His Assurance (Assured Distraction Book 3)

by Thia Finn

  “Ugh. I don’t know what’s going on. I like him, a lot. We are great together in every way. We’re very compatible, and I know he only wants the best for me. He’s excited about my job prospects, but he wants me to be in Austin so I can be with him. I’m not sure I am willing to give up a job at Texas Children’s to work in Austin. I think it’s a lot to ask, but I do want to be where he is. I’m confused as to what to do right now. Guess I’ll decide after I get offered the job.”

  “What does having a job have to do with being in love, Lola?” Journey looked at me like I was crazy.

  “Wait, no one said anything about being in love.”

  “But could you see yourself falling in love with him?” she asked.

  I couldn’t answer that question as quickly as the others. In love? I hadn’t given that much thought. Could I fall in love with him? He was a great guy, kind and caring, always putting my interests first. He was the best lover, and we were definitely compatible in that area. He was smoking hot, and his body was perfect. Hmm, there was that term again. Was he that close to perfect? Yes, I thought so. I wondered if being apart would cause us both to forget those things, or if he even felt the same about me.

  When we arrived at home, they unloaded from our car with all of their things. The girls had a couple of days before they returned to Paris, which was enough time to regroup. Knowing this group, they would spend their time either partying or lounging by the pool. College life was such a great time, at least for these lucky ladies.

  On the other hand, I needed to wade through my pediatrics books from college and review all I could before my interview. I was familiar with it, but I wanted to be on point with all of the knowledge necessary to ace the questions they were sure to throw my way. I knew they would ask a wide variety that I needed to know to be an integral part of their team. I wanted this job and was determined to do whatever it took.

  As I sat with my computer, the conversation with the girls kept playing over in my head. Could I love Gunner? I missed him already. He had such a fun personality, and I would never find anyone better in the looks department, but he was more than that. He obviously only wanted the best for me because never once did he ask me not to interview for this job after he knew how badly I wanted a position like it offered. He would always put my wishes first. His loyalty and honesty would never be in question. I knew that for sure. He treated me like I was everything to him but was he everything to me?

  I never thought about being in a relationship with him, though. He had asked me to stay but didn’t pressure me. What would happen when he went on tour? Could I stand being alone for months on end? There was a lot to consider. The one thing I knew was that I did like him, and maybe, just maybe, I could see us being together or possibly giving it a try.

  I fell asleep with a thick book on my chest but woke up to Gunner’s ringtone, which was his drum solo. He recorded it for me before I left so I would never confuse his calls.

  “Hello, Gunner. I called when we got home, but you didn’t answer me. It’s been six whole hours since I heard from you. Missing me already?”

  “Oh, Lola, this isn’t Gunner. It’s Chandler. I found cherry pie in his phone and hoped it was you.”

  I sat straight up. I knew from her tone of voice something was wrong. “What’s happened, Chandler? Where’s Gunner?”

  “He’s had an accident. We are at the ER. I only wanted to let you know what was going on. I didn’t know if it was the right thing to do, but if I were you, I would want to know.”

  “Yes, Chandler, thank you so much for thinking of me. Yes, I definitely want to know. Just tell me what’s happened.” I stood up and started dumping out my suitcase so I could reload it if necessary.

  “We don’t know exactly what happened, but we think he had a bad fall and hit his head.”

  “Oh, God. Can I talk with him? Is he conscious? What tests are they running?” I knew I was rapid firing questions, but they were important, and I needed the answers.

  “Wait, wait, wait. I don’t know the answers to any of these yet.”

  “Okay, sorry. Tell me what you do know.” It was all I could do not to ask more.

  “We went to his house this evening, and he wouldn’t answer the door. We knew he was home because his car was there, and the music out back was blaring. We decided he couldn’t hear us knocking, so Carter used his key on the front door.” Chandler stopped, and I could tell she was trying hard not to cry. “It’s not good, Lola.”

  I looked up, and people were standing in my house. “What the hell? Why didn’t y’all knock before you walked in? I could have been naked.” Something was wrong with me. I felt funny when I stood up, but I thought I’d just busted my ass and cut my head in the back. I felt light-headed.

  I could see Carter laughing and KeeMac walked into my den with his usual swagger like he was always on stage. I loved giving him hell over it.

  “What?” I saw his lips moving, but I didn’t hear him.

  Again, his lips were moving but I couldn’t hear anything he said.

  “What?” Something’s wrong. I couldn’t hear them, any of them. Shit! Then I thought I might not be able to stand up anymore because I felt like the world was spinning.

  Chandler walked to me and looked me in the eyes. I saw her mouth moving, so I knew she was talking to me, but I couldn’t hear anything she was saying.

  “Okay, guys, real funny. Whose idea was it to play ‘let’s fuck with Gunner’ today?” The really weird part, though, was I couldn’t hear myself either. WHAT THE FUCK?

  Now they all stood there in front of me, and their lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear—anything. Chandler touched the back of my head, and it hurt like hell. When she drew her hand back, it was covered in blood, but I already knew it would be. I was cleaning the blood off when they came in the door. She went to my desk and messed with my iPad before she picked up the notepad lying beside it and a pen.

  Chandler wrote: What happened?

  “I don’t know. I woke up by the pool, and my head was bloody,” I told her. I was leaning against the front of my sink holding on, or I might be on the floor.

  She wrote: Come show us.

  Ryan, Carter, and KeeMac are watching us, and they all started nodding their heads. This shit was too weird.

  “Are y’all fucking with me?”

  They shook their heads. I turned and motioned for them to follow me to where I was when I woke up, but I didn’t make it. I started wobbling around until KeeMac and Carter caught me right before I landed on the ground. They sat me down, and I pointed outside. Ryan walked out the door and came back in immediately, he was on his phone.

  They were all talking and pointing at the blood too, but dammit I couldn’t hear what they were saying. What was happening to me? This was all fucking strange. My head felt like a fog, a deep dark fog that had surrounded my brain. I realized there were no sounds—the silence gave me a chill, and the gaping void of isolation was overpowering.

  Chandler started writing again: Gunner, we’ve called an ambulance. We need to get you to a hospital. You took a bad fall and are hurt. Do you remember what time you went out to the pool?

  It was hard remembering the things she was asking me. My head pounded with every thought. “No clue. It was a little after the girls, and Lola left for Houston. I’ve been waiting for her to call. What’s happened to me?”

  Carter kneeled down by me. This was bullshit. I was not an invalid. I saw him talking to the others and then say something into his phone. My phone vibrated, and he nodded at me to look at it. It was a text from him.

  I looked at him and said, “So we are going to talk like little middle school girls writing notes to each other?”

  He spoke into his phone again, and I watched him hit send.

  Carter: No, dumbass. I’m going to speak, and you are going to read so we can talk to each other.

  I read the message and said, “Fuck yeah. That works.”

  It wasn’t long before Chan
let the paramedics in the front door. They came in with a stretcher and helped me off the floor to get on it. They asked questions to the others and then rolled me out. I had never ridden in an ambulance before, and I couldn’t hear the sirens, which I was damn glad about with the way my head was hurting. The paramedics were hooking me up to all kinds of machines, and I saw them talking, but I had no fucking clue about what.

  The drive to the hospital seemed like it took forever, and the ride itself messed with my stomach. I felt off, and it didn’t take long before I started barfing everywhere, which made my head pound like a son-of-a-bitch, worse than any hangover I had ever had.

  The paramedics acted like it was no big thing, but I saw the worried looks on their faces, and it freaked me the hell out. I was thinking all kinds of things that could be wrong. Why couldn’t I hear? I was too young to go deaf. How could I play music? How could I play my drums with the band? This was all too fucked up to comprehend with my head throbbing.

  I leaned my head back on the raised part of the stretcher and closed my eyes, but the guy shook me. I opened my eyes, and he wrote on a whiteboard: NO SLEEPING!

  That was wrong, I wanted to close my eyes for just a second, but they kept shaking me and made sure I didn’t.

  When we arrived, Carter and Ryan were right there when they opened the doors. Carter took my phone and changed something on the settings. He then sent me a text.

  Carter: Your phone’s on vibrate, so you can feel when you get messages. They probably won’t let us go back there with you since none of us are family.

  “That’s bullshit. Y’all are my family. When they ask, I’ll tell them you’re my brothers.” Carter smiled and nodded his head yes. He turned to the others and started pointing to his phone and my phone. I guess they would all blow up my phone with messages.

  The medics rolled me through the doors, and KeeMac took over and told the nurse everything. The next thing I knew, scrubbed-dressed people were running around doing all kinds of things to me. I got this butt-ugly hospital gown, and a male nurse started trying to take off my swimsuit. “What the fuck, dude. I can take off my own clothes.”

  He said something like I was supposed to understand.

  I didn’t know what was going on, and it started freaking me out until Chandler stepped up and took out her phone talking into it. I got the text telling me who everyone was while she pointed them out. This was frustrating as hell. I pulled the Velcro open and slid my suit down, and the guy reached under the sheet and pulled them off.

  “Really, dude. The injury is not on my junk.” I could tell the guy started laughing. I was not finding his hands close to my dick all that funny.

  The doctor walked in and talked to KeeMac and Chan. She handed the doctor her phone and pointed to me.

  “Yeah, doc, if you’ll say it into the phone, I can read it,” I told him. He started asking me a bunch of questions and then sat me up on the exam table to look at my head.

  “Doc, that bitch hurts crazy bad.”

  The doctor spoke into the phone and then turned it for me to read.

  Doctor: We need to get some pictures of this. How long have you been deaf?

  “I’m not deaf.” The doctor looked at me like I was crazy and turned to Chandler and the others. They talked, but I was left out of the conversation, which I found both frustrating and insulting.

  A sweet little blonde came in the room and spoke to me, but again, I had nothing. I looked at Chan, and she spoke into the phone.

  Chandler: They are taking you to get some scans of your head. I guess I looked pathetic to her because she then added: Do you want me to go with you?

  I wanted to roll my eyes and tell her I was not a pussy, but instead, I nodded my head yes. Damn, this sucked.

  The ride on this bed was all kinds of wrong, even in a sitting up position. All I wanted to do was throw my guts up, but dammit, it hurt so badly when I heaved. My head felt ready to explode. “Chan, please tell that doc to give me something for this pain. It’s killing me.” She took my hand and squeezed it when I held the fucking blue barf bag back to my mouth.

  The little blonde finally wheeled me back to the room, and another doctor stood waiting there. Chan typed his name and that he was a neurologist. They typed I would be admitted but nothing else because they were waiting for all of the test results. I had a million questions roaming around in my pounding brain. God, I just wanted it to stop. The doctor turned and addressed Chandler. Dammit, I was the one who was injured.

  Chandler quickly typed in what the doctor told her so I could be included in the conversation.

  Chandler: They are trying to decide if you had an injury to your ears or some other location that can cause the hearing loss. They also wanted to know if you had been dizzy. The test will show the severity of the impact. The doctor said dizziness is common and should go away on its own but could take a few weeks.

  “But what about my ears? I have to hear, Chan. How will I do my job if I can’t hear?” I knew I said this loudly because I finally had the doctors’ attention. This sucked. I couldn’t be deaf. “Am I always going to be deaf?” I was falling apart at the seams here. This could not be happening.

  The doctors talked to Chandler and the guys again, and she typed frantically to me.

  Chandler: They won’t know until the test results are back. It could be a TBI, traumatic brain injury, but they are reserving making any diagnosis without the tests, which are being read now.

  “No, I can’t have a TBI. I’m a drummer in a band. I have to be able to hear.” I was close to a total meltdown, and the doctors and Chandler recognized it and started typing again.

  Chandler: You have to calm down, Gunner. Getting upset and flipping out isn’t going to help you. I know this is scary, but it’s going to be okay. We’ll get you the best doctors in this field if we need to.

  Carter came around on the other side of the bed and put his hand on my shoulder. I looked at him, and he nodded his head. I knew he was trying to comfort me, but I was losing it.

  Chandler put her phone down and wrapped her arm around me, offering me more reassurance.

  The doctor received a message on his phone and left the room taking the other doctor with him.

  Soon after, the blonde returned with a Tylenol for my headache and a razor.

  “A Tylenol, really? That’s all they are going to give me? And what the hell is that for?” I pointed at the razor.

  The nurse nodded her head and spoke to Chandler, who in turn typed again.

  Chandler: She said that was all they can give you for the pain at this point. She needs to shave your head so they can stitch you up and stop the bleeding.

  Damn, I took Tylenol when I stubbed my toe, how the hell was it going to help this massive pain in my head. She helped me to a sitting position and took a rag with warm water and gingerly wiped the blood away from my head.

  I watched the nurse’s lips move, and looked at Chandler since I knew the nurse had said something, so she typed it into the phone.

  Chandler: The nurse said that she was glad your injury was on the back of your head.

  As gently as she could, the nurse pulled the long top part to the side and tried to secure it, but it kept falling back where she was cleaning.

  Chandler: I think you’re going to have to clip it or cut it all off.

  “Hell no, she is not cutting off my hair. Get me a rubber band or something and I’ll pull it up and out of the way.” The young nurse practically ran from the room. I knew I was being loud and probably a little on the abrupt side, but damn, I didn’t think I barked loud enough to scare her.

  Chandler: Good job there, Gunner. Scare the girl to death.

  The nurse returned with a red hair tie and handed it to me. She turned and spoke to Chandler.

  Chandler: She said it’s hers and the only color she had, but she didn’t think you would want to use a rubber band on your hair.

  “What difference does that make?” I used them all of the time
.

  Chandler: They are bad for your hair Gunner. It will cause your hair to break off.

  “Like I care at this point. Hell, I already keep the sides shaved. I might as well shave it all.

  Chandler: I’m not sure how that would look with a slick headed drummer.

  “It would be easier to take care of,” I told her and the nurse who was back to cleaning the area on the back of my head. When she finished, she wrapped it in gauze. She left the room just as Carter came through the door. I noticed him watching her walk away and down the hall.

  Carter typed into his phone: Dude, if you wanted a hot nurse stripper, we could have hired one for you.

  “Haha. Very funny, dumbass.”

  Carter: Now you look like a character from the Walking Dead. Do I need to get a gun in case you try to bite us?

  “You are such a comedian today. Maybe I should have let her shave it all off.”

  Ryan pulled out his phone and typed: Was this a ploy to get Lola to come back? She might have come if you just called her.

  “Lola’s going to work in Houston, remember?” I hadn’t thought about calling her since they all arrived at my house earlier. “I guess she made it home okay. I never heard from her. She was supposed to call me.” I hadn’t looked at my phone except to read messages, but when I did, I had several missed calls.

  I scrolled through the list and saw she had called and left a voicemail. Of course, I couldn’t hear it, so I handed it to Chandler. She’s the only one I trusted to listen to it and not make a big deal about anything Lola said to me. Chandler listened and typed what she heard into the phone.

  Chandler: I’m home now. I thought you would be waiting for my call. Anyway, I wanted to let you know we are home, and I’ll be here preparing for the interview.

  “That’s good,” I said. “I should have called her to check on her.”

  Chandler: Gunner, you’re in the hospital. How could you call her?

  One of the doctors returned. I couldn’t tell by his face if the news was good or bad. I was glad the guys were all here to listen. He spoke to Chandler, and she started typing.