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Tripp grinned at me. “You did? It smells delicious, sweetheart.” He brushed his cool lips to my forehead, and I blushed so red, heat radiated from my cheeks. “Go on and sit down in the living room. I’ll get us both a plate and meet you in there.”
I quickly left the guys in the kitchen and settled onto the couch, listening as they all began bickering, though I could hear the affection in their words alongside it.
It felt good to belong to a family again. I’d missed it terribly.
A long sigh slid from my lungs as I rinsed the suds out of my hair, exhaustion weighing on my muscles. After dinner, Eli decided to pull out Monopoly, and we’d played for a heck of a lot longer than I thought we would. It was well after midnight, and I was normally in bed long before now. My schedule was now all weird, and I just wanted to crawl into bed.
Humming under my breath, I grabbed my poof and reached for my body wash. Dizziness washed over me, and I reached out to grab hold of something to stabilize myself. “Tripp,” I called once it passed. Only when I turned to shut the water off, it hit me again, and this time, I stumbled since I was turning, the slick shower floor sending me down.
The last thing I remembered was the bathroom door opening and my head smacking against the side of the tub.
CHAPTER 12
Tripp
“Tripp!” I heard Everlee call, and by the sound of her voice, I immediately knew something was wrong. I lurched off the couch, spilling my coffee when I banged my knee against the table. But I barely paid the bloom of pain any mind as I sprinted for the hallway, slamming into our bedroom.
I shoved the bathroom door open right as I saw Everlee fall. I pushed forward, trying to catch her, but I didn’t move fast enough, and her head smacked against the side of the tub. “Everlee!” I shouted. I quickly turned the water off so it wasn’t smacking her in the face anymore and tugged her naked body into my arms. I was trembling, my breath sawing in and out of my lungs.
“Tripp?” Nash called from the hallway. “Everything okay?”
“Get the truck started,” I barked over my shoulder. I shoved all of my fear to the back of my mind and grabbed the test kit out of the bathroom drawer. After pricking her finger, I impatiently waited for it to read—
Holy shit.
Her sugar was too low—nearly as low as it’d been when she’d seized—but I’d watched her administer insulin to herself. I clenched my jaw and quickly wrapped the towel around her, and once she was wrapped in the towel, I snatched the glucagon shot out of the bathroom drawer and injected it into her thigh.
I managed to get a loose dress on her before I swept her up into my arms and carried her out of the house, her wet hair quickly freezing in the cold temperatures. Snow crunched under my boots as I rushed to the truck, needing to get her out of the cold.
She still hadn’t woken up, though color was returning to her cheeks. Which could only mean that when she hit the side of the tub, she knocked herself out cold.
She possibly had a pretty bad concussion.
Once I had her laid out in the backseat, I jumped into the passenger seat, and Nash pulled off, heading toward the drive that would lead us off the ranch before I even had my door shut. I quickly buckled myself in and scrubbed my hands through my hair, blowing out a harsh breath.
She’d called for me, and I still hadn’t gotten there in time. Would I ever get this right with her?
“Breathe, man,” Nash said quietly as soon as we hit the highway. He gunned my truck engine, speeding toward the nearest hospital. “She’s going to be okay.”
I swallowed thickly, shaking my head. “She shouted for me, Nash. You heard her. And I still didn’t get to her in time.”
Nash shook his head. “Don’t go there, Tripp. You’ll drive yourself crazy with all of the possible what-if scenarios. How was her sugar when you got to her?”
“Low,” I growled. I thrust my hands through my hair, tugging on the ends to the point my scalp smarted. “We all watched her administer insulin to herself, Nash.”
He nodded. “There’s a possibility she didn’t do something right, Tripp. There are so many things to take into account; you know this. But you also heard the doctor—it’s going to take a little bit of time to get her blood sugar under control. You’re doing an incredible job, and she’s getting healthier. All of us can see it. Don’t give up now. Don’t let this shit set the two of you back, you hear me?”
I just nodded, watching as we quickly got closer and closer to town. As soon as Nash pulled up in front of the hospital’s emergency room entrance, I got out, my boots thumping on the ground. I wrenched open the back door and gently eased Everlee out, cradling her to my chest. I shoved the door back shut with my foot and then rushed into the ER, heading straight for the desk.
Immediately, the receptionist paged for a gurney and a nurse. “I’ll have you fill out her information for us once she’s in a room,” the receptionist told me. “You are…”
“Tripp Walker, her husband,” I quickly answered.
She nodded. A nurse bustled out of the back, and she smiled warmly at me. “Another mishap?” she asked me.
I nodded. “I just can’t seem to get this right,” I muttered as I gently laid Everlee on the gurney. I followed the nurse through a set of double doors and to the right. We were placed into the room directly across from the nurse’s station.
“Tell me what happened.”
