Page 20 of Daddy Vibes (The Anti-Bachelorette 2)

I swallow again even though there’s nothing there. “Can you have Emory get ahold of her family?”

“Sure. I have to explain what’s going on to Emory before she grabs the phone from me. We’ll see you soon.”

I hang up the phone and just stare at the wall trying to calm my nerves. I don’t know how much time has passed as I just keep going over in my head what could be wrong and how I could have prevented it. If I would have called her earlier, then maybe this wouldn’t have happened. She wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for me. I should have been there to protect her. I glance back down at my phone and see a half hour has passed. Finally a nurse comes out to the waiting room. “Eric?”

I stand so quickly that I almost have to sit back down from light headedness. I clear my throat. “Yes. Is she okay? Can I see her?”

The nurse explains that she has a concussion and a fractured rib. Her face is pretty swollen and cut up but that will just have to heal naturally over the coming weeks. She walks me over to her room. “Will you be the one caring for her during her recovery?”

“Yes.” I say without even thinking about it.

She smiles at me and explains how there is nothing they can do about the rib now but let it heal, and how she will be in a lot of pain. She explains how the pain medication will work and how she’ll need to rest and take it easy for at least 5 weeks. They’ll do a follow up appointment then to check her progress.

We walk into her room, and she is asleep again. I look over to the nurse. “She’ll be out for a couple hours probably. We gave her some pain medication to help ease the pain and let her get some rest. You are welcome to stay in the room until she wakes.”

I nod my head yes that I will. “Okay. There are some police officers here to get your statement about what happened. I’ll send them in.”

Two police officers walk in and start questioning me about what I know. I tell them how I found her and no one else was around. The one officer looks over at her. “Crazy how someone could just beat up a girl like that.” He looks back over at me again. “How did you say you know her again?” He narrows his eyes at me like he suspects I did this.

I narrow mine right back. “She’s a family friend.”

The officer gives me a fake smile. “Does her family know that she is here?”

I clench my fist so I don’t lose it on this guy. He’s just doing his job, but what he is suggesting makes me want to punch him. I could never hurt Angela. “My daughter is calling them. I don’t have their number. She’s on her way now. She should be here in the next 10 minutes if you want to ask her about them.”

He eases off a little when I mention Emory. He asks me a few more questions and then says they are going to go grab some dinner, but will be back to question Angela when she wakes up. One officer who was waiting outside the room stays there while they leave. I guess he is security in case whoever attacked her comes back. That or they don’t want to leave me alone with her until they have a chance to talk to her.

Emory and Alaric arrive a little while later. I can tell Emory has been crying, and when she sees Angela she cries some more. “Who could have done this?”

Alaric continues to hold her and whisper soothing things into her ear. I’m glad he’s here for her because I’m not in the best state of mind to be comforting her myself. The doctors lead us out of the room about an hour later and tell us she’ll be waking up soon, and the doctors need to look her over in private. I think the police really just don’t want us near her when she wakes up in case we threaten her to not talk or something.

I just go though without causing an issue. The sooner they talk to her, the sooner they can start looking for who really did this. We head to the waiting room, and I stand up and go to the vending machine just to keep my mind occupied with something.

I must have been standing there for a while because Alaric comes up next to me and leans against the wall. “You okay?’

I blow out a breath and look over to him. “Yeah. Was Emory able to get ahold of her parents?”

Alaric cringes. “Yeah. They are out of town.”

I just look at him for a second. “And?”

He shrugs. “Her dad told Emory to just keep them posted on how she is doing.”

I feel my hand ball into a fist at my side. “They aren’t coming to see her?” I grit out.

Alaric looks over at Emory and then back at me. “Emory didn’t seem surprised by that. I lost it for a second too. She said Angela isn’t close with her parents, but still. I mean she’s in the hospital for Christ sake.”

How did I never notice that before? I guess because she always had such a happy attitude. I never even suspected she didn’t have a good relationship with her parents. Although she never really was with them when I was around her. Mostly just her cousins would come over when she was younger and Emory still lived at home.

I close my eyes tight for a second. God I hope that isn’t why she slept with me. Because I am like the missing parent in her life. Fuck, I cringe even harder.

Alaric seems to know what I’m thinking. “Angela is a big girl. She knows what she’s doing.”

I wipe my hands down my face. “This is like a Dr. Phil show. Girl with daddy issues sleeps with best friend’s dad. Fuck. I basically molest-.”

Alaric cuts me off. “Stop!” He laughs. “She’s 26 not 18. You didn’t even know about her relationship with her family.”

I look up at the ceiling and blow out another breath. “Still. I should have known. She’s way too young for me. Why would she ever want to be with someone like me?”

He smiles at me then. “Because you care about her. And you’re there for her.” He motions his hand around like look where we’re at. He pats his hand on my shoulder. “Even if you are being a total dick by not just dating the girl already.”

I glare over at him. “You know why I can’t do that. Now more than ever. I can’t be the fill in for her lack of daddy’s love. She needs someone to love her right.”

Alaric just raises his eyebrow at me. “Like you don’t?”

I roll my eyes. “She’s coming to stay with us while she recovers. I already told the nurse, but now that I know her parents aren’t even coming to see her, she definitely is. She needs someone to look after her. I know between the 3 of us we can make it work. Can you have Emory off a couple days a week? I want her to always have someone around. I can work from home on Mondays and Fridays.”

Alaric just pats my shoulder again. “Yeah, we’ll work it out.” Then he heads back over to sit by Emory, and I spend the next half hour researching the best way to take care of someone with a fractured rib.

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