Page 33 of A Damaged Soul
Plus I considered myself a pretty decent judge of character.
"Unless he's pushing me away because I'm getting too close. Now that, I can see him doing."
Molly gave me a sad look. "I hope that's not the case."
Me too.
We sat in silence for a few moments just staring at each other. There wasn't much more to say on the subject.
I was about ready to tell Molly that maybe I should use a sick day when my phone began to vibrate across my desk. I didn't recognize the number but something deep inside me was screaming at me to answer it.
"Hello?" I hesitantly asked as I placed the phone up to my ear.
"Is this Elle?"
"It is." Now I was further confused. "And who's this?" If it was some telemarketer, I was going to be slamming the end call and tossing my phone across the room. The only reason I even answered the unknown number was because I had high hopes it would be Rhett.
The male voice on the other end definitely wasn't him.
"My name's Zack Lynch. I'm Rhett's brother."
I didn't even let the man finish before I was cutting him off to ask, "Oh my God, is he okay?"
I wanted to slap myself upside the head. Of course everything wasn't okay. There was literally no reason Rhett's brother would be calling me unless something was wrong.
"He's alive but in pretty bad shape. I'm not sure how much you know about his line of work, but he was hurt on the job."
"He's told me a little. Where is he? I need to see him."
"Glad he's told someone," Zack grumbled on the other end of the line, and I wondered what that was all about. I pushed it away though. I had more important things to worry about. "He's at Massachusetts General. I can send you all the information if you want."
"Yes, please. I'm leaving now. I'll be there as soon as I can."
I quickly hung up the phone and began to throw stuff in my purse.
"What's going on?"
I almost forgot Molly was in my classroom until she asked the question.
"That was Rhett's brother. Rhett was hurt while working. He's at the hospital. I need to go there and see him."
I thought about what I was going to tell my principal, but then remembered how bad I looked, according to Molly. I figured my boss wasn't going to ask too many questions.
As it turned out, I was right. I rushed out of the school like the demons of hell were nipping at my heels. I hadn't even said goodbye to Molly.
Oh well. I would text her later once I knew how Rhett was doing.
Morning rush hour sucked, and it took twice as long to get to the hospital than it should have. By the time I pulled into the parking garage, I was ready to murder someone. I barely had the vehicle in park and the SUV turned off before I was jumping out and rushing inside.
The hospital was huge. It was a good thing Zack had been kind enough to provide explicit directions because there was no way I had the patience to stop and ask someone where to go.
"You must be Elle." I came to a skidding halt outside of Rhett's room and stared at the man who looked an awful lot like his brother might. Same dark hair, blue eyes, and chiseled jaw.
"Zack, I presume."
"The one and only." The man smiled, and it was scary to see just how much that smirk reminded me of Rhett.
"As much as I know how rude this is going to sound, I'm going to say it anyway. Let's keep the chitchat for another time. I want to see your brother."
