighteningly pale and still.
“Jude?”
Her eyelids fluttered at Ezra’s voice and I reached out to curl my hand around hers. “We’re here, Pinky.”
Another moment passed and then her eyes, clear and crystalline blue, looked bemusedly up at me. “Wha…?” Her voice was hoarse. Groggy.
“You’re all right, sweetheart.” I tried to smile and inject authority into my voice, but it was damn hard. She had scared me to death.
She tried to sit up, and as one Ezra and I pushed her gently back to the bed. “You’re in the hospital. You had a bad asthma attack.”
“Fuck.” She settled, closing her eyes. “I’m so sorry, guys.”
Ezra groaned. “What the hell are you apologizing for? You say you’re sorry when you step on someone’s foot, roomie, not when you have a medical emergency.”
Jude’s eyes filled with tears and I eased myself beside her on the bed, lifting her so she fit perfectly into the drape of my arm. She immediately burrowed into me, laying one arm across my stomach. “Why didn’t you say something, Pink?” Bringing a hand up, I stroked the ends of her hair. “Last night, I mean.”
She shifted. “It wasn’t intentional. It just came on really fast. It happens sometimes.”
My arm tightened around her and I forced myself to ease up. “You scared the shit out of us.”
“I’m sorry… scared you…”
Glancing down, I saw that she had fallen asleep again. I brushed a piece of hair out of her face and looked over at Ezra. “Why don’t you go grab something to eat? I’ll stay. Might nap.” Now that she’d woken and talked, I felt better about falling asleep, more assured she would be all right.
“Yeah, I’ll do that.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead, then left the room. I gave myself a second to think about the fact that his display of affection didn’t bother me, then gave a mental shrug and surrendered to fatigue.
Jude could choose one of us, or… choose all of us. I knew which one I was hoping for, and it didn’t end with me.
Chapter 32: Gale
Iglanced at the text as I stepped off the elevator.
Room 304N.
I had a bag draped over my shoulder with a laptop, a charger, a couple pairs of pajamas, and a handful of lacy underthings I didn’t want to dwell on too long.
Jude was in the hospital.
This wasn’t the time to be obsessing over her underwear.
I found the room, and hovered outside the closed door for a minute, hand outstretched uncertainly. Would she even want to see me? Maybe I should just text Baron, and have him come out to pick the bag up. It would keep things from getting awkward, and I wouldn’t have to see—
I swallowed. Put my forehead against the door.Pull yourself together, asshole.It’s not like she was dying. It was an asthma attack.
Intellectually, I understood this. All the same, I couldn’t stop an image of my mother from floating to the forefront of my memories, an image of when she’d overdosed and I’d had to call for an ambulance. I remembered her pallor, and the feeling of utter helplessness that had seized me. The paramedics hunched over her, administering Narcan and pumping on her chest. This was completely different, and yet the feel was the same. Rage, and helplessness.
“What are you doing?”
I jerked upright to see Ezra a few feet away, a drink carrier and a couple of bags in his hands. “Nothing. Trying to hear if she’s awake.”
“She fell back asleep a little while ago. I’m hoping Baron did, too. He didn’t sleep at all last night.”
I nodded and quietly opened the door a crack, peeping in. Baron was on the narrow bed, dwarfing the girl who slept curled into him as if it was something she did every night. Bitterness rose in my throat and I pushed it away, walking in silently. Ezra followed and set the food on the desk, then tugged the bag from me and set it inside a cabinet.
I stood beside the bed, my fingers in my pockets, and looked at them. Jude had an oxygen cannula in her nose, the clear tube bisecting the lines of her face.
