"It might be a good idea if—"
"Could you listen to me? You need to make a change."
Henry leaned his head against Mace's chest and puked rainbow colors all down his suit. Mace strangled a curse.
"I'll grab some paper towels," I said.
18
Mace
"Ican't believe you fed him all that sugar," I snarled at Josie as she stood up from her desk.
"I'll bring him some water." She hurried out and came back with water and paper towels to clean up the mess. Henry for once wasn't in motion. He seemed a little stunned. I held my hand to his forehead. He felt warm.
Josie swiped at me with the paper towels and tried to convince Henry to sip some water.
"Don't bother," I said, setting my brother down and taking off my jacket. "I'm taking him to the emergency room."
"Is he really that sick?" Josie cried, taking my jacket. "Mace, I am so sorry."
"I can't say I expected anything better from you," I snapped at her.
On the way to the pediatric emergency room, I had to fight off visions of Henry succumbing to fever or some other ailment like in those old Victorian-era novels where one day a kid was fine, and the next, they had one foot in the grave.
Hunter met me at the emergency room; Archer was there with him. Hunter took one look at Henry and snorted. "He looks fine. The way Josie was carrying on when she called me, I thought Henry was on death's door."
"She was hysterical," Archer added.
"I made a rainbow," Henry said proudly. He ran to Archer to try and give him a hug.
Archer grimaced. "I can see the rainbow all over your shirt. And on Mace."
"I can't believe they won't see him," I complained. "Why is the wait so long? I've donated a lot of money to this hospital."
Hunter shook his head and said irritably, "I can't believe I'm wasting my time on this. He's fine. Just take him home. I need to make you his guardian if you're going to overreact to every little thing."
"He might not be," I countered. "What if his pancreas is about to shut down?"
Hunter ignored me and walked outside to take a call.
Archer sat down in a chair next to me. "You always overreact," said Archer. "My poor, high-strung twin."
"Why are you even here?" I asked.
"Looking at sites for my new hotel," he replied.
"At least if there was a conference center, we wouldn't have to have meetings at my office," I grumbled.
"You love seeing us. Besides, I'm good for you." Archer patted my hair. "I don't know how you and Garrett manage day-to-day. Both of you are control freaks."
"I'm not a control freak. And I function better than you."
Archer snorted. "I wasn't the one who thought he had diphtheria after he readLittle House on the Prairie."
The doctor saw us several hours later. Josie had called me several times, but I ignored her. Henry was fine, and I felt bad for overreacting.
Henry chatted away with the doctor while she checked his pulse and his reflexes.
