Page 191 of The Fake Date Agreement

Javier

“It was that fuckwad.”Reid’s voice is tinged with an unfamiliar hard edge as he prowls all four corners of the hospital waiting room.

I’d slammed on my car brakes as we approached the arena parking lot, narrowly avoiding the insane idiot who’d been driving over sixty in a thirty zone.

Then I’d pulled into the parking lot, seen something on the ground feet from the entrance, and Reid had been out of the car and sprinting toward it.

I hadn’t known it was Caleb.

He got to Caleb before I did, yanking off his suit jacket and covering Caleb with it. I’d been a couple of steps behind him as he’d started yelling at me about my phone while trying to get Caleb to stay conscious.

We’ve all had enough accidents on and off the ice to know you never move someone injured in case you make them worse.

“We don’t know that.” I sit back in the hospital waiting room chair and rake a hand through my hair.

“The prick has had it out for us since Tobie became ours.”

“It could have been an accident,” I say, playing devil’s advocate.

Caleb punching the guy didn’t exactly make them the best of friends.

Reid had laughed and high-fived Caleb when he found out. Caleb had grumbled that he was just looking out for Tobie, but he hadn’t looked too cut up about it. We all remember what Marc said to Tobie at the party about her only being good for a fuck.

Reid looks at me, silently communicating his disbelief.

“Yeah. It was him,” I concede.

There was no reason for anyone to be speeding near the arena.

No one was there. Just Caleb waiting for us to pick him up.

A nurse walks past the waiting room door.

I’m out of my seat, Reid is across the room, and we nearly tackle the poor woman.

“Have you seen our friend?”

“We brought him in, and no one has?—”

The nurse lifts both palms, giving us a reassuring smile. “Hold up. No one has come out to speak to you yet?”

We shake our heads.

“Give me a minute. Let me go find the doctor and send him out.”

True to her word, within minutes of her leaving, a doctor, in blue scrubs and a white coat, is walking toward us.

“You’re his friends?”

“Teammates and friends,” Reid says. “We found him on the ground and called an ambulance. The paramedics said we could follow them to the hospital, and a nurse said we should wait here for news, but it’s been hours, and no one has told us anything.”

“Well, your friend is lucky,” the doctor says with a smile.

“He’s okay?” Reid asks.

“It looks like the car clipped him more than hit him. He has a few nasty bruises, a swollen knee from the impact, and a coupleof contusions that needed some stitches. He’ll feel like death when he wakes up, but he’s lucky. We usually see a lot worse injuries from car impacts.”

Reid had rambled at the paramedics about a speeding car we’d seen as we were pulling into the parking lot. It sounds like they’d filled the doctor in on what caused his injuries.

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