Page 10 of Half Baked

Noah had been coming to meet me?

I could feel my hysteria building, but I needed to get more information before I let it completely take over.

“Is heokay?” I shook my head. What was I thinking? He’d been shot. Of course he wasn’t okay. “I mean, how bad is it?”

When he’d been shot last year, he’d nearly died. Could a person be shot twice in less than a year and survive?

Lance must have realized how badly I was spiraling because he walked over and grabbed my arms as though to keep me from falling over. “I don’t know. By the time I got there, he was already in the ambulance and on his way to the hospital.”

He’d told me how upset his mother had been after his last on-the-job injury, and how she’d begged him to quit the Memphis police force. Instead, he’d moved to Cockamamie, partly because of its supposedly low crime rate. She was going to be devastated. “Has anyone called his mother?”

Lance shook his head, his usual confidence gone. He looked utterly helpless. “I don’t know.”

The numbness was wearing off a little, and I started to cry. “I have to see him, Lance.”

He pulled me into a hug. “I know. That’s why I’m here. I’m heading there now. I figured you’d want to come with me.”

“Thank you.”

He released me and motioned to his car. “Get in.”

My hands were shaking so hard it took two tries for me to get the door open, but as soon as I was in, Lance backed out of the parking space and sped out of the lot. I pulled my phone out of my purse with shaky fingers and called Mallory to let her know what was happening. She promised to take care of everything at home and asked me to give her an update as soon as I had one.

Lance was on the phone with God knew who, trying to get information, but all they would tell him was that they were evaluating Noah in the ER.

“He’s been shot before and pulled through,” Lance said, giving me a reassuring look. “He’ll be okay.”

“Yeah.” As the news set in, a new thought occurred to me. I hoped to God he’d be okay physically, but would he be okay emotionally? I knew part of the reason he’d distanced himself from me in the past was because of the trauma of his previous injury. Would he distance himself from me even more?

What was I thinking? He was already taking a break from me. That was a hair’s-breadth away from breaking up. This might push him over the edge.

“Will he want to see me?” I whispered to myself, but Lance heard me.

He reached over and placed his hand on mine at the edge of the seat. “Of course he’ll want to see you.”

“Things have been weird with him lately,” I said, and this time I was very aware that I was the one who was babbling, telling him things he must already know. “We’re not together right now. He said he needed some space, and—”

“Maddie, I promise that he cares about you. A lot. I know something bad happened when he went home for Christmas, but he’s refused to talk about it. I take it he didn’t tell you what happened either?”

“No. Only that he needed to take a break and sort some things out.”

Lance released a long sigh. “We both know he’s kind of a mess, but I know he’s crazy about you.” He cracked a sly grin. “And now I sound like I’m in middle school. I promise, though. He’s going to want you there. He was really upset when he found out you were taking that tour on your own.”

Lance didn’t have sirens on his car, but that didn’t stop him from speeding and honking his way through stop signs and red lights until we reached the hospital.

We were lucky enough to find a parking space by the entrance, and we barged in and rushed to the counter, both of us driven by the same sense of urgency.

Lance pulled out his badge and showed the receptionist, who sat behind a plexiglass window with a small opening at the bottom. “Detective Lance Forrester. I’m here to see Detective Noah Langley.”

She gave him a sympathetic look. “You need to wait in the waiting area.”

“Doesn’t he get to have someone back there with him?” I asked.

“Not right now,” the receptionist said. “The team is still working on him, but I’ll be sure to let them know his colleagues are here.”

“But she’s not his colleague,” Lance said, wrapping an arm around my back and drawing me closer to the counter. “This is his fiancée, Maddie.”

My gaze jerked over to him, but then I tried to look natural. I wasn’t sure how Noah would feel about me calling myself his fiancée right now. Then again, when I’d been shot, he’d let the hospital staff think he was my husband so he could see me, and we hadn’t been together then either.

---