“We should have lied about her family,” Jason said, rubbing his hands down his face in frustration. “I should have told them that I was her brother so that they’d give us updates or let us back there.”
“I tried telling them that Zoe was my daughter, but the ice princess manning the desk wasn’t having it,” Jared said, looking like he’d aged ten years in the past three hours.
“I honestly don’t know how she’s managed to do this,” Jason said.
“Managed what?” Trevor asked, glaring at a rather rotund man who stepped into his line of sight. The man noticeably started when he spotted Trevor and thankfully moved the hell out of his way so he could keep his eyes on the door.
“Being alone,” Jason said softly. “I can’t imagine how she did it all these years, having no one and nothing.”
“She’s not alone,” Trevor bit out. “She has me.”
“Until you fuck up again, that is,” Jason mused, looking thoughtful.
“I’m not going to fuck this up again,” Trevor said between clenched teeth.
His uncles, all six of them, sighed loudly. “Yes, you will,” they pretty much said in unison so he decided to turn his glare on them, but only for a moment. He needed to keep his eye on the door so that he could grab the next person who walked through them wearing a hospital ID.
“You’re a Bradford,” Jared said with a careless shrug. “We always fuck up.”
“That’s not exactly helpful,” Trevor said, quickly losing all those warm fuzzy feelings he’d been having about his family.
“But it’s the truth. We all fuck up when it comes to our women and you will, too. The key is to make her love you more than you piss her off,” Jason added. “It’s a very delicate balance.”
He shifted in his chair to scowl at his cousin. “How exactly is that helpful?”
Sighing heavily, Jason threw his arm over Trevor’s shoulders and gave them a hard squeeze. “Don’t worry. Once she gets over her crush on me, I’m sure she’ll forgive you.”
“You do realize that Zoe thinks you’re insane, right?” Trevor asked distractedly as he glanced back at the double doors.
“But the point is that she does think about me,” Jason said, and Trevor appreciated the man’s efforts to distract him from his worries.
It was sweet, really.
“Shit,” Jason gasped, dropping his arm from around Trevor’s shoulders to grab his side. “Bastard,” he said, sucking in a breath.
Trevor stood up and gave his cousin a solid slap on the back. “Thanks for trying to cheer me up.”
“Not a problem,” Jason said, coughing, which only made Trevor feel kind of bad for elbowing him in the ribs, but he quickly got over it when he saw the double doors open and a nurse and doctor roll a barely with-it Zoe out in a wheelchair.
The doctor, a tall man who looked to be in his early forties, spoke with the triage nurse, who threw him a dirty look and gestured towards him. Trevor didn’t wait for the doctor to approach. He rushed over to Zoe, barely pausing to shove a few of his cousins out of the way.
Seconds later, he was dropping to his knees in front of the wheelchair, forcing the nurse to stop. His stomach clenched into a knot when he spotted the white gauze taped to her temple. He reached out to smooth his fingers over the gauze and offer her some comfort.
“Baby, I’m so sorry-ow!” He pulled his hand back, trying to shake off the slight sting. “What the hell was that for?” Trevor snapped, making her wince and grab her head, which made him feel like an asshole. Of course, her head hurt, he realized with a sigh.
“Don’t,” she sucked in a breath, “touch.”
“I won’t. I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he whispered softly, too afraid to raise his voice any higher and cause her any pain. “Let’s get you home where I can take care of you. Okay?”
Of course, the stubborn woman shook her damn head, well, tried to at least. “Go away, Trevor,” Zoe said, noticeably wincing.
“Shh, baby, try to relax. You don’t have to say anything.”
“I...don’t want...you,” she said, sucking in a breath. “Go away.”
Instead of getting mad, which under normal circumstances he probably would have done, he leaned over and pressed a kiss to the back of one of the hands that was holding her head tightly. If he hadn’t known that she had a head injury and was obviously out of it, he might have taken that personally, but he knew she loved him.
How could she not? He was so damn giving, after all, Trevor thought as he ducked out of the way before her blind swing could connect with his jaw. He ignored his family’s obvious amusement and decided that he’d use her, hopefully, temporary disabled state and show her just how giving he really was.
