Page 115 of Bodybuilders for the BBW

“Can I help you ladies out?” Rhys asked. “I mean standing around outside and talking about meat is exciting, but I think I really need to start getting more greens in my diet.”

“This way,” Mum said with a smile. “You can help carry out the salads.”

I was starting to think the evening wasn’t a complete wash. Dad seemed to love talking to Rhett, and Rhys had Mum eating out of his hand the moment his eyes rolled back in his head at the taste of her salads. He was quizzing her on the ingredients to her potato salad when Garrett walked in.

“Hey.” He looked done in, wavering slightly on his feet, hair all rumpled. “Just wanted to say how very, very sorry I am that I’ve gotten here so late. I’m Garrett.”

Chapter57

Garrett

I had made it to the end of my shift and was making a beeline for the door when I heard the ambulance sirens’ wails. One was bad. Multiple ambulances meant something really bad had happened. Not my problem, I told myself, my feet moving faster.

“Garrett!” Helen jogged over with a smile on her face, ready to give me another pep talk. We’d prepared for the meet-the-parents situation when we had a break at the same time, but when she saw the ambulances, her face fell.

Then the patients started rolling in on gurneys.

I hated car crashes. Far too often I’d seen exactly what a tonne of metal could do to a person when it crumpled like a soft drink can around them, but the worst was this. That ragged, desperate cry of a hurting child, it stopped me in my tracks.

“Garrett…”

Helen said my name in a completely different tone now, and I knew what it meant. Patients, so many patients, were being rushed into the emergency department. Contusions, whiplash, braces to support broken limbs, it was like a grim pageant of pain.

Fuck…

I felt my pocket vibrate and knew it was the guys checking in, making sure I was on my way, but I couldn’t even stop to answer it. A completely different part of me took over.

“What’ve we got?”

One of the doctors had come running out to meet the train of patients, the paramedic giving him the rundown. Major car collision at high speed. Broken limbs, concussion, some possible brain injuries.

I couldn’t leave.

My bag was swung across my body and Helen and I moved as one to the closest gurney.

“Hi there.” A little girl with the most beautiful brown eyes looked up at me, the fear plain. Tears had made tracks in the blood smeared on her cheeks. “I’m Garrett and this is Helen.”

“Hi,” Helen said in a falsely upbeat tone. “We’re going to help you feel all better.”

We both grabbed the sides of the gurney and then pushed it through the swinging doors and into the ED ward.

One of the things I always loved about my job was the way adrenaline seemed to calm my brain down. I couldn’t think, worry, plan, or ruminate on anything. There was only moving, doing, fixing, cleaning, and helping. Nurses and doctors swarmed as the patients were triaged, each case assessed and then dealt with in order of urgency. My world narrowed down to observations taken, to finding veins and putting a line in, of making sure blood pressures remained stable, then bringing beds up to surgery when a surgeon became available to see the next patient. I was moving to the next when Helen stepped in my way.

“Garrett—”

“We need to get a hold of the extended family of the little girl in room number five,” I told her. “I’ve tried all the next of kin on record, but no one’s picking up.” The ragged wail of a child felt like a knife, stabbing right into my heart. “Mum’s in surgery. Dad’s still in a coma, and?—”

“Garrett.” She put a hand on my arm. “I’ll deal with that. You need to go.”

“What?” I blinked and looked around me, the bright artificial lights, the white walls and floor stabbing me in the eyes. It was like I was seeing the familiar sights of the ED for the first time. “Yeah, after?—”

“No, now.” She squeezed my forearm. “You’ve got that dinner, remember? You’re meeting Katie’s parents.” It felt like I was hearing her talk through a speaker of an elevator that was plunging in freefall down its shaft. “You were supposed to be there hours ago.”

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck…

I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly bone dry, as it all came back. Our plans. The way each one of us guys worked out a way to ensure we all arrived at Katie’s parents’ place on time. We’d worked out schedules, gifts, conversation starters…

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