Charles laughs. “That is true. If you’re going to off someone, do it with style.”
“For sure. It’ll be bloody and violent with slow torture. Being in the hospital gave me some new ideas about murder, actually,” I say right as the door opens. Sam walks in, followed by a nurse, who’s giving me the side-eye and probably wondering if she should call security. “I gotta go,” I tell Charles.
“Call me later, don’t die.”
“I’ll try not to, but if I do, I will haunt you.”
“I honestly will be disappointed if you don’t. Make sure that hot doctor boyfriend takes good care of you.”
“He has been,” I say, unable to help but smile. “Bye, Charles.” I end the call and put the phone on the bedside table. “You’re early.”
“I missed you,” Sam tells me. He has a bag full of the personal items I requested, like new underwear, my hairbrush, and PJs so I can change out of this hospital gown.
“Aww, that’s sweet,” my nurse says. She's young and told me she just graduated from nursing school in the spring.
“He’s totally obsessed with me and has been begging me to go out with him for years,” I joke. “I finally said yes.”
The nurse, whose name I can’t remember because it was way too early when she came in and introduced herself, laughs and takes her stethoscope from around her neck to check my pulse.
“Still good,” she says. “Do you need anything?”
“Sleep,” I say with a frown. “I’m tired.”
“It’s hard to sleep here, I know,” she says. “And I need to come back and check your pulse and blood pressure again in about half an hour.”
“Okay,” I say, biting my tongue on asking when I can go home. It’s only been a few minutes since I got my blood taken. It’s not at the lab yet, I’m sure.
“How are you feeling, for real?” Sam asks, coming over and kissing my forehead. He’s wearing gray sweatpants and a navy-blue long-sleeved shirt. His hair is messy, and the perfect amount of stubble covers his sharp jaw. It’s not fair for anyone to be this good-looking with so little effort. Though who I am to complain when I’m the one sleeping with someone that good-looking?
“So tired,” I confess. “I didn’t sleep well last night and everyone and their mother has been in my room today.” I pull back the blankets and pat the bed, motioning for Sam to come join me. “I’m going to get sicker if I don’t sleep.”
“The nurse was right. Resting in a hospital setting is difficult, and I’ve actually seen patients regress from lack of sleep,” he admits ruefully.
“See? I should leave now.”
He kicks off his shoes and lies down next to me. “Let’s see how your labs are. Did anyone come and take blood this morning?”
“Yeah, and I think I freaked the girl out because I tried to make a vampire joke.”
He covers us up and carefully takes me in his arms. “Sleep now. I’ll deal with anyone who comes in. Unless it’s urgent, you need to sleep. I don’t think you’re dehydrated anymore, but you are still sick and need to take it easy when you do leave.”
“I know, and trust me, I don’t want to get worse. I don’t have time for this as it is, and having a repeat is not something I want to do.” I close my eyes. “We can still drive back to your apartment tonight, though. I’ll sleep in the car on the way there.”
“Only if you feel up to it.”
“You’re supposed to work tomorrow,” I remind him. “You already took one day off for me, I don’t want to create an issue.”
“You’re not, and it’s better that I’m not at work today since you do have the flu and there’s a chance I caught it from you. I’ll be wearing a mask around everyone, but it’s safer to take the day and make sure I don’t develop symptoms.”
“Yeah, infecting already critical patients with the flu isn’t a good idea.”
He kisses the back of my neck. “Sleep, babe.” He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
20
Sam
With Chloe nestled back in my arms, a sense of peace washes over me and I end up falling asleep right along with her. I went back to her dad’s house, and the bed we shared the night before felt empty without her in it next to me. I didn’t sleep well, mostly because I was worried for her health, but also because I knew she was going to mark this down as one of the worse weekends she’s had in a while…or maybe ever.
Only fifteen minutes after I fell asleep, someone knocks on the door. I sit up, carefully slipping my arm from underneath Chloe.
“Hi,” a woman says, pushing her laptop in the room on a rolling cart. “I’m with billing and need to go over your insurance. Are you the policy holder?”
“We’re not on the same insurance,” I tell the woman, and she looks at Chloe and then back at me.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was under the assumption you were married since you were snuggled up together.” The insurance lady is already getting on my nerves. She looks familiar, and I think she’s the mother to one of my friends from high school…Evan Perry maybe? We were never that close, and I went to his house less than a dozen times throughout the four years we were friends. I don’t think this woman recognizes me.
“No, she’s my girlfriend.”
The woman looks at Chloe and forces a smile. “Can you wake her up? I just have a few questions and need to make a copy of her insurance card.”
“I’m not waking her up,” I tell her, trying to keep the obvious annoyance out of my voice. “I can get the card for you.” It’s in Chloe’s purse, somewhere. She had me fill out the insurance form when we first got to the ER.
“I need to ask the policy holder some questions.”
“Then you can come back,” I go on. “She is sick enough to be hospitalized. Getting sleep and rest is very important to her recovery. No one is waking her up.”
The woman smiles. “Very well then. I’ll circle back after I make my rounds.”
“Thank you,” I say sincerely. Once the woman is gone, I get up to use the bathroom and see that Chloe’s dad called. I go into the little waiting area outside the patient rooms so I don’t risk disturbing Chloe and waking her up, since I just complained about her getting interrupted from any decent chunk of sleep.
“Hi, Mr. Fisher,” I say into the phone. “How are you doing?”
“Pretty good myself, but I’ll be better once I know how my Chloe is doing.”
“We’re still waiting for her lab work to come back, but she looks better today and is ready to get out of here.”
“That sounds like her. And you two are going back to Chicago today?”
“I need to since I work in the morning, but I’ll see how Chloe is feeling.” And if she wants to come back with me after I tell her about Stacey. “If worse comes to worst and I need to go back to work a shift at the hospital, my mother has already offered up a room in the house for Chloe.”
“Let your mom know how much we appreciate that. And again, I’m glad you’re there with her. I’m sure I’ll see you two again soon, right?”
“Right. Chloe wanted to walk through the trails by the lake and I know she’ll be disappointed she didn’t get to this weekend.”
“She spent so much time out in those woods as a child. I can only imagine how little I would have seen her if we’d bought the lake house sooner,” he chuckles. “I’ll let you go. Thanks for keeping me updated.”
“No problem. I’ll call with another update as soon as I can.” The call ends and I look out the waiting room window. You can see Silver Lake in the distance from up here, and a decent view of the downtown area of Silver Ridge. I find myself not wanting to leave for a few reasons. I don’t want to go back to work bright and early tomorrow. I don’t want to run the risk of crossing paths with Stacey while Chloe is with me.
And I really do miss this place.
Jacob texts me as I’m walking back to the room.
Jacob: How’s Chloe doing?
Me: A little better. We’re hoping she’ll
get discharged today.
Jacob: I’m guessing you didn’t tell her, then, right?
Me: Right. I couldn’t do that with everything else going on.
Jacob: Yeah, I wouldn’t have either. But don’t put it off.
Me: I’ll tell her as soon as she’s recovered.
Jacob: Sounds like an excuse to me.
I’m right outside Chloe’s room and pause to type out a reply.
Me: Fine. It kind of is, but she’s going to get upset and she’s still not out of the woods. She has the flu, and it can knock you on your ass for days.
Jacob: I see you’re point. Just don’t wait.
Me: I won’t.
Letting out a sigh, I push open the door and find Chloe sitting up, tying away at something on her phone.
“You’re up.” I close the door behind me.
“I have to pee,” she says, looking up from her phone. “I’m still not supposed to get out of bed without help.” She rolls her eyes.
“I’ll take you.”
“Thanks…just…one second…” She bites her lip, rereading what typed. “Okay.” She sends off a text and gets up, purposely moving slow this time so she doesn’t get a brain rush like she did the last time she got up too fast. I roll the IV pole along with her, and help her into the bathroom, making sure she doesn’t need help or lose her balance.
She gets a text as she’s getting back into bed, and I grab her phone for her. “Karina…she’s your editor?” I ask, remembering Chloe mention that name before.
“Publicist. She wants me back in LA this week to do a surprise appearance with Charles somewhere to get the show’s social media trending again. It’s all last minute, since Charles has been on location filming, but his costar got hurt during a stunt last night so he’s coming back to LA to film some scenes in the studio.”
She says it so casually it almost sounds like no big deal to hang out with A-list movie stars and have the inside scoop on what’s going on behind the scenes of the next Hollywood blockbuster.
“When does she want you back?”
“Wednesday.”
“This Wednesday?”
She nods. “It’ll be fine. We’ll leave here tonight, drive to Chicago. I’ll have all day tomorrow to rest and try and catch up on my writing, and then I’ll catch a late flight Tuesday, do my little PR stunt Wednesday morning, and I can come back after that.”
“Chloe,” I say gently and sit on the bed next to her. “That’s how you got sick in the first place. You ran yourself ragged.”
“I’m just sitting in a plane for like ten hours.”
“And the airport for just as long.”
“It’s not that bad, especially if I take a secret plane.”
I raise an eyebrow. “A secret plane?”
“It’s how celebrities travel,” she tells me. “I didn’t know about it until Charles and I become friends. You get dropped off away from the general public and have your own special waiting area. If you’re flying commercial, you’re boarded at a separate time or sometimes driving straight to the plane.”
“That’s interesting,” I admit. “I never thought about it, though I do prefer to fly first-class and don’t know if I could ever go back to coach.”
“Snob,” she teases and then yawns. “I flew coach to get here to Chicago. It was the only thing available.”
“Go home to LA,” I tell her. “I work seven AM to seven PM tomorrow, have Wednesday off, and then work seven PM to seven AM Thursday to Friday. I can catch a plane after that and come see you. Let me run ragged instead,” I joke.
“I feel bad making you do that.”
“It’s my turn to come see you.” …If you’ll want me to, that is. “And I don’t think you looked at the weather forecast, but the weather this week in Chicago is shitty.”
“The nice weather is honestly what’s keeping me there,” she confesses. “It’s big and busy and so damn expensive to live in LA. Chicago is expensive too.”
“And we don’t get the nice weather.” I move the IV line so I can wrap my arms around Chloe. “My mom likes to remind me two things on a monthly basis: I don’t have kids and I could buy a really nice house in Silver Ridge and pay less for the mortgage than I do for rent.”
“Hah, my dad says the same thing. I rented an apartment the first year I lived in LA, and it killed me every time rent was due.” She coughs and brings a hand to her chest, grimacing from the pain. “It’s really annoying I’m not better yet after spending nearly twenty-four hours in the hospital.”
“If only it worked that way.”
“Do you get many sick patients?” Her eyes fall shut and I pull the blankets over her lap.
“No. Trauma centers treat injuries. Sometimes people are sick on top of an injury, or illness develops through their weakened state, though we don’t see that too often since everyone knows how important it is to wear PPE to protect not only ourselves, but our vulnerable patients.”
“I still don’t know how you do that almost every day. You’re a real-life hero.”
“It’s my job.”
A few seconds of silence pass. “Sam?”
“Yeah?
“You can go. I know it’s boring here.” Her body relaxes against mine. “I’m gonna take a nap until I’m released from prison. Go hang out with your family for a little bit.”
“I told you, I don’t mind staying.”
“You should go to my dad’s and gather up our stuff. It’ll make leaving later easier.”
She has a good point. “Do you want anything from the house? You could be here another few hours.”
“I know,” she groans. “I might pull a Mason and just leave.”
“Leaving against medical advice can make it really difficult to work with your insurance, you know.”
“I didn’t, but it makes sense. I guess I’ll stay. I’d rather not pay full price for any medical bills. We really need universal healthcare.”
“I don’t disagree.” I kiss her neck. “I’ll go to the house and get things put together and straightened up.”
“Thank you. And then hopefully we can leave right after that. I’d like to sit by the lake one more time before we leave.”
“Yeah…that would be nice.” I swallow hard. It would give me a chance to tell her—finally tell her—the truth.
“This is ridiculous,” Chloe grumbles. “I swear they’re taking their sweet time on purpose just to charge me more.”
“There’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes than you realize,” I tell her. “But this hospital doesn’t seem too crazy busy so I’m starting to agree with you.”
Chloe is up and dressed, and we’ve been sitting here waiting for the nurse to come back with the rest of the discharge paperwork.
“What do you want to do for dinner?” Chloe asks, zipping up a black hooded sweatshirt that has a triple-moon symbol on the breast, along with her series slogan Fight like a girl underneath. “Go to your parents?”
“I’d like to be alone with you.”
“I can’t argue with that.” She smiles but looks even more exhausted than before. “Our options for takeaway are pizza or something from Silver Cafe, right?”
“The Cantina does carryout now.”
“Ohh, a taco sounds good,” she says.
“As soon as we’re actually leaving, I’ll call and put in an order,” I tell her, and it ends up taking another twenty minutes before we finally leave. Chloe stays in the car while I run in to get the food, and she’s asleep when I get back. Neon lights from the bright sign on the building illuminate her face. She’s so fucking beautiful. My heart lurches in my chest and it’s stupid how emotional I’m getting right now…but it’s really not.
Because I love Chloe with every fiber of my being, and even if we do work things out, nothing will be the same.
21
Chloe
“Chloe.”
Sam’s hand lands on my thigh and I sit up, blinking my eyes open. I forgot where I a
m, and it takes me a few seconds to remember I left the hospital and fell asleep in Sam’s car. We’re in the driveway, and the porch lights from Dad’s house illuminate the porch, welcoming us home.
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” I unbuckle and roll my neck.
“You needed it.”
“Yeah. I’m still tired.” It’s after seven, and even if we left for Chicago right now, it’ll be after nine by the time we get there. Add in another hour or so to get unpacked, take a shower, and get ready for bed, and it’ll be after ten, which isn’t too late for Sam, who has to get up around five-thirty in the morning. “I’ll eat fast,” I tell him as we get out of the car.
“We don’t have to rush,” he says, pulling the house key from his jacket pocket. “It’s chilly, but we can still sit by the lake or even on the porch.”
I’d love that, but I don’t want to be selfish and make Sam stay out any later than necessary. We will be back here soon enough.
“I’m hungry. I’ll eat fast anyway. The food wasn’t very good at the hospital.”
“It didn’t look like it.” Sam unlocks the door and steps in, turning on the foyer light. “My hospital has good food, thank god, since I eat it daily.”
“It seems the bigger hospitals do.” I blink and get a flash of visiting Mom at some fancy cancer clinic. The cafeteria looked more like a mall food court, with tons of different options. People flew in from all over the world for treatment there, and a lot of family members stayed with them or in the center-provided rooms. Dad and I stayed a week, and then my grandma came to get me and took me back home.
I blink the painful memory away and take off my shoes. The temperature dropped significantly after the sun set, and Dad is cheap when it comes to keeping the house warm. It was a constant battle when I lived at home, with me sneaking out of my room to turn up the thermostat so I wouldn’t freeze to death in the middle of the night.
After washing my hands, I turn the temperature up to sixty-eight and then join Sam at the kitchen table.
Desperate Times (Silver Ridge Series Book 2) Page 19