Page 38 of The Voices are Back

As in, I was disappointed in him, and that never happened.

He was our leader—even if he didn’t want to be—for a reason. He was supposed to act better than the rest of us.

“I”—he blew out a breath—“am an ass.”

“You’re fine,” I heard Morrigan say from behind me.

Or, more like rasp.

She sounded like she’d gargled with gravel and sent her words down a garbage disposal.

“Don’t talk,” I ordered.

She rolled her eyes, and that was the first sign of her old self that I’d seen since I first saw her earlier that morning.

“Um,” Wake said. “I’m Wake.”

“Morrigan, meet my friend, Wake Westfield. Wake, Morrigan St. Pete. She owns the coffee shop that your wife is always raving about.”

“The place that costs me nine bucks every single day?” Wake asked.

Morrigan looked from me to Wake then back before widening her eyes.

She was uncomfortable.

“The place that costs you nine bucks,” I confirmed. “You ready to go?” I asked.

She nodded, then winced.

I wasn’t sure if it was her throat and the bruising and swelling there, or her head, but I didn’t want to hang around in a hospital hallway and wait for it to get worse.

“Do you need anything? Prescriptions?” I asked.

“No,” she mouthed.

“Those will be delivered to her apartment,” the nurse said as she came out of the room carrying discharge papers and the few items that Morrigan came in with in a plastic bag. “These are hers.”

I took them from her, then took Morrigan’s hand next. “Let’s go.”

Wake fell into step beside us, staying on my side instead of Morrigan’s.

Something in which I appreciated.

Wake knew how to read situations well, and knew that she was uncomfortable with him. Though it was nobody’s fault but his own that she was.

When we got outside it was to find Wake’s SUV there waiting for us.

Guess he was our ride that I’d asked KD for.

Great.

I opened the back door just to see a car seat base and baby paraphernalia start to fall out.

“You’ll have to go to the other side,” Wake said. “That side is baby zone zero. As in, every single piece of baby shit we have is in that one single area. Meaning, it falls out every single time we open the door to put the baby in.”

Wake and his wife, Dutch, had an infant named Wakely.

According to Wake, they were having four more. According to Dutch, they were having zero more.

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