Chapter 7
“I’m Shane Harris,” Shane said when they got to the reception desk of the emergency room. “My sister was admitted here after a traffic accident.”
“The doctor is seeing her now,” the busy receptionist said with a quick glance up at Shane. “Have a seat, we’ll call you back when they’re done.”
“Can you at least tell us how she is?” Eli asked.
The woman looked up, and up, into his face. Then she nodded. “I’ll find out.”
Sometimes looking like a big bad biker paid off. Eli nodded and they waited for her to return. Shane was so tense that Eli could practically feel it radiating off of him.
“She’s a little banged up,” the woman said. “And her blood alcohol is through the roof. They’re going to keep her overnight to be sure that there aren’t any issues, but they think she’ll check out fine. You’ll be able to see her once she’s been transferred to a regular room.”
“So she was drunk?” Shane asked in disbelief.
“Sir, there’s really nothing more I can tell you.”
Eli followed Shane to a secluded corner of the waiting room. He dropped into a chair to wait it out. Shane sat down as well but stood back up within seconds and began to pace. Eli leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees and thought about the texts she’s sent. If he’d heard them, this never would have happened.
But God, what had she been thinking? Especially given what he now knew about her. She wasn’t normally reckless, so why start now? Anger joined the worry and he vowed to give her hell when she woke up.
“Riley’s never had a drinking problem,” Shane said finally, turning to look at Eli. “Do you know anything about this?”
Eli shook his head. “No. I mean...I met her in a bar. And then I picked her up from a bar last Friday night, but I--.”
“And you didn’t think that might be a problem?” Shane demanded. “Why the fuck didn’t you say something?”
Eli winced. “I...I didn’t know who she was the first night,” he said. He knew that even the beer they’d had wouldn’t blunt the news if it was delivered this way, but he’d waited too long and missed his chance to do this right.
“When?” Shane asked suddenly. “What first night?”
“The first night she came back.”
His friend’s eyes widened in sudden comprehension. “So when she didn’t come back that night, when I was worried sick about her, she was with you?”
Eli rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah.”
“Jesus.”
“But I didn’t know who she was,” Eli repeated, wanting to make sure that was clear. “I swear, Shane, I never would have...not if I’d known that she was your--”
“When did you find out?” Shane cut in.
Eli cleared his throat. “The, uh, the next morning.”
Shane scoffed and turned away. Then he turned back. “So when I was telling you that my sister hadn’t showed up, you knew damn good and well where she was?”
Eli looked down at his boots. “Well...yeah.”
“Jesus,” Shane repeated. “And then what? You just walked out on her?”
“No!” Eli said firmly. “She pretty much called me a one night stand and then I didn’t hear from her again till Friday night when she called me and asked me to come pick her up from Lion’s Den.”
“Lion’s Den?” Shane shouted.
A nurse, passing through the waiting room on her way to speak to someone else, stopped and looked at Shane with a severe frown.
“I’m going to have to ask you to keep your voice down,” she said sternly.
Shane muttered an apology and she walked away. He dropped down into a chair across from Eli and looked at him.
“You knew how worried about her I was,” he said. “And you didn’t tell me any of this.”
“There’s not much to it,” Eli said. “It was just--”
“If there’s not much to it, then why is she sitting in a hospital room right now?”
“Shane, I don’t know. I wasn’t with her.”
“Yeah, and maybe if you’d told me what was going on, I could have been.”
Guilt ate away at Eli. “I didn’t think that she had a problem, okay?”
Shane made that scoffing noise again.
“Look, I’ll go if that’s what you want,” Eli began, but Shane held up his hand.
“No. I’ll go. You’re the one she texted.”
“Yeah, but she was drunk. I’m sure she’ll want to see you when--”
“I’ll be back later,” Shane said.
He’d turned and walked out before Eli could speak again. Eli grabbed a magazine. It was going to be a long night and he hated hospitals. And he’d probably just lost the best friend he’d ever had and the woman that he was falling for had been going home with another man before she’d ended up here. Eli rubbed his hands over his face and went to the vending machine. Coffee wouldn’t fix everything, but it was better than nothing.