Chapter 11

Emmett

The last thing I wanted to be doing was lay in bed, so I got up and headed out into the hall. I didn’t want to talk to the nurses and tried to slip out before anyone saw me, but Ava stopped me and gave me the third degree.

“Where are you going? I’m going to be making my rounds, and you’re not going to be in your bed for me to check you out.” She and Jodie were my two favorite nurses, but I was even getting tired of them acting like I wasn’t supposed to leave my room.

“Start at the other end, and I’ll try to be back in time.” I kept walking, and she let out a grumble as she turned and went back to her station.

I walked down the hall to the elevator, and though I knew I looked like a mental patient in my sweatpants and hospital gown that I’d pulled on over my shirt, I decided to head down and see the new babies. I got in the elevator and took it to the third floor where the nursery was. I walked down the main hall until I saw the window where they had all the new babies lined up and looked in on them. There was one making a ruckus. He was wrapped in a blue and pink striped blanket, and he had a little blue cap on his head. He balled his tiny fists and wailed, and the attending nurse laid him down and swaddled him in a blanket. He soon hushed, and she looked up at me and gave me a smile.

All of them were so little, most of them were sleeping, but there was one in her little bed who was bright-eyed with flame red hair and an infatuation with the ceiling. They really had it easy, those little ones, and after another one started to scream like a banshee, I’d had enough and walked back to the front where I’d passed a large fish tank. I looked at it for a long time and then headed back to the elevator after deciding they were worse off than me. Especially the one floating at the top of the tank.

I took my time getting back to my floor and then walked through the maze of hallways to my room, where Ava was waiting outside the door. “There you are. You’re a little late, aren’t you?’

“Late? Shit no, I’m early.” She reached out and took my hand and tried to lead me back to bed like a child.

I pulled my hand away. “I got this. I’ve been walking around for the last hour; I think making it to the bed from here isn’t going to be that big of a deal.”

“Try nearly two hours, and yes, it’s a big deal. I need to get those vitals from you so I can go home. Another thirty and I’m out of here.”

“Rub it in, why don’t you?” I didn’t want to hear it. “Who is coming on shift?”

“Gretta will be here, and you be nice to her. She said you were mean the other night.”

“I wasn’t mean. I just didn’t appreciate her coming in the middle of the night to poke and prod at me like I was some kind of animal she was dissecting. I had finally gotten to sleep, and here she comes.” She was my least favorite of the bunch anyway and had a face that looked like she’d sucked a lemon.

“We all talk, and you snapped at her like you could bite her. Much like you just did me. Now lay back and let me take these vitals.”

“No, I need something first.”

“Dammit, man. Can’t you just be a normal patient for once?”

“I tell you what, you get me my brother’s phone number that’s on record, and I’ll be as sweet as syrup.” I held up my hand to my heart and then gave my chest a fist bump.

Ava gave me the side eye. “If I do this, will you please stop being a jackass and let us take care of you? I know you’re cooped up in here, but you’re not making it any easier on yourself.”

“Fine, get me the number and I’ll behave.” I hated to be such a brat, and only then had I realized just how bad it really was, but I was losing my mind in those four walls.

“It’s a deal.” She walked away, and I crawled into bed as she disappeared into the hall. I barely had time to kick my slippers off, lay back on the pillows, and turn on my TV, which still didn’t have anything appealing even though it was the weekend, when Ava returned with the number.

“How do I know this is his?” I figured I’d get in one last dig at her.

Ava put her hand on her hip as her eyes pegged me hard. “Are you for real?”

“Fine, I’ll call it when you leave.” And if it wasn’t his, I was going to show them what a horrible patient I could be when messed with.

“Hold out your arm, and stop that pouting. I’m going to have to tell Jodie not to make you any more cookies; they are making you meaner and meaner instead of sweeter and sweeter.” She took my arm and put the clamp on my finger. After she was done rearranging cords and plugs which were a tangled mess, she put the thermometer in my mouth.

“I don’t pout.” I was just tired and bored, which had a way of making me cranky, and I missed Autumn, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said to me about sticking around. I could be persuaded easily to stay in her life if she would want me, but I wasn’t sure that was what she was wanting. I didn’t want to read too much into it. She saw I was wounded, probably felt bad, and thought she’d come in and see me in case I died. She didn’t want some man that she hadn’t seen in ten years coming into her life when she’d just gotten rid of one. She didn’t need more problems.

Before I knew it, she was done, and I could have my arm back. “There, was that so bad?”

“No, and I’m sorry for being a pain in the ass, but this place gives me the itch.” I knew my tone was still harsh, but that wasn’t going to improve.

“You sure sound like it.” She spoke out of the side of her mouth and then turned around and left. “And you’re welcome, by the way. You know, for the number. Tell your brother I said hello.” She shut the door behind her, and I picked up the room phone and dialed the number on the scrap of paper.

The phone rang a few times before Paul picked it up. His voice was as about as friendly as mine had been to Ava. “Yeah?”

“Hey, it’s Emmett.”

“I’m aware. You’re the only person I know who’s in the fucking hospital, and that’s where my ID said the call was from.”

“Right.” I didn’t quite know what to say to him or how to start the conversation.

“Did you need something? I talked to your sergeant at the hospital when you were brought in, and he said that I didn’t need to do anything, that he’d take care of you and all your needs. So, if there’s anything you need, I suggest you call him and not me.”

“Look, Paul. I know you’re pissed off at me, okay? But I think that you and I really need to try and make things better between us. I’ve got to find a place to live, and I don’t know where you’re at, but I’d love for you to come and stay with me when I get settled.”

“I’m at the shithole the old man left behind. I manage my rent, and I’ve got a job, so you don’t have to come back here and think that I’m not doing well just because you haven’t been around. I’ve done okay without you, and I’ve done okay without your fucking help.”

This was off to a rocky start. “I know you have, but I just thought that you’d want a change. I understand where you’re coming from, man. It’s hard to pull up from what you know. Look at me, I’ve been enlisted so long, and now that it’s all coming to an end, I can’t fathom what comes next, but there’s always a way to have better if you want.”

“Thanks, but I’m good. Look, I don’t have time to shoot the shit with you, brother. I have to get to work.”

“Where are you working?”

“Like I’d tell you.” The phone went dead, and I let out a long breath. At least he had a job, and hopefully, it was an honest one.

I put the phone back into its cradle. The exchange had made me wish I’d never called him. He was so much like our father with his temper, even more than me, even though my nurses might disagree with that. But the truth was, our mother had a temper as well, and even though she was a good mother, when she got in a bad mood, she was a force to be reckoned with. Me and Paul hadn’t really stood a chance of not being a hard ass when we wanted to be. There were only two things that tamed me, the military and Autumn Cooke.

I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d kept his name, and I hoped that she hadn’t. Considering how things had turned out, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to reconnect with Jason or not.

As I lay there thinking about her, my hope fading that she’d pay me the visit she’d promised, there came a racket on my door. Not one knock, but two. One was coming from a little lower and was just a little softer.

“Come in,” I called.

And that was when I took a trip back in time, back to when I was just seven years old and already in love with the girl next door. An exact replica of Autumn walked into my room, carrying a card tied to a balloon.