“You really know how to fuck shit up,” Michael scoffed.
“Says the man who ran away from everyone who was trying to help him.”
“For a good reason. You’d better have a damn good reason for sleeping with another woman. Were you saving the world?” he snarled.
“Just saving her life,” I snapped. “Which you would know if you had been here. While you were off doing your own shit, the rest of us were back here, trying to keep the ranch going while fending off attacks from Austin left and right.”
“I had to leave.”
“You fucking chose to leave,” I yelled, scratching the hell out of my throat and sending myself into another coughing fit.
This time, the nurse came running in, shooting everyone dirty looks as she rushed to my side. “All of you out. Mr. Parker is supposed to be resting, and if you can’t make that happen, then you need to leave.”
“Yeah, Michael. Stop riling up the burn victim,” Jeff grinned.
“Fuck off.” Shoving to his feet, he shook his head at me. “Let me know when you get out. I’ll pick you up and you can yell at me some more.”
“He will not be yelling at anyone,” the nurse snapped. Then she turned to me with ridicule. “Keep this on, or I’ll have them intubate you again.”
As she stormed out of the room, Jeff waggled his eyebrows at me. “Intubate. It sounds so dirty. Think she’d do it to me?”
Ma tuckedthe blankets around me for the fifth time this morning, but I’d lost count of the number of times she’d fussed over me during the past five days in the hospital.
Too much more of this, and I might start my own fire and take us all out just to put the nurses out of their misery.
“It’s not that hard. You’re a patient.”
“Ma, tucking me in is not something they’re supposed to be doing.” My words might have been more effective if they hadn’t ended with a round of coughing that had her reaching for the oxygen mask I no longer needed.
“Your health is all that’s important right now,” she chastised.
“Ma,” I said, shoving it away. “I’m fine.”
“You’re still coughing.”
“Because I was in a fire. I’m not going to heal overnight.”
Pursing her lips, her eyebrow did that half-raise thing where I knew she was deciding how much she wanted to yell at me. In the end, the eyebrow went down and her concern took over, saving me from a lecture that could have lasted upwards of ten minutes.
“Exactly. You’re not going to heal overnight, and that is something they should be on top of. Honestly, those nurses—” she started in again just as my nurse walked in the room.
Thankfully, it was a friendly face. Caroline.
“Thank God. Caroline, will you please tell Ma that I’m fine?”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’m not here to take over your shift. I just thought I would check up on you.”
“I’m fine. You can tell her that,” I said, eyeing my mother.
“I would be foolish to try to tell your mother anything.”
“Thank you, Caroline. At least somebody around here is sensible.”
“Traitor,” I muttered.
“Hey, if she wasn’t here, I would have brought you some paraphernalia,” Caroline whispered. “Other than that, how are you feeling?”
“Just peachy,” I grumbled. “I was ready to get out of here two days ago.”
