“Thanks, Dad. Yeah, they’re good at taking over.”
“Maybe I should go and let you two visit,” Charley said, but when she tugged on her hand that was underneath Sully’s, he held on tight.
“No, please stay, Charley. I want to talk to you,” Sully said.
Bringing a container of water with a straw, the nurse pulled a bedside tray over the top of Sully and then raised the head of his bed so that he was in more of a sitting-up position. Sully drank from the water container. A phlebotomist entered on the nurse’s heels and explained Dr. Sankari had ordered blood work and prepared Sully’s arm for a stick. As she took the blood, his nurse told Sully the physician said he could return to a normaldiet. Then the phlebotomist took the blood she needed and left with his nurse.
“I’m going to step into the waiting room and make a couple of calls,” Owen said with a look of relief and a big smile. “I want to let your cousins and the Coopers know that you’re back among the living, Sully.”
“Owen, could you please let Derek and Chloe know I’m here with Sully, but I’ll be out to take the puppy off their hands later?”
“Will do,” Owen said with a happy smile. “Be back in a bit.”
“What puppy?” Sully asked when his dad was gone.
“A puppy adopted me this morning,” Charley said, keeping Sully’s hand clasped in hers. “I named him Wyatt Earp.”
“Where was this puppy?”
Charley hesitated and then squared her shoulders. “On the porch of my apartment.”
“Charley.” Sully sighed. “I didn’t want you to go there without me.”
She looked away and said, “I was upset last night and not thinking all that clearly.”
“I called you. Twice.”
“I temporarily lost my phone. I didn’t realize it until today,” she explained earnestly. “I found it outside at Triple C-West. I listened to your message and was about to call you when Chloe came to my rescue.”
Sully nodded. “I want to hear more about Wyatt, but let’s discuss what happened last night first.”
“Sully,” Charley said with a shake of her pretty head and a shrug of her slim shoulders. “I jumped to conclusions last night when I should have calmly stood my ground and objectively listened to your side.”
“Tell me what Trish said to you.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does. I want to make sure we got the same lies. Tell me.”
Charley raised her chin and said, “That you were the father of her child and happy about it. She said you wanted me to leave and that’s why you ditched me at the party.”
Sully sighed. “Does ditching you sound like me or something I would do?”
“No, but I was in shock and when she told me to vamoose, I did.”
“I hadn’t gone out with Trish in six months, Charley,” Sully said. “The first time I’d seen her in all that time was the day she showed up in my kitchen when you were there.”
Charley nodded. “Chloe told me that Trish pulled the same pregnancy scare on Cash a few years ago.”
Sully smiled with empathy and said, “I’m so sorry you were hurt like that. I got into her car only because she said she knew why you left the party.”
“I’m okay. But her trick backfired this time and cost Trish her life.”
“Not to speak ill of the dead, but Trish is the one on whom the blame falls for what happened to her.”
“Certainly not you or your dad,” Charley was quick to agree.
“Certainly not on you either,” Sully said. “So, no more self-blame among us, okay?”
