Sophia had spouted so much nonsense, it took me a minute to figure out what Cassie was referring to, then I remembered. “Nobody cares about politics.”
She gave a half shrug. “That’s why I had too much to drink that night, and showed up to practice the next morning hung over.”
And then got chewed out by her volleyball coach. It all made sense now. But how had Sophia known about it? “We’ve all done that.”
“Yeah, but it was stupid.”
I laughed as I squeezed her arm, watching to see when the color would come back into her face. “That’s what people do in college. Stupid shit. It’s normal.”
She flashed me a weak smile. “I’m doing fine in English. Political Science, not so much.”
“You planning to go into politics?”
Her eyes widened. “God, no. I’m heading for a PhD in molecular biology.”
“Then I think you’ll be fine.” I wrapped my arms around her. “You’re doing just fine,” I repeated. Between stalkers, a crazy sister, and her famous brother’s knee, she was holding up ten times better than I would.
To tell the truth, hugging Cassie helped me deal with my own jitters. It was bad enough we were worried about Connor, but then, to have a showdown like that with Sophia in the waiting room? It was just ugly. If it had been my adopted family, Sophia would have been silenced by three aunts and two uncles, then held up as an example of bad behavior to all the kids, no matter what their age. But that was my family. And clearly no one had disciplined Sophia—ever.
“You know what?” Cassie said as she returned my hug. “I think Iamfine.” Then she looked up at me with a brilliant grin. “In fact, I’m better than fine. She yelled at me. She called me stupid and a little snit.”
Had she? That must have been as we were rushing through the swinging doors.
Cassie held up her hands, and I noted with glee that they were rock solid. “And I’m okay. I’m really okay.”
“Yeah,” I said. “You are.”
And at Cassie’s grin, I was finally able to relax, too. I asked her about her next volleyball game and then about her classes. Doc added in his two cents when he started telling us about all the English papers he screwed up. And then, right in the middle of his hilarious story about aTom Sawyerbook report, Connor was pushed into the alcove. He was looking kind of dopey as he sat in his wheelchair. He tilted his head to the side and smiled at his sister, then turned his gaze to me.
“Gia,” he murmured.
“Hi, Connor. How ya feeling?”
“My two favorite girls,” he said as Cassie rushed forward.
“Yeah, we are,” she said as she kissed his cheek.
Then the attendant helped him back onto the bed, where he sat with a goofy grin on his face. I tried to move back to let Cassie have the spot next to her brother, but Connor grabbed my hand and pulled me close. And then he tugged on his sister, too, until she stood at his other side.
I glanced at Doc. “Just how many painkillers has he had?”
“More than enough.”
No argument there. But damn, it was sweet to see Connor all relaxed and happy. He didn’t say a word. He just held our hands and kept looking back and forth between the two of us. His expression was vacant and adorable, and God, I wanted to kiss him.
But I couldn’t do that. And then someone came through the swinging ER doors, and I heard noise out in the waiting room. It wasn’t Sophia, thank God. Someone else must be having a meltdown. Just the thought of that bitch coming anywhere near Connor when he was in this soft, vague, drug-addled state had me bristling like an angry wife. Everything protective inside me surged forward. She wasn’t going to get close to Connor, not until he could defend himself. And the look in Cassie’s eyes told me she was thinking the exact same thing.
Then the interlude was over as the ER doctor came in with a grim expression on his face.
Chapter Seventeen
Connor
I hated doctors because they only ever gave me bad news. This ER doc was no different.
I was out of the pennant race and possibly the World Series, too, if we made it. Sure, it could have been worse. I didn’t have an ACL tear. No joint damage, either. But if I had any prayer of continuing to play, I had to sit out the next couple weeks.
All in all, it was the best news I could have hoped for, given the pain I was in. But it still cut deep. Even with all the painkillers I was on, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to hold on to any semblance of control. As it was, I was hanging onto Cassie and Gia as if my life depended on it. And right now, it did. Having them both here helped me get through this. So I gripped their hands, inhaled Gia’s scent, and tried not to lose it in front of the Doc and Coach. Except, Coach wasn’t around for some bizarre reason, and I decided that was a good thing. He’d get the information soon enough.
