“Great. I’ll call Sloane.”
Wereconvene ten minutes later, after making the calls, and Ellie hasa strange look on her face. “What’s going on?”
Shewaves. “Oh, nothing.” She lies.
“Sloane need you back at the house?”
“No, they’re almost finished. It seems Blake and Zack wentback to help them finish.”
“Oh, cool. I wondered how they were going to pull that off,just the three of them.”
“Yeah, they’re almost done now.”
Ihesitate. “Hey, listen. If you want to head on home now, it’s okay.He’ll be out for a while and they likely won’t release him for acouple of days. You’ve got a million things to do, and it’s notfair to ask your sister to do it by herself.”
“I really don’t feel right leaving now. I’d like to seehim.”
“Well, now that you know he’s okay, how about I call you whenhe’s awake, and you can come back?”
Shemulls that option over for a moment. “Are you really that turnedoff by me staying?” her face is sincere, like she’s truly feelinghurt.
Our eyessearch each other. After a beat, I relent, measuring my wordscarefully. “No. No, darlin’. You’re welcome to stay. I appreciatethe company.”
Her jawmuscles clench for a moment, and then she swallows.“Thanks.”
***
Ellie
Thedoctor finally comes out and offers for us to come and see Gunner,letting us know that he’s awake and alert enough in recovery. Atfirst, he says nothing, he’s so out of it, but as they bring himupstairs to his room, he starts talking.
“Mama have a cow yet?” Gunner asks his brother.
“Naw, she’s fine. She knows it’s just your arm. It ain’t anorgan or anything.”
“How do you feel?” I ask him.
“Great.” He answers, glassy-eyed and with a slur. “When do youthink I’ll get out of this place?”
“I don’t know that yet, partner.” Maverick says honestly.“We’ll have to wait and see what the doctor says.
Just asMaverick finishes his sentence, my phone vibrates, letting me knowthat I’m receiving a call. I look at the display and see that it’sWill, my ex-husband. My eyes roll in the sockets, and I press thebutton so the call goes to voicemail. Will’s the last person that Iwant to speak to right now. Our relationship was nothing short ofinsanity. We should never have gotten married. That fact wasevident not a month into the marriage. We did nothing but fight.For every marriage there’s potential for problems in a number ofdepartments, and some can be masked in other issues. Ours wasmoney, and it was masked under the façade of our sex life. The moremoney I made the more we fought, and the more we used sex as amechanism for diversion. But that didn’t start until the ring wason the finger and both names were on the bank account.
Some saythat we should have kept our money separate, seeing as my incomeseverely trumps Will’s, but others said that that was barbaric. Iagreed on that note, seeing as Will never made me suffer for themoney I made over and above him. As I ignore his call, a textmessage arrives, confirming my dreaded doctor’s appointment, and atthe same time, reminding me of it, in another hour. “God…dammit.” Isay under my breath. I didn’t realize that we’ve been at thehospital for the better part of the afternoon.
“Everyone okay, Ellie?” Maverick asks.
“Yes.” I lie, just as my phone rings again. It’s Will. He’snever this stubborn, and I wonder what’s wrong.
…when I check my voicemail, I realize that my problems haven’teven scratched the surface yet.
Chapter 3
Will
The beerbottle against my lips is cold, and as my buddy Dan, and mybrother, Chris, grab cold ones out of the fridge, I look around,and it hits me. “Fuck, I’m single, man.” I whine.
“Yeah, just like the rest of us.” Chris comments.
