Chapter 5

 

Flynn checked his watch for the tenth time. It wasn’t like Gabby to be late for work. He sat back in the chair in his office and debated texting her. She was only ten minutes late, and they were scheduled in-clinic today on a light load, but in all the time they’d worked side by side, he couldn’t recall her ever being tardy.

Maybe she’d called in sick. She’d seemed fine yesterday. He couldn’t remember her calling in sick before either. Not even the time she had pneumonia two years ago and he had forced her to go home. She’d put up a stink.

Worry clawed at his gut. Shaking his head, he slid his phone closer and thumbed a text. She was probably hung up in traffic or something. But when another ten minutes dragged by and there was no word, he rose and headed to the front desk. No matter what, she always texted him back. Didn’t matter the time and didn’t matter what she was doing. She always responded.

He waited for Avery to finish signing out a patient and then turned to her. “Did Gabby call in sick?”

Confusion worked her brows. She glanced at the answering machine. “No. She’s not here?”

He shook his head as his temples throbbed.

“Did you try calling her?”

He nodded, biting back the urge to snap at Avery. It wasn’t her fault he was a breath from freaking out. It’s just…this wasn’t like Gabby. At all.

Avery held up a finger asking him to hold on and picked up the desk phone. After a few beats, she hung up and dialed another number, only to repeat the process. “She’s not answering at home or her cell.” Avery scooted her chair back and pulled a file from the cabinet behind her. She skimmed what he assumed was Gabby’s chart and picked up the phone.

He watched her lips move, trying to pick up the conversation, but she was talking too fast for him to follow. Impatient, he focused the cutesy cartoon murals of dogs and cats simulating human activities that Zoe had painted on the walls when they’d remodeled, then eyed the semi-full waiting room. Most of the people were here for Cade or were Drake’s surgical cases.

Avery shot to her feet. “What?” Her wide brown eyes met his in a panic. “Okay, thanks.” She hung up and wrung her hands before signing and speaking simultaneously. “I got a hold of her mom. Gabby’s in the hospital. Something about an infection.”

His stomach sank. Hell. The cat bite yesterday. He thought he’d cleaned it out well and she’d taken a preventative antibiotic, but the tissue had been pretty irritated. He should’ve checked on her last night, but he’d figured after the awkward moment outside of Mrs. Crosby’s house a little distance was needed.

He pointed to the door, indicating he was heading out. “Reschedule my appointments today, would you?”

Avery nodded. “Text me when you get there. Give me an update.”

He strode out, drove across town and into the next county to the closest hospital. Redwood Ridge had an urgent care clinic, but emergent cases were directed to the bigger cities, a fact that never bothered him until this very second.

Infections were nothing to sneeze at, but his stomach settled by the time he walked through the front doors knowing Gabby would’ve sought treatment at the first sign of a problem. Hopefully, her hospitalization was just a precaution.

The front desk nurse didn’t understand sign language, so he scrawled Gabby’s name and date of birth on scrap paper so she could look up Gabby’s room.

“Are you family?”

He stilled, wondering if she was in ICU. Typically, that was the only time they’d ask. Knowing the bureaucracies of healthcare, he lied and nodded.

Letting out a relieved breath after the nurse handed over a room number, he strode down the hall. Gabby’s sister Rachel was in the room when he finally made it up. She flipped through a magazine from a corner chair, seemingly irritated to be there. She looked up and spotted him, rolling her eyes.

Rachel and Gabby couldn’t be from further ends of the gene pool and still have the same DNA. Where Rachel had dark hair and olive skin like their father, Gabby was fair like their mom. Rachel was crass and selfish. Gabby’s superpower was tact and gentleness.

Rachel began flapping her mouth, but Flynn had never been able to read her lips. As if knowing that irked him, she smiled, offering him an expression which indicated she thought he was stupid instead of deaf.

He focused on a sleeping Gabby instead. Her cheeks were a tad flushed, but other than that, she looked all right. An IV was hooked up to her right arm. Her left was bandaged. And…swollen from fingertips to elbow. Jeez. She got it but good. The monitor indicated her vitals were normal. He scanned the IV bag. Just saline for fluids and a heavy antibiotic.

Her lashes fluttered open and she offered a wan smile. “Hey.”

His stupid heart thudded in happiness. He skimmed his gaze over her caramel hair spread out on the pillow and then on the blue of her eyes as she fought to wake up. “How are you?”

She motioned to sign, forgetting her arm, and winced. Her cheeks paled five degrees.

Gently, he set his hand over hers and tapped his mouth, directing her to talk instead.

“I’m fine. Just a little sore and tired.”

“When did you get here?” And why hadn’t she called him?

She shifted a little in the bed and patted the mattress by her hip. He obediently sat on the edge. “My hand started swelling around midnight. I was running a fever, so I went into the ER.”

Uneasiness tightened his throat. “Did the infection hit your bloodstream?” Because that would be bad. Very, very bad.

She shook her head. “Labs looked good. If I stay fever-free, I can go home this afternoon.” Her gaze shot over his shoulder to Rachel. She frowned. “I said you didn’t have to stay. My car’s in the lot. I can drive myself home.”

The hell she would. He turned to face Rachel, who was waving her hand at him and talking a mile a minute. Shaking his head, he refocused on Gabby. “What’s up?”

The irritation erased from her forehead. “Mom dropped Rachel off this morning. She had to call in sick to sit with me.” She looked pointedly at her sister. “Which you didn’t have to do. Take my car and go to work. It’s fine.”

Gabby’s hand fisted under his, her eyes narrowing. “You know why. Because he needs to read my lips. I can’t sign right now.”

No doubt, Rachel was wondering why her sister was speaking more slowly than usual. Rachel starting a snit had knocked Gabby’s pulse higher according to the monitor.

“Tell her to leave or I’ll kick her out. Swear to God. I’ll stay with you and drive you home when they release you.”

She eyed him and swallowed hard. “What about your patients?”

“Light load today. They’re being rescheduled.”

Though she still looked hesitant, her chest rose and fell with a deep breath. Her gaze traveled to Rachel. “Flynn’s off the rest of the day. Take my car. Go to work. I’ll come pick it up tomorrow.” She closed her eyes as if seeking patience. “Tell Mom I’ll call her soon. Thanks for staying with me.”

Flynn waited until Rachel left the room before leveling Gabby with a stare. “When you didn’t show up for work, you scared me. Avery’s worried. You should’ve called me.”

Her pretty pink lips parted. “I’m so sorry. I—”

He was an asshole. Swiftly, he shook his head and wiped any anger from his face. “You’re fine. That’s all that matters.”

“You really don’t have to stay.”

He smiled. “Shut up.”

“I mean it. I’m in the hospital. I don’t need a babysitter—”

“Gabby.”

“Yes?”

“Stop talking.”

His grin widened when she sighed and grabbed the remote with her good hand. All flustered, she fiddled with the thing as the cord got caught in her IV.

He texted Avery to give her an update.

And then Gabby switched the TV to closed captioning. For him. Because she always did shit like that. For him. Until Brent had brought it up the other night, Flynn had barely registered those little things. Now he was noticing them everywhere. Like in the car yesterday when the radio readout displayed the song lyrics. He’d bet his bank account the SUV hadn’t come with that feature.

His gut retracted as if being punched. He’d been taking her for granted for years. Nearly his entire life. She had other friends outside their circle. So did he. But they spent a great deal of time together and he couldn’t help but question if that was why she was still alone. Perhaps Brent had been right.

He had to find a way to get some distance between them without her catching on to him. Eventually, the day would come where some guy would notice how great she was, how…irreplaceable, and Flynn would have to start figuring out how to go day-to-day without her doting.

He stood and dragged the chair Rachel vacated over to the bed and sank into it.

Gabby held out a package of Jell-O, wiggling it when he didn’t take it from her.

“I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to eat that.”

“I hate Jell-O. If you eat it, they’ll think it was me and maybe spring me sooner. I haven’t had much of an appetite.”

It hardly seemed like decent payback for all she did for him, but he took the package from her. Before digging in, he opened her applesauce and jerked his chin at the cup.

She scooped a spoonful and focused on the TV. Two bites in, she set the cup aside and changed the channel from some gushy girl drama on Lifetime to the Discovery Channel. If reading material or television viewing had any kind of romance or feelings, she was typically all over it.

Which made him eye her suspiciously.

She looked at him. “What?” He lifted his brows and tilted his head toward the wall-mounted set. “You prefer Deadliest Catch to bawl-your-eyes-out anything.”

See? There was the problem right there. He’d bet she wasn’t even consciously aware she’d changed the channel until he’d pointed it out. Hell. She was the one in the damn hospital.

He grabbed the remote, switched the station back, and tucked the controller out of her reach. His balls shriveled from all the estrogen on the screen. Ignoring her attempts to get his attention, he shoved gelatin in his mouth. His guilty gut rejected the stuff, but he ate it, anyway.

An hour passed before a doctor strode in. Young, possibly thirty, the guy looked like he’d walked off the set of Grey’s Anatomy. Which Flynn only knew because Gabby liked the show. Doc’s bright blue eyes zeroed in on Gabby. He flashed her a charming grin that made Flynn want to growl.

His chest rumbled, and when Gabby shot wide eyes at him, he realized he had growled. Out loud. Oops.

Doc’s gaze drifted back to her. “How are you feeling?”

She set her megawatt smile to blinding. “Good. See? I ate.”

Dr. Pain-in-the-Ass dropped a hand on her shoulder and inspected her arm. He eyed the monitor. “I think you’re good to go home today. Let’s have you finish this I. first. I’ll write you a script for some oral antibiotics. You’ll need to come back in seven days to have the stitches out.”

Stitches? What stitches?

“If you develop a fever, get right back here. Do you need a work excuse for the next couple days?”

She shook her head. “That’s my boss.”

Boss. Not friend. He tried not to get insulted because she was just weeding out the unnecessary, but his temples throbbed at the title.

Dr. Needs-to-Leave-Now laughed and squeezed her shoulder. “Gotcha. Okay, you feel better soon.”

Flynn narrowed his eyes on her when the guy left. “What stitches?”

She held up her hurt arm, showing him three black sutures on the fleshy part of her underarm. “They put in a drainage tube last night and removed it this morning.”

What to the what? A drainage tube meant she had been worse off than she’d indicated. The excess fluid in her arm, barely swollen now, must’ve been massive when she’d arrived. Christ, another hour and she could’ve wound up with the infection in her bloodstream.

“Breathe.”

“What?”

“You’re not breathing. I’m fine. So breathe.”

Obliging when he wanted to throttle her, he sucked in a lungful of air and pulled her clothes out of the room cubby. Two hours later, he had her home in a recliner, tucked under a blanket with hot cocoa and soup on the table next to her, and the remote in her hand.

He ignored her adorably confused expression, plus her invitation to stay, and hauled ass out the door to start putting that much-needed distance between them.

Today.