Kathy raised her brows and fixed her gaze behind Chris, and he knew without even turning around that Michael was standing behind him. It was a done deal. They were having the discussion.
Michael passed a cup over to Kathy before pulling a chair out and taking a seat. He set his cup down and folded his arms across his chest, looking at Chris expectantly. Michael didn’t need to say a word. His rigid posture and furrowed brow said it all. While people who didn’t know him often confused his usual demeanor as pissed off, Chris knew him well enough to know when he was actually angry; and he was angry.
“We talking about this here and now?” Chris asked.
Michael said nothing. He continued to stare Chris down.
“Guess we are …” Chris said with a sigh. “First of all, I’m not sleeping with her, James. And Michael, what’s the big deal? You and your sister don’t even get along, so what do you care? If it’s a problem, I don’t have to bring her around.”
“Sister?” James asked as soon as Chris stopped speaking. “You’re dating his sister? I didn’t even know he had a sister, but still. You’re dating your old partner’s sister-in-law. That’s messy as hell.”
Messy didn’t even begin to cover it. He felt like he was being torn in half. Not coming clean to Mallory after she spent the evening with him at his mom’s house made him feel like a complete asshole. He came close to telling her when he kissed her goodnight, but he’d chickened out. He had wondered for a bit if she could tell something was bothering him, but she hadn’t said anything.
“You and my wife are practically siblings. Not bringing Sammy around would be basically impossible. Anyway, that’s not the point. She’s my sister.”
“Sammy?” James asked, clearly confused. “I thought the girl you were seeing was Mallory.”
“It’s a long story,” both Chris and Michael said at the same time.
Before the conversation could go any further, both Chris’s and Michael’s pagers beeped, followed by the scratchy sound of two different dispatchers speaking over the radios. Chris stepped outside to answer his radio where he could hear, and felt immediate relief upon walking outside.
“706 receiving, go ahead,” he said into the radio.
“706: respond to Kennedy Boulevard and North Main Street for the motor vehicle collision with entrapment. ALS was notified.”
The others joined him as he keyed up the radio. “Received and responding.”
“We’ll finish this later,” Michael said as he walked past.
“Let me guess,” Chris said once they climbed into their truck to head to the call. “They are our ALS?”
James chuckled and pointed at the side mirror where they could clearly see Michael and Kathy following behind in their ambulance. Chris wasn’t known to avoid confrontation, but getting into it with his best friend’s husband was not at the top of his list of fun things to do.
They pulled on scene to find the police and fire department already there. It appeared to be a two-vehicle accident. The driver’s side of one car was up against the Jersey barrier while the front end of the other car was smashed into the passenger side, making it impossible to get to the patient.
“Is there a second patient somewhere?” Chris asked as they approached a police officer. “I see the woman entrapped, but what about the other car?”
“Stolen car. It was empty when we got here,” the officer answered, shaking his head.
They made their way over to where the fire department was busy working to get the woman out. They had somehow managed to place a collar on her, but the way her body was wedged against the door, it would be tough to get any vital signs before they got her out.
“What do we have?” Michael asked a firefighter from over Chris’s shoulder.
Chris rolled his eyes, knowing for certain Michael was being petty after their discussion had been cut short. It wasn’t like him to jump in and take over for no reason. Chris just kept his mouth shut and waited to hear the response from the firefighter.
“Thirty-five-year-old female. She’s conscious and alert. She keeps complaining about her leg and her back. They’re working on cutting the top of the car off, so if we must, we can pull her up,out, and over the Jersey barrier. If the wrecker gets here soon, we’ll move it to cut the door off.”
Michael turned to Chris and smirked at him. “You better grab your K.E.D., it’s not looking good for a rapid extrication.”
“I’ll grab it,” James spoke up before Chris had a chance to walk away.
“I’ll grab our med bag, just in case,” Kathy announced before leaving Michael and Chris alone.
“As I was saying,” Michael began once again, “I don’t want you dating my sister and me and her not getting along has nothing to do with it. Even though we don’t talk, I don’t want her getting hurt.”
Chris turned to face him, surprised that he wanted to continue the conversation as if they weren’t on a scene. “I’m not going to hurt her.”
“You sleep with everyone. She’s had enough heartbreak in her life. Last thing she needs is to fall for you and then you get bored and move on.”
