Page 78 of No Place Like Home
I wrung my hands together. How was Tonya doing? How were the guys? My eyes were glued to Rowan, but his back was to me. If his face looked anything like Jamison and Bryson’s though . . .
Finally, a doctor appeared. With a few hushed words, he led the boys through the double doors. Kaye and Diane found seats nearby, and I quietly sat beside them.
I grabbed Kaye’s hand. “What did the doctor say?”
Diane shook her head. “Not much. They’re still doing tests, but she’s awake and alert.”
“Poor doctors and nurses,” I said.
Ruth laughed. “No kidding. It would be easier for them if she wasn’t awake. T is an awful patient.”
They told stories while we waited of when she was in the hospital after the birth of each of the boys. Taking orders from people wasn’t a strength of hers on a good day.
The double doors opened, and the guys walked through. They were laughing about something, so that was a good sign.
The four of us stood, and Kaye, whose face was covered with worry asked, “So, how is she?”
Jamison hugged her. “She seems to be okay. They are keeping her here overnight for observation and will let us know more in the morning.”
I was listening to Jamison, but I turned my gaze to Rowan. Our eyes locked for a brief second before he turned to his phone. He held it in the air. “It’s Texas. I’m going to take this out in my Jeep.”His eyes stalled on mine briefly, and he gave a small smile before he walked away and answered his phone.
I watched as the automatic doors slid closed behind him, and couldn’t help but wonder if this would be it. If he might accept the job in Texas.
My heart thumped wildly. It would have been easier if he’d never known my big secret. I could go on thinking I’d done the right thing, made the right choice. But now that he knew, and said it didn’t matter, I had to admit I might have been wrong.
Shit. Why did Darlene talk to him? I wanted to go give her a piece of my mind. Tell her to stay out of my business. This secret was formeto tell, if I chose to, and she had no right to tell him anything.
Now, though, nothing mattered but Tonya. Yes, she might have been a royal pain in the ass, but she was still Tonya. She had so much energy and was the life of every picnic and get-together.
“Summer, she wants to see you too.” Jamison’s hand was on my arm, but I hadn’t heard a word he said.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“My mom wants to see you too.” He gestured toward the door.
Diane grabbed my arm. “Come on in with us.”
The smell of the ER as we went through the doors hit me like a punch in the face. This was the reason I avoided hospitals at all costs. The smell—a combination of antiseptic, a shit ton of disinfectant, and sickness—always gave me nightmares.
I followed Ruth, Kaye, and Diane into a room as a nurse held the door open for us on her way out. “Ms. McKendry’s a pistol,” the nurse said.
They laughed heartily, and Diane said, “You’re not telling us anything we don’t already know.”
I nodded at the nurse, and she shut the door behind us.
Tonya had an IV in her arm and an oxygen probe on her finger. A machine beeped nearby, lines flashing across the screen.
“You look much better already,” Kaye said.
“Yeah, you looked like death at the salon,” Diane said.
Tonya huffed, irritated. “Well, I feel just fine, but they won’t let me leave. Thanks to you two bitches and insisting on calling an ambulance, I’m a prisoner for the next twenty-four hours.” She air-quoted “twenty-four hours” and rolled her eyes.
“Oh, you’ll get over it,” Ruth told her. “Maybe you’ll have a hot doctor and can drive him crazy.”
Diane chuckled. “Oh, she’ll drive him crazy all right. That’s one of her many talents.”
They laughed and Tonya’s gaze narrowed. “See, y’all are bitches.”
