TWENTY-NINE
Dalt
I drive straight to the farm from the airport, praying someone will be there to tell me where Nikki is and what the hell is going on. It’s nine o’clock by the time I get there and already dark. I can see lights on in some of the downstairs windows of the farmhouse. They’re home. Maybe I misunderstood what Rose said on the phone.
Please God. Let it be a misunderstanding.
After I pound on the door like a wild man, Matt answers. He’s clearly distraught. It’s unnerving to see a guy his size with a swollen face and red eyes. His hair is disheveled and his face is covered with unshaven scruff. It’s like seeing a cement wall crumble right before my eyes.
“You. What do you want?” he spits the question at me and swipes his palm across his face.
“I…I’m looking for Nikki. Is she here?”
“No.” He starts to close the door in my face but I slam my hand onto the peeling paint to stop him.
“Is she…is she okay?” I want to scream ‘please stop wasting time. I have to get to her.’ But I’m afraid if I don’t remain calm, he won’t give me any information.
“No. She’s not okay. She’s at the hospital. She flipped the truck chasing down your sorry ass. She’s unconscious. Her mom is with her. I have Chloe. Not that you give a rat’s ass.”
Thank God. Chloe is okay.
“Hospital. What hospital?”
“What do you care, pretty boy? Leave her the fuck alone. Haven’t you hurt her enough?” Jesus Christ. This guy is bigger than me and might crush me but if I have to I’m going to beat the information out of him to get to Nikki.
“No. I mean, yes. Please. I know you must hate me right now and I don’t blame you. I hate myself, but I have to go to her. Please. She needs me. I know she would want me there. Please.”
Does he want me to beg? If I have to get down on my knees and grovel, I will.
He doesn’t say a word.
“Just tell me where the fuck she is!” I swear I see fire flash in his eyes when I yell. “Please, sir,” I lower my voice. “I’m a big, dumb jackass and all the rotten things you’re thinking about me are probably true, but I’m in love with Nikki and I think she loves me. I have to be with her.”
He rubs a hand down the back of his neck. “She’s at Maine Coast Memorial.” He relents and puffs out with a shrug. “They wanted to Medevac her but it would have taken longer to get the chopper here than if I had the first responder medics from the fire station get her there.”
Christ. Medevac. It’s bad.
“Thank you.” I start to leave but hesitate for a second. “And thank you for taking such good care of Chloe.” I take the porch steps two at a time to get to my car.
“Hey, pretty boy!” Matt yells as I open my car door. “If Nikki pulls through this and you ever hurt her again, you’re going to need your own bed in the hospital. You got it?”
I nod because I know he just asked me a question, but I don’t comprehend one word he says after, ‘if she pulls through this.’
***
The woman at the receptionist desk glances up at me from over the top of her glasses.
“Sorry. Visiting hours are over. They’re from nine to seven.” She continues tapping at her keyboard.
“They brought a young woman here earlier. She was in a car accident. Nikki Dixon. I have to see her.” I sputter out into between gasps of much needed air after sprinting from the parking garage up four flights because the elevator was taking too long.
“I’m sorry. Visiting hours are—”
I stop myself from jumping over the top of the counter to push her out of the way to check the computer myself. Time to use the honey instead of the vinegar approach.
“I’m sorry to be such a pest…uh…” I take a quick glance at her nametag, “Grace, but I’ve travelled about nine hours and three-thousand miles to get here to see my fiancé. I hopped right on a plane the second I heard about her accident. I have to see her. We never go to bed without saying goodnight and giving each other a kiss.”
I lean over the counter to give her a good view of the ridiculous puppy eyes I’m throwing her way. “Even if we’re on different sides of the country we make sure to FaceTime and uh…do whatever we need to do to be sure we take care of each other before we go to sleep. You know what I mean?” I run my tongue over my lips in the flirtatious way that drives the ladies crazy. Grace’s gaze drops to my mouth and she takes off her glasses and starts using them to fan herself. They can’t be giving her much of a breeze.
I know. I’m an asshole. But since it’s become my MO these days I may as well use it to my advantage. It’s fucked up I have to be doing this crap at a time like this but I am not waiting until tomorrow morning to see Nikki.
“I just have to see her.” I suck in my bottom lip and I swear to God Grace licks her lips and sighs. Her fingers return to clicking away at the keyboard. She pulls her gaze away from mine for a quick glance down at her computer screen.
“Ms. Dixon is in the intensive care unit on the fifth floor,” she purrs. “They brought her…”
I don’t hear the rest of her sentence because I’m already on the elevator before she finishes. In the few minutes it takes to get to the fifth floor, I dial Garrett. He picks up on the first ring.
“Dalt, listen, man. I thought I was doing what was best for you, bro. I swear.”
I’m not interested in listening to his apologies or reasons right now. We can deal with all of it later. “Garrett, I need you to contact some of your connections from Mom’s hospital.” Technically it’s not my mom’s hospital but it is the hospital Garrett and I had built in her memory, the Cynthia Walker Memorial Hospital.
“I need you to find out who the best traumatic brain injury doctor on the East Coast is and send the private jet to get him or her here.”
“Send him there? Where? Where are you?”
“I’m in Maine. I need you to do it ASAP.” The elevator dings and the doors take an eternity to open. Okay. It may have only been seconds but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to rip them open with my bare hands.
“What are you talking about? Are you okay? What the hell are you doing in Maine? Weren’t you just here this morning?”
His understandable confusion is grating on my nerves more than the elevator doors. I don’t have time for this.
I step from the elevator and search in both directions to determine which way to go. I get the answer when I see Rose pacing back in forth in front of the nurses’ station down the hall.
“What do you mean send a doctor to—”
“Garrett, I need you to shut the fuck up and listen to me. As I see it, you owe me big time for believing every fucked-up thing our father has ever told you and doing your best to ruin my life.” He doesn’t ask any more questions. I can almost hear him nodding.
“I need you to find the best TBI doctor and get his ass on our jet to Bangor International ASAP. I’ll have a chopper waiting to bring him to Maine Coast Memorial. Do you understand me?”
“Yes. I understand you,” he says in a slow and distinct tone, as if to assure me he’s not an idiot. Since yesterday, however, I question his genius level I.Q.
“Good.”
“But why do you need a TBI doc and how am I supposed to find out who that is and get him out there at this short notice? I’m not a magician for chrissakes.”
“I don’t fuckin’ care if you have to pull him off his yacht, or out of his woman, just get his ass out here. Nikki’s been in an accident. She’s unconscious. I don’t know if she’s…just get him out here.”
My throat tightens at the thought of using words like coma or survive. I have to hold it together. Nikki needs me to be strong.
“Jesus Christ. I’m so sorry, bro. I’ll get him out there. What else can I do?”
“Call me back with the info as soon as you’ve contacted him. I want to know when to expect him.”
“Got it. What else?”
“Have your lawyer contact the administrator of this hospital and get me clearance to stay with Nikki. I don’t want to deal with their bullshit rules. I don’t care if we have to build them a wing in Mom’s name. Give them whatever it takes because I am not leaving her side. Also, Dak is out there on break. Can you give him a call and let him know what happened? He’ll want to know.”
“Will do. Dalt, man, I’m so sorr—”
“I gotta go.”
The thought of my vibrant Nikki lying helpless in a hospital bed because of me flashes across my mind. I can’t deal with my dysfunctional family issues right now.
“Do this for me, Garrett. Please.” My voice cracks. “I can’t lose her.”
“It’s done. Hang in there. She needs you.”