“Too feckin’ early.”
“I told you to knock first, Noreen. They’re probably sleeping,” Joel whispered loudly.
“Psh. No one sleeps in a hospital.” Noreen strode with purpose to my bedside. “See? He’s awake.”
Tears welled in her eyes when she leaned over to kiss my cheek.
“Are you both okay?” I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Us?” She frowned. “We’re better now that we’ve gotten to see you.”
Joel pulled a chair over for his wife, then stood behind it. His eyes travelled around the room, never meeting mine. From the way he was acting, our conversation couldn’t wait. Raising the head of the bed, I called out his name and waited for the stubborn fool to give me his attention. It took his wife elbowing him in the side for that to happen.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I hired him, Finn.”
“With my blessing. We had no way of knowing how things would turn out five years down the road.”
“I should’ve seen it.”
“None of us saw it, Joel,” Waverly interjected. “I’m a trained FBI agent and he wasn’t even a blip on my radar. How do you think that makes me feel?”
“I baked him cookies,” Noreen added.
It started with Waverly biting her lip, then Shayne snorted. Before long, the two of them were laughing so hard tears were streaming down their faces. I tried to hold off, knowing how much it would hurt, but the dam broke anyway. Grabbing a pillow to hold over my chest, I joined them.
“Sounds like there’s a party going on in here.” Thedoctor popped his head in the door. “How about if I make it a going away party?”
“I’m busting out of here?”
“Scale of one to ten, how’s your headache?”
“About three and a half.”
“That’s expected. Any nausea?”
“None.”
He moved to the bed, shined a light in my eyes, and asked the same set of questions the nurse had all night. When he finished, he declared me ready to leave.
“I’ll have the nurse come in to go over your discharge instructions.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
“We’re gonna get out of here,” Noreen announced. “We’ll stop by with dinner later, if that’s okay.”
“Of course it is.” Waverly stood, giving her a hug, then Joel.
Right after they left, I was officially released from the hospital. Thankfully, Shayne had thought to grab us both some clothes and while we got dressed, she went to pull her car around.
“I want to ask you something.”
“What is it, Finn?”
“With everything yesterday, it got me thinking.” I wrapped my arms around her back, pulling her close, and dropped my forehead to hers. “I want to meet my sister.”
“I think that’s a fantastic idea.”
