Bronwyn didn’t know what list Meredith was referring to, but Mo must have. He pulled his sister down to hug her. Meredith’s eyes zeroed in on his other hand. The one still holding onto Bronwyn. And her eyes, which had been filled with fear, shifted to confusion and then a wary happiness. Cal leaned into the back of the ambulance. “Mo, man, I’m just going to say it since no one else has.”
“What?”
“If I’d known getting shot was what it would take to get Bronwyn to start talking to you again, I’d have shot you myself.”
“Cal!” Meredith and Bronwyn both yelled at him, but he was laughing so hard, he had to hold on to the side of the ambulance.
“Come on, Meredith. He’s tough. He’ll be okay.”
“I’m going.”
“Not alone, you’re not.” Gray appeared behind Meredith and pulled her into his arms.
“Gray!”
Gray leaned toward Meredith and whispered something in her ear. She relaxed into him and nodded.
Cal had gotten himself together enough to speak. “Come on, I got it cleared for Beep to ride in the ambulance. Although if you ever tell anyone, we’ll have to deny it. Let her go with him, Mer. Gray has to stay here, but you can ride with me. We’ll follow them to the hospital and then drive them home. How about that?”
Meredith conceded. She gave Mo another hug and sent Bronwyn a wide-eyed look that said, “Girl, you have some explaining to do.”
“Thank you, Cal.” Bronwyn didn’t know how he’d done it, but she wouldn’t complain.
He gave her a small salute, and he and Meredith hurried to his truck.
A paramedic climbed in on the other side of Mo. And then they were headed to the hospital.
Mo still hadn’t let go of her hand.
Twenty-Six
For the first few minutes of the trip to the hospital, Mo cooperated with everything the paramedic asked him to do. He’d known Kyle for years, and he didn’t want to keep the guy from doing his job. But when there was a pause in the action, he finally asked, “Did I need to take the ambulance? Couldn’t we have driven ourselves?”
Kyle smirked. “You could have. But if you drove to the ER, you’d be put in line with everyone else and you’d have to wait. Possibly a long time. When you arrive via ambulance, you get first-class treatment.” He seemed to think better of what he’d said. “Not that you don’t receive excellent care normally. But you go to the front of the line when you roll in with us. And Dr. Shaw will have already called ahead and talked to the docs. They know her. And better, they like her. My guess is they’ll have you scanned, stitched, and on your way home before dawn.”
“Assuming he doesn’t have a concussion, right?” Bronwyn’s voice was husky, and Mo wanted to close his eyes and soak in the sound. But if he closed his eyes, she would freak out. On another day that might be funny. But today was not that day.
“Eh.” Kyle wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Mo’s arm.“Even if he does have a concussion, they’ll probably send him home.” He smiled at Bronwyn and there was something in that smile that Mo did not like at all. “Don’t worry.”
“I’ll worry until he’s fine, thank you very much.”
Mo squeezed her hand. “Iamfine.”
She breathed in through her nose. “No. Nope. Not listening to that. You have bullet wounds and a possible head injury. Bullet wounds, Mo. That is the very definition of not fine.”
“Okay.” He squeezed her hand again. “I’m not fine at the moment, but I will be fine.”
She blinked rapidly. Was she about to cry? He wished Kyle wasn’t here. He wanted to talk to her and tell her he really was fine and that he’d missed her and...
He reined in those thoughts. Talk about an overreaction.
She was speaking to him again. She was worried about him. But that didn’t mean anything more. Not to her. And it shouldn’t mean more to him either.
They didn’t really know each other anymore.
And he couldn’t assume anything.
But she wasn’t even trying to remove her hand from his. So for now, he’d take that.
