I sprint across the hospital, through the atrium on squeaking shoes, then around another corner until I burst onto the main wing, my home away from home, and lock eyes with Eliza fucking Darling just as she was preparing to call for me again.
“You!” I point and stalk in her direction, drawing eyes as I pass rooms, and eliciting a squeak of terror from my sister as she plops the phone back in its cradle. “Are you serious right now, Eliza? I was with the board, you dick.”
Alana leans against the nurse’s desk, one foot kicked over the other, and a million teasing secrets glittering in her eyes. She peeks at Eliza, then back at me, locking down on her smile because she knows her ass is in trouble, too, if she laughs.
“Well, to be completely and insanely fair…” Eliza wanders around the desk, her cheeks flaming with amusement, “I thought you were in the ER. Being with the board was an unforeseen circumstance I swear to consider next time.”
“There won’t be a next time, you little shit! I already talked to you about this! I?—”
“Snitched to Dad?” She snickers. “Yeah, it’s so weird and weak how you narked like a little baby. Also,” she tips her chin toward Jane’s door. “The camera folks are in there. They’re setting up.”
“Shit!” I spin to dart away, but she jumps forward and grabs my arm, yanking me to a stop and pulling me back around. I try to tug my arm free. “Eliza!”
“I told them to do it quietly,” she murmurs seriously. “And I threatened their lives and promised a slow,extremelypainful death if they so much as looked at the bathroom door.”
“You… What?”
“Jane’s in the bathroom getting changed. She knows they’re in her room, and they know she’s in the bathroom. It’s a tenuous relationship. But it’s working, because she’s behind a locked door, and I told her you’d tell her when it’s time to come out.”
“You spoke to her? You spoke to J—”Fuck. Jane. Her.“When? How?”
“When we invaded her room about an hour ago and introduced ourselves.”
“You what!?”
“Brought her some stuff, since a stolen jacket and suede boots donotmake a wardrobe. She needs something to keep her brain active. Something to do with her time that isn’t counting watermarks on the ceiling.”
“We brought her a bunch of books to read,” Alana explains. “Markers and a coloring book to doodle in.”
“And clothes. Because owning one pair of sweatpants is offensive.”
“And she just…” My pulse thunders against the side of my neck as I glance over my shoulder and peek into her room. “She just accepted all this? The camera crew in her room while she’s in the bathroom? And the stuff you bought her?”
“No. Not at all.” Eliza snickers. “She freaked at first. Probably thought we were gonna yeet the baby at her and run. Then she realized the maroon coat was mine, so she tried to give it back.”
“Howdid she realize?” I snarl.
“Eliza told her,” Alana quips. “But in her defense, it formed part of her argument for how weweren’tyeeting babies or hurting innocent patients. She was explaining who we were, which is when the jacket thing came up.”
“And then we hung out for a few minutes and I showed her all the things we bought her.”
“But whatthings? She already?—”
“Underwear, for starters.” Eliza stabs her hand forward and pops me inthe belly with her sharpest knuckles. “Poor girl’s been free as a bird for a week, Oliver! And sure, some people like that, but ya know what? Somedon’t! The right thing to do is to provide her with the underwear and let her decide.”
“Oh, sure, because bringing my patient clothes wasn’t already crossing a line. Itotallyshould’ve gone underwear shopping for her, too.”
She gasps, beaming and bouncing her shoulders. “You like her!” She glances across to a smug Alana. “See that blush? We mention her undies, and he’s redder than a tomato.”
“It’s cute,” Alana nods. “Wholesome as hell.”
“I do not like her! I don’t even…” Snapping my lips closed, I grab my sister’s arm and jerk her to the tips of her toes. “I’m trying to help her. I want her to get better. To find her place in this world and to be happy.”And I’ll trade an entire month of my income if it means keeping her right here under my nose.“I’m trying to do the right thing for a woman scared of her own shadow. This is not middle school, which means boys and girls are allowed to be friends, and it doesn’t have to be something else.”
Her eyes flash and dance with a heatedgotcha. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind next time you attempt to micromanage my friendships.”
“You’re causing trouble where there’s no room for it,” I snarl. “She needs help, and I’m in a position to help her. The fact of the matter is, she’s scared of damn near everybody, but she’s not scared of me. So if me standing nearby brings her comfort, then that’s what I’m gonna do.”
“And it helps that she’s super pretty, too, huh?” She drags her arm from my grip andboopsmy nose with the tip of her finger. “She’s sweet, and her needing you around for comfort makes my tummy all aflutter.”
