Page 137 of Mr. Broody

She hums and lifts her gaze to me.

“There were a lot of animals. We had elephants, hippos, crocodiles…”

“All living in the lava, huh?” She arches an eyebrow.

I want to bury my head into my hands from embarrassment.

“So, we heard that your daddy plays for the Falcons?” she continues to quiz Bodhi.

“He’s right wing.” As always, pride laces his tone.

“Pretty cool, and who is Jade to you, Bodhi?”

He looks at me, and his nose scrunches. “She’s my Jade.”

“I know she’s Jade, but who is she to you?”

“I’m Henry’s girlfriend.”

“And my friend.” With his good arm, Bodhi covers my hand with his. “She’s ours.”

My nose tickles, and my eyes sting, but I push back the tears. I am his. And he’s mine.

“Oh, that’s nice,” she says. “Okay, I think the doctor is about to come in. I assume Dad is on his way since you can’t fill out the paperwork in its entirety?”

“Yeah, can I talk to you outside?” I stand, running my free hand over Bodhi’s hair. “I’ll be right back.”

I follow the woman who is definitely not my favorite person. Although I understand them worrying that I might have intentionally hurt Bodhi, and they only have his best interests at heart, I don’t love the feeling of being put under a microscope and judged.

“So yeah, um… he’s in the middle of a game. Like, playing right now against Carolina. I have someone trying to find me a number, but…”

“Jade!” Mom waves to me from down the hall and weaves through the throng of people over to me. “Is he okay?”

“And who are you?” the woman asks.

Mom’s back straightens. “I’m Victoria Warner, and Jade is my daughter.”

“So still no one related to Bodhi?”

“We are his family. We might not be blood or legally, but we are his family. My husband is parking the car. He’ll give you everything you need.” Mom turns her back and points at the room. “In there?” I nod, and she goes on in. All I hear is, “Oh, Bodhi, you tried to save Jade. My hero.”

She’s so good with kids, you’d think I’d be better having had her as a role model.

“I guess we’ll wait for your mom’s husband then.” She rolls her eyes.

I’m pretty sure by the end of this, I’ll lose my patience with this woman.

I’m in the room with Mom and Bodhi, him telling her the entire story of the animals trying to kill us and how we had to run and jump and leap. He’s still so excited even though he’s lying in a hospital bed.

I’m tired of waiting, so I excuse myself and call Henry’s phone. It goes straight to voicemail. “Hey, Henry, it’s Jade. Could you call me when you finish your game? Um… I screwed up, and I’m really sorry. Bodhi’s fine. He’s good… well… don’t worry, he’s not in critical… oh shit. Just call me.”

Not exactly the message I should have left him. I send him a quick text asking him to call me, hoping he gets that first.

Reed walks in with his messenger bag across his chest. He doesn’t come over to me, but heads to the nurses’ station. He pulls out some paperwork, and they hand him the clipboard with the papers I couldn’t fill out.

“Hey.”

He glances at me. “I have the paperwork to act as the decision maker for Bodhi should Henry not be available. Just passed it on to the nurses.” He goes back to filling out the paperwork.

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