Page 49 of Changes on Ice

Marie turned to him. “Thank you. Can we go now?”

“For sure.”

He led the way back to the main hallway and soon found himself jogging along. Marie stuck close to his side. The corridors were fairly empty with the game underway, and they made it out one of the doors in a few minutes. Rusty glanced around the lot, getting oriented. “This way.”

When they reached his truck, he opened the passenger door for Marie. Despite her obvious impatience, she ran a finger over the edge of the door. “You painted this recently?”

“Yes? It’s old, but it runs fine.” He swiped a few things off the seat and tossed them into the space behind. “Sorry, it’s not super clean.”

“That’s fine.” She swung up into the truck.

Rusty had to use his phone GPS to find the hospital, then set it in the cup holder. “Fifteen minutes.” He peeled out of the parking space and turned for the gate.

“Try not to kill us getting there,” Marie told him.

“Right. Sure.” Urgency beat in his head, driving his heart rate up, but she was right. He slowed and made safe turns, getting onto the main road.

Despite his focus on the traffic, he could feel Marie watching him, intent on his profile.What? I’m not that interesting.Maybe she was distracting herself from worrying about Cross.

“Have you ever watched movies with RJ?” she asked after a few minutes.

“Yeah. A few. Some SciFi.” He merged and powered around a grandma in her Lincoln sedan.

“How old are you?”

“Gonna be twenty.” He couldn’t wait, either, although his birthday was technically seven months off. Twenty sounded much more adult than nineteen.

“RJ’s thirty.”

“Yeah, I know— fuck! Pick a lane!” He thumped his hand on the steering wheel as the douche ahead of him wandered across the dotted line.

Marie was quiet the rest of the drive, maybe realizing that distracting Rusty could be hazardous to their health. He didn’t have brain space to worry about what she thought of him.

When they reached the hospital, he offered, “I can drop you off right up front.” He might have a hard time getting in to see Cross without her, but she was clearly jumping out of her skin with worry.

“Just park and come on in with me.” She slanted him a look under frowning brows. “You’re worried too.”

“Well, yeah.” He wasn’t going to look a gift sister in the mouth, so he got a ticket from the barrier gate, pulled through, and found the first available spot. He had to slow down his strides, crossing the lot. Marie was taller than Cross, but still couldn’t match his leg length. “Sorry.”

In the hospital, Marie inquired about Cross. The receptionist scanned her screen. “I’m sorry, it says no visitors.”

“I’m his sister. I have his PoA.” She showed her ID again and another screen on her phone.

Rusty kept silent, relieved to have her coattails to make him seem legit.

“Ah, okay. Go on up to orthopedics.” The receptionist explained how to find that department.

Once they were on the elevator, Rusty blew out a slow breath. His heart had quit pounding like a trapped bird although his palms still felt clammy.

Marie turned to him. “What?”

“Huh?”

“That sigh.”

“Oh, well.” He ran a hand over his head. “Orthopedics, right? Not, like, surgery or ICU or neuro or something. That means bones. Bones heal.”Better than spines and brains and internal bleeding, anyhow.

“Ah.” Marie nodded. “That makes sense, thank you.”

---