Page 46 of Last Chance Love

“I’m not exactly sure what happened since my back was to it, and I was off in la la land. The wall was coming down. You panicked and threw me away from the thing. It cost you time to get away.”

“And then I took a whole wall to the back, at least, I hope it was the back.”

“It was a little of everything. You got banged up pretty good.”

“Wow, and I’m not in the hospital?”

“Well,” he said and, for some reason, winced guiltily. “No.”

Someone stepped into the room with a snort. “Against all medical advice and good sense, yes, you’re still here.”

Reed cringed. “Hey, Alice.”

“What’s going on?” I asked as the woman stepped into the room, looking over the machines.

Reed sighed. “Just…professional differences.”

“Either you can tell him, or I can,” Dr. Greenway said as she made a note of something. “And it will probably sound better coming from you.”

My eyes widened. “Jesus, am I dying?”

“No, if I thought you were in serious danger, you wouldn’t be here,” Dr. Greenway said, turning a frown on Reed. “But as beat up as you are, you’re not in immediate, life-threatening danger…probably.”

“Comforting,” I said and looked to Reed, arching a brow and hoping he would give me the answer I was asking for.

He sighed again. “You kept going in and out of consciousness, which is not a great sign. But when you caught wind of the fact that we were going to send you to the hospital, you, uh, well, let’s just say you didn’t take it well.”

Well, that made sense. Hospitals and I had never gotten along, but after spending two weeks in the hospital while Ian fought for his life, I wasn’t a big fan. The clinic was alright because I knew it wasn’t a hospital. Oddly, that was where the logic and reason stopped because I knew hospitals were a place of healing and recovery, where they fought like hell to keep you alive, but that didn’t matter when my brain associated them with nothing but death and misery.

But something about this seemed off. “Uh, when you say I didn’t take it well.”

He cocked his head, and my eyes widened when I realized his face hadn’t been in shadow. There was a dark circle around his eyes, and his lip was split. “You took it quite poorly.”

“I had to sedate you,” Dr. Greenway added because, apparently, she decided she wanted to be ‘helpful.’

“Oh my god,” I groaned, wanting to reach out but was forced to stop because of the IV. I peered at it for a moment and wondered what they were pumping me with.

“It’s just fluids,” Dr. Greenway said, sounding irritated. “But if we have another incident, I can always slam another dose into you and knock you back into happy land.”

I couldn’t tell if she was irritated at me, the situation, Reed, or some combination of the three, but my attention was on him. “I hit you? Jesus, Reed, I’m so sorry.”

Reed chuckled. “You weren’t trying to hit me. You were blindly attacking what you thought was the ‘threat’ of going to the hospital.”

“Didn’t try but certainly succeeded,” Dr. Greenway added, arching a brow.

“C’mon, Alice,” Reed complained. “I used to work in the ER. Having someone swing at me is pretty normal. It’s one of the reasons you always call me when someone’s being difficult.”

“Well, you calming people down without having to dose them is an advantage when you’re trying to treat people quickly and get them out of here,” she said with a frown. “And don’t think you’re off the hook. And now that he’s awake, you can go get something on that eye like I told you to before and?—”

“I know, I know,” he said with a sigh, pushing out of his seat. “I’ve treated bruises before and then some.”

“And take something for that rib!” she called after him as he left the room.

I could feel the blood drain from my face. “Rib?”

“Bruised, probably cracked, but nothing he can’t get through so long as he doesn’t overdo it,” she said in a clipped voice. “Now, lay back, and still, I need to do a few checks. And so help me, if you’re seriously concussed, personal issues about a hospital visit or not, you’re going.”

“Probably won’t help my case much if I point out that you shouldn’t say that to someone if they don’t want to go. Just gives more motivation to lie.”

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