by Jayne Rylon
A rhythmic squeak interrupted the now familiar soundtrack of the waiting room—the crunch of Styrofoam coffee cups, people tapping their fingers or toes, snores from the elderly man in the corner and the soft murmurs of various crew members fortifying each other. Heads turned in unison toward the new stimulus.
“Hey.” Morgan lifted her fingers from the arm of a wheelchair, pushed by Joe. The plastic hospital bracelet around her wrist slid higher on her thin arm. Rosy cheeks and alert eyes unwound one small tendril of anxiety from Kayla’s heart.
“Feeling better?” Mike crossed to the chair and crouched so he could evaluate her up close and personal.
“Much.” She leaned forward until her forehead rested on his. “Any updates?”
“Nothing.” Neil joined them.
“Remember, Ofelia said that’s a good sign.” Joe laid one of his broad hands on Morgan’s shoulder when she slumped. Kayla, James and Devon circled around their friends.
Kate approached to stand right in front of Morgan. She rubbed her own slightly rounded belly, then said softly, “Can you give us something to smile about?”
“It doesn’t feel right.” Morgan stared at her socked feet on the metal rests of the wheelchair.
Kayla marched over, taking up a post on the opposite side from Mike. She ordered, “Look at me.”
A watery gaze lifted. Tears bulged at the corner of Morgan’s eyes, threatening to fall.
“If you’re pregnant, no one would be happier for you than Dave.” Kayla shivered. “He’s talked about it almost every night while we were falling asleep. How much he was hoping for you. How much longer we’d have to wait to find out. Please, tell me it’s true. Tell me something wonderful is happening today.”
James and Devon wrapped Kayla in their protective embraces. Still, everyone alternated staring at Morgan and Joe.
The tears suspended in her eyes fell, tracing silvery tracks down her cheeks. She bit her lip. Then nodded. “It’s true. This time. I’m pregnant. It’s really true.”
Joe leaned forward, burying his face in his wife’s neck. If the shaking of his wide shoulders was any indication, he joined her in emotional release. His arms folded over her chest as he hugged her from behind. The guys took turns slugging him in the shoulder, slapping his back and ruffling his hair before nudging Mike out of the way to kiss Morgan’s cheek.
They finally cleared away. Even Joe stood upright, giving Kayla room to approach. She leaned in and hugged her friend. “Congratulations. You’re going to be a great mom. I’m so thrilled for you.”
“And I’m here for you.” Morgan clasped her tight enough to border on painful. “Both of you. Dave is tough. We’re going to make it through. Him. And all of us too.”
“Excuse me. Is Mrs. Rosewood in the room?” A doctor stood in the entryway that had only been empty—and empty and empty some more—for an eternity.
Mike threaded Kayla’s arm around his elbow and escorted her to the rumpled man. His scrubs were askew, hair sticking up on end, and his face seemed pale in the harsh lights. Dark stains smattered his clothing.
After the interminable torture of not knowing, the truth suddenly frightened Kayla. She stutter-stepped. The foreman dragged her forward with his momentum. She must have whimpered.
“Come on, Kay.” He squeezed her arm. “We have to find out. Hearing the truth isn’t going to change anything. It is what it is. We’re going to cope with it together.”
“This is Kayla Rosewood.” Mike presented her to the doctor. “I’m Dave’s brother. We’re all his brothers.”
The rest of the crew huddled close behind them. Morgan and Joe tucked in the rear.
“Big family.” The doctor nodded slowly. “I’m not surprised he has so much support. Ma’am, your husband is stubborn as hell. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone quite so determined not to give up. There were a couple very close calls. Both according to the rescue workers and from what I saw myself. I’m thrilled to be standing in front of you right now and to be able to say your husband is being moved to the ICU for recovery.”
“So he’s going to be fine?” She struggled to translate each phrase that drifted from the doctor’s lips and decipher the repercussions his pronouncement had on her and Dave’s lives. Her heart soared with hope and relief.
“I wouldn’t say it like that.” The surgeon sobered. He ground his hands over his face. “I assume the police haven’t been in yet, since he wasn’t conscious to answer questions.”
Kayla shook her head no.
“Then you don’t know anything about the accident?” The surgeon sighed.
Several shallow, quick breaths threatened to choke Kayla.
“You’re scaring her.” Mike rubbed circles on her back.
“I looked it up on the local news.” James spoke up from the rear. A green cast infused his typically bronzed skin.
“You did?” She whipped her head around to stare at him. “Why didn’t you show me?”
He didn’t answer.
“It’s that bad?” She looked between Mike and the doctor.
“All I know is he took on a semi and lost.” The surgeon shook his head. “Or maybe he won. I’ll let you be the judge. This I’m sure of. It’s going to be a long, hard road from here. Your husband was pinned inside his car. His left leg was shattered. Tibia, fibula, kneecap—you name it. A large chunk of his calf muscle was…missing. I did all I could to save the limb. We’ll have to wait until he’s awake and healing to see if it worked.”
“There’s still the possibility—”
“I’m afraid so.” He grimaced.
“Okay, okay.” Kay had spent the last several hours preparing herself for this, based on the tips Ofelia had given them. “It’s horrible. Terrifying. Going to be so difficult for him to not be active—”
She didn’t realize she’d cut off until Mike hugged her tight and someone petted her hair from behind. She cleared her throat. “But other than his leg. He’s okay, right?”
“I’m not trying to be evasive, Mrs. Rosewood. I’m sorry. The reality is we just can’t be sure yet. They’ll run more tests in the morning. A lot of him is too swollen for accurate imaging right now, but we think we’ve addressed the bleeding and isolated all the critical issues. He’s banged up pretty much everywhere. A piece of the door gashed his belly. He had stitches in his face, arms, chest and… Well, there’s no part of him we didn’t work on except his back.”
Her knees buckled.
Strong arms surrounded her, keeping her afloat through the storm of fear and pain.
“I know it may not seem like it. Not today and not six months from now, but your husband is lucky. So very fortunate to still be with us, given the situation. A few inches more of that door bending or a couple inches higher on the crushing pressure that mangled his leg or… any number of almosts, and we would not have been able to help him.”
“Dave.” Kayla cried his name over and over.
“Can we see him?” Mike asked for her.
“Once they have him in the ICU, we’ll let Mrs. Rosewood in for five minutes. You—only you—can go with her. After that, you might as well go home and get some rest. You won’t be able to see him again until tomorrow after his exams, and he’s going to need you when he wakes up. He’s stayed strong for you all, now you’re going to have to carry him.”
“That won’t be a problem.” Neil crossed his arms over his chest as if storing up his energy. “We’re a crew. We stick together. That’s what we’re here for.”
“I sort of got that sense.” The surgeon smiled wanly. “You all hang tight a little while longer and a nurse will come for you. I’m heading home now. Days like today make me wish I had more time to spend with my family.”
Kayla’s hand shot out, latching on to the doctor. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.” He nodded.
Joe watched Mike and Kayla march down the hall behind the nurse who’d come to collect them and lead them to Dave. They trundled off as i
f headed to the gallows, bracing themselves for whatever they might find at the other end of the journey. He wished he could get just a glimpse of his crewmate. As if that tiny contact might help one of his best friends rest more peacefully.
Tomorrow.
His pocket vibrated. He jumped. Almost anyone who would bother calling him was already in this room. After considering ignoring it, he figured what the hell? It wasn’t like the tension was doing him any good without distractions. He slipped the device from his jeans and winced at the contact picture of his cousin Eli, who wore a smug grin while he held up a monster, twenty-two-inch rainbow trout he’d caught on their last ice-fishing trip.
Eli and his gang of adopted brothers plus one sister had grown close to Dave over the years, despite sporadic contact. How would Joe tell them what had happened?
“Hey.” He choked out a greeting, hoping the rest came easier.
“You weren’t even gonna call me with the news, dirtbag?” Laughter, not heat, infused the accusation with lightheartedness Joe couldn’t comprehend.
“How’d you hear about Dave?” He plopped onto one of the molded plastic bucket seats that made him feel like a giant in a kindergarten class. With his back turned to the rest of the crew, Joe pitched his question low to avoid upsetting them any more than they already were. He dropped his head into one hand, his elbow propped on his knee, and scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “Is the footage so bad it hit the regional news? We don’t know much other than that he tangoed with a semi.”
“What?” Eli’s tone morphed from cajoling to serious in no time flat. The hot-rodder might have mastered his cool facade, but Joe didn’t have to be told Eli led his gang of mechanics with the same natural instinct Mike used to glue their crew together. The rest of Eli’s shop was comprised of a motley assortment of kids from rocky pasts. His dad had rescued each of them after getting involved in his wife’s community outreach program following her untimely death. They’d stuck together ever since. A blend of family, yet not. It was scary how much they reminded Joe of the crew when he got to hang out with them, which wasn’t as often as he’d like, being a couple states away and all. “I was talking about Neil’s fucking Facebook post that claimed he was gonna be an honorary uncle again. And James’s comment that Morgan was going to kick his ass for spilling the beans. Assumed that had to be all you. Congratulations, daddy-o.”
Joe glanced over his shoulder to where the youngest guy in the crew fiddled with his smartphone. Devon curled under one of his arms, reading off the screen too. Joe had assumed they were playing some brainiac word game together, as usual, to pass the time and keep themselves from going insane with worry.
“Ah, right. Yes. Dad-to-be. That’s me.” How could one man be so damn happy and so torn up at the same time?
He glanced over to where Morgan had dozed off on a bench, her head resting on Neil’s thigh. The tall blond man stroked her hair idly, calming himself along with Joe’s wife. Purple smudges still stained the skin beneath her eyes, and she huddled beneath two flannel shirts the guys had sacrificed for her. He felt as though he wanted to laugh until he cried. Again.
“Dude?”
“Ah, thank you. I can hardly believe it’s finally real.”
“So, not to cut the celebration short, but what the fuck did you mean about Dave?”
Rocketing to his feet, Joe stormed around the corner, frustration bubbling to the surface. “It’s bad. We’re in the mother fucking hospital trauma center. The waiting room. We’ve been here for fucking ever. Like, six hours at least. We don’t know jack shit. Except that we’re all about to fucking go nuts. Long story short, Dave and I left work about the same time. I had to stop and pick up the pregnancy test. It took way longer than I thought. When I got home, he hadn’t made it yet.”
A horrible noise, maybe something like a sob, tangled in his throat.
“Calm down. Deep breaths, man.” Eli waited him out until he got his shit together.
“He never made it.”
“Holy shit.” Eli sounded like he might be running. Breath huffed from him. A heavy metallic crash could have come from the thick fire door, which separated the auto body restoration offices from the garage, slamming into the cinderblock wall.
A chorus of cheers burst through the receiver.
“Woot woot!”
“Congrats, man.”
“Way to knock her up!”
Eli tried to shush them. They clearly didn’t understand.
“It’s not true?” That sounded like Sally, the lone girl Eli’s dad had brought into their fold. Tough as nails on the outside, Joe suspected she had a gooey core not so far below the surface, if only she met the right person to crack her shell.
“It is, it is.” Eli reassured them. “Alanso, clear my schedule and yours for a couple days. We’re heading out there.”
“What’s wrong, boss?” The guys loved to rile Eli by calling him that. They’d realize things were serious when he didn’t bother protesting. No time to waste.
“It’s Dave. There’s been an accident. Don’t know much yet. At the very least we can deal with his truck, get the insurance under control and take the paperwork off their hands. We know that shit inside and out.”
“You don’t have to—” Joe tried to interrupt. He shouldn’t have bothered.
Eli railroaded right over him. “Dude. Let us help. That’s what family is for. You’re going to have other shit on your plate. Double now. How is Mo, anyway?”
“Up and down.” Tension crept along his neck, infusing a dull ache in the base of his skull. “The whole reason we headed home in the first place was ‘cause she was acting funny at the mall. Kay called us to give us a head’s up. Oh, fuck. I was so pissed off there was an accident, cursing and raving like a road-raging lunatic because it was going to make me five minutes later getting back to Morgan. I detoured. Took the back way. And all that time he was lying there, hurt. If I’d gone the other way, maybe…”
“You’d have been stuck in the miles of traffic behind him. You couldn’t have helped. Not even to stand by his side. Quit it, Joe.” Eli broke him from the destructive line of reasoning. “There’s enough legitimate stuff to freak out about here.”
“No kidding. Morgan fucking passed out when she heard the news and spent several hours getting fluids at the hospital before we joined the rest of the crew. I’m worried. The stress isn’t good for her or the baby.”
“See, see.” Eli dropped to a hush. The background clanks and ratchet whirs died down, telling Joe he must have stepped outside. “Too much at once. We’ve got your back. Look, Joe. I’ll never forget the summer after my mom died when you quit your league to come out here. Baseball is everything to a fourteen-year-old, especially one as good as you were. You never blinked twice. For my dad and me. You pumped gas at the station, cooked those horrible meals and did whatever you could to keep me from going crazy. Let me do this for you.”
Joe swallowed hard. The times he’d sat shoulder to shoulder with his cousin while silent tears streaked down his cheeks were as vivid as if they’d happened yesterday. He hoped they didn’t have to repeat those sessions in reverse. Still, it’d be nice to have that kind of support, one step removed from the pain. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”
“Great.” Eli sighed. “We’ll be there tomorrow around lunch. I’ll call when we’re closing in so you can tell us where to meet you.”
“Thank you.
“You got it. Call us if…anything changes.” Eli didn’t have to spell it out.
They both knew what he meant.
“Will do.” Joe couldn’t manage more than that. He disconnected then slammed his fist into the wall. Bruised knuckles wouldn’t help the situation. Still, they gave him something else to focus on. “Son of a bitch.”
6
“We’ll see you first thing tomorrow, okay?” Kate hugged Kayla tight enough that the bulge of her baby belly bumped into Kay noticeably.
“There’s not going to be a lot for you to do.
You should sleep in as long as you can.” She patted Kate’s back. “Don’t want your little princess getting upset. Same goes for you, Mo.”
Joe didn’t argue. In the shadows of the hospital parking lot, she thought she detected frown lines around his sexy pout. He tucked his wife close to his chest.
“Okay.” Morgan nodded before glancing at James. “As long as somebody promises to text us any updates.”
“I’m on that.” He tossed her a mock salute.
“Agreed then.” Mike and Joe boosted their wives into Mike’s extended-cab pickup. Despite everything, Kay smiled softly at the picture they made. Two young families. Everything in front of them potential.
“Sweet dreams.” Kate’s wish for Kayla escaped before the door shut. The women waved as they pulled away.
“Come on, sweetheart. We were thinking we’d take you to our place since it’s closer. Just in case. Unless you’d be more comfortable at your cabin?”
“No. You’re right, Neil.” She allowed him to entwine their fingers and direct her to Morgan’s car. “It’s smarter to stay nearby. Plus, I just don’t think I could sleep in our bed knowing he’s up there…”
Neil broke her line of sight with the ultra-modern glass and chrome building, so unlike their craftsman cottage in the woods. Everything about the cold, concrete structure would repulse Dave. Neil picked her up and carried her across the remaining few steps to the vehicle. Even in the blackest hour of the night, its cheery neon paint glowed. He slid into the backseat and buckled her in before attending to his own restraint. He used his sleeve to wipe rogue tears from her face.
“S-sorry.” She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed them herself. “Didn’t think I had any of those left.”
“You don’t worry about that.” Neil held her hand. “I’m sure we’re all going to be taking turns with the tissues. When someone’s down, the rest of us will shoulder the load for a while, okay?”