She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (29 page)

She stretched and sighed and flipped Ryan’s bedroom television on. And started thinking about all of the things she wanted to do to him when he got back.

After it had been a half an hour, she mentally calculated how long the whole thing should take. It was easily fifteen minutes to Trudy’s and another fifteen to the closest apartment, then probably twenty to get back here. So there was no way he’d be back already.

At an hour, she wondered if her sisters had made Ryan drop each of them off separately rather than letting them all out at Emma’s, the closest address, and having her drive Isabelle and Olivia home. But maybe Emma had been drinking.

Okay, it was likely Emma had been drinking.

She tried to call, but Ryan didn’t pick up. And neither did any of her sisters.

That pissed her off. Had they talked him into staying at Trudy’s for a few drinks? Had he run into other friends? Did they have the music too loud in the car to hear their phones?

At an hour and a half she was solidly into worry.

She called Conner’s phone, but it wasn’t her brother who answered. It was Cody.

“What the hell is going on?” she demanded. Had those dumbasses pulled Ryan into another of their fights?

“Amanda, Jesus, I just… They’re on their way over. They should be there—”

She heard the pounding on the front door and hung up on Cody. Why was Ryan bringing the girls back here? And why had it taken so damned long to do it?

But it wasn’t Ryan or her sisters standing on the condo’s front step. It was Dooley Miller, Mac Gordon and Kevin Campbell.

“Hey, Amanda.” Kevin stepped forward and took hold of her elbow, almost as if he was trying to keep her from falling.

“Hi, guys.”

She didn’t want to know why they were there. She could feel it.

“We need to take you to the hospital,” Kevin said gently.

“I’m sorry it has to be us,” Mac added. “But we thought it was better that it was someone you know. The other guys shouldn’t be driving right now.”

“The other guys?” she asked, not really processing anything.

“Shane and Cody and Conner.”

She almost wilted right then. “They’re okay? Conner’s okay?”

“Yes.” Kevin said it firmly, meeting her eyes directly. “They’re all fine.”

“What about Nate?” Maybe something had happened with the guys when they were all together. That would make sense why Shane and Cody and Conner were at the hospital.

“Nate’s in surgery,” Mac said. “He’s okay.”

She took a deep breath, her stomach pitching before she even knew why. “What’s he having surgery for?”

“He’s
performing
the surgery,” Mac clarified.

That was what she’d been afraid he was going to say. “And I’m going to the hospital because…”

“There’s been an accident,” Kevin said calmly.

A sob swelled in her chest, tight and painful. She knew who was involved.

“Are they…okay?” she choked out.

“They’re…” Kevin took a deep breath and looked at Mac.

“They’re all alive,” Mac said.

She was glad for Kevin’s strong hold as she felt her knees give out. The big ex-football player swept her up in his arms and stepped into Ryan’s condo. They all headed for the couch, and he deposited her in the middle.

“Here’s the deal,” Dooley said, crouching in front of her. Kevin sat right beside her and Mac stood behind Dooley.

Together they definitely exuded strength and confidence.

“There was a car accident. They were hit by a truck on the passenger side, where Emma and Olivia were sitting. Ryan and Isabelle are also banged up but they’re stable. Nate’s working on Emma. She’s got a fractured pelvis. Olivia’s…okay.” He stopped and watched her, likely seeing if she was going to faint or puke.

Both seemed very possible.

“What about Olivia?” she asked, gripping Kevin’s hand hard.

“She was unconscious and they took her in to do brain scans and tests to see what was going on.”

The urge to puke overtook the feeling of faintness, and Mac thrust a bowl into her lap just in time. After she’d emptied her stomach, Amanda breathed deep. Then noticed that the bowl had held chips or popcorn earlier during the party. The party where everything had been fine and then, in an instant, things had gotten tense and ugly.

In an instant everything could change.

Like a car accident.

“Let me get dressed,” she said, handing the bowl back to Mac who, thankfully, was a paramedic and therefore had a strong stomach.

Kevin helped her up, but she felt amazingly steady. She had to get to the hospital. Her sisters needed her, Conner needed her, Ryan needed her. She would be steady, dammit, as always.

“I don’t typically take cases where the guy’s parts are all still attached and functioning.” Ben Torres slid Ryan’s X-rays back into their sleeve. “But I love to work on St. A’s paramedics because the stories that put you guys in here are always entertaining.”

Ryan shook his head. “Wasn’t a work thing tonight, Doc.”

Ben tossed the X-rays onto the counter and crossed his arms. “Yeah, I’m aware. I’m actually here because Mac and Kevin asked me to check up on you.” He gave Ryan a serious look. “So what happened?”

“I fucked up.”

“Also aware of that. Pretty common story among patrons of the ER.”

“I don’t have a better explanation.” Ryan felt his chest tighten and he shifted on the bed, trying to ease the discomfort.

Ben just stood looking at him. “Aren’t you going to ask me?”

“Ask you what?”

“How the girls are?”

Ryan blew out a slow breath, the discomfort in his chest immediately turning to pain. He knew how they were. At least for the most part. They were hurt. Because of him. That’s really all he needed to know.

He’d been fully conscious through the whole thing. He knew Olivia hadn’t been. He’d made sure she was breathing, he knew her heart had been beating, but he couldn’t rouse her. He also knew Isabelle had a concussion and Emma had broken her leg—at least. As a paramedic, he’d seen a lot. Broken bones were common and many times the least of their concerns. But seeing Emma’s leg bent up under the dash of his car…he had to swallow hard even now.

He and Emma had danced together, gotten drunk together, laughed together…it had never been serious. Seeing her hurt like that was as serious as it got.

“How are they?” he asked dutifully.

“They’re going to be okay,” Ben said.

Ryan nodded. “I’m glad.”

“So what really happened in that car, Ryan?”

He took a deep breath. “Told you. I fucked up.”

“Sure. But there was more to it.”

Ryan looked at Ben. “Why do you think that?”

Ben raised an eyebrow. “I know a lot of the St. A’s paramedics, Ryan. I know what kind of guy it takes. You pull people out of smashed-up cars in intersections all the time. No way you would have run a red.”

Ben Torres was married to Sam Bradford’s sister, Jessica. Sam and his crew—including Dooley Miller and Mac Gordon—were widely known as the best in the city.

Ryan sighed. “Physician-patient confidentiality?”

Ben shrugged. “I’m better than a priest.”

“I was trying to break up a catfight. I had a green but I didn’t even see that guy coming.” A drunk had hit them. That wasn’t Ryan’s fault. But he could have reacted defensively, maybe, if he hadn’t been distracted by the girls.

Ben’s eyes got wide. “A catfight?”

“Kind of.” Ryan rubbed a hand over his face. “The girls were wound up over Conner and Shane’s argument. By the time I got there to pick them up, the girls were bickering about Isabelle leading Shane on. That led into several other topics even after we were in the car. As I was approaching 72nd Street, Emma threw a shoe at Isabelle—apparently it was Isabelle’s and she wanted it back—then Isabelle made a grab for Emma’s earrings which were also, apparently, hers. I was reaching to try to keep Emma’s ear from being torn off.”

Ben didn’t respond for several seconds. Then he shook his head. “Wow.”

“Yeah.” It was a damned mess. The girls had been mad. And loud. But he should have known better—exactly as Ben had said. Being a paramedic made a guy careful. Or it should anyway.

“All your friends are here,” Ben finally said.

Yeah, he figured they would be. “I don’t want to see anyone.”

“I kind of thought you might say that. But you can’t avoid them forever.”

Ryan knew that. But he was going to avoid them for now. “I can’t tell them about what happened.”

“You’re going to let them think that you’re completely at fault?”

“I am.”

“Ryan—”

“Look, Ben, it’s complicated.”

“Okay.” Ben leaned back against the counter and crossed his arms.

“You want to hear this?”

“Have you met my family? I’m an expert at complicated. And chaotic.”

Ryan shrugged. Okay, fine. He could admit that it might be nice to say some of this to someone else. “I don’t want Amanda to know that her sisters were fighting again, on top of everything else. Things are tense enough with Conner, with Isabelle’s relationship with Shane, with everything. I don’t want her to know that they were screwing around in the car. It’s going to be killing her that she didn’t go pick the girls up. If she finds out they were part of the problem, she’ll go crazy.”

“She’s going to be mad at you, isn’t she?”

“Probably.” It was his fault after all.

“You’re okay with this messing things up between you?”

No. Not at all. “How did you know there was something between us?”

Ben chuckled. “Because I’ve fallen in love myself. You’re protecting her feelings—not wanting her to feel guilty about what happened—and her relationship with her sisters. For
her
sake. That goes a little beyond an acquaintance or even a friend.”

Ryan sighed. “Yeah, okay. She just doesn’t need any more stress right now.”

Ben pushed off of the countertop and reached for Ryan’s X-rays. “Okay. I’ll give her the message. But I can’t guarantee she’ll believe that you don’t want to see her.”

“You’re not a good liar?”

“
You’re
not good at hiding your feelings for her.”

The first thing Amanda saw upon entering the waiting room of the St. Anthony’s emergency room was her brother sitting, his elbows propped on his knees, his head in his hands, with Shane right beside him looking equally like shit.

Thank God, they could figure out that there were more important things than their stupid fight.

Shane saw her first. “You okay?” he asked, coming forward.

She shook her head and hugged her arms tightly across her stomach. She was in a jacket that one of the other paramedics had found for her. It was huge on her, but it was keeping her from shaking. Kind of. “How are they?”

“We don’t really know much,” Shane told her. “Come on.” He put his arm around her and started for Conner.

She wanted to cling to her brother, cry, beg him to tell her everything would be okay. But that wasn’t fair to him. He couldn’t tell her that for sure, and he needed comforting as much as she did.

Conner looked up as she approached.

He looked horrible.

She took a seat next to him, slid her arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder. They sat like that for a few minutes, no one talking.

Amanda noted that not only were Shane and Cody there, but Mac, Dooley and Kevin also settled into the chairs in the waiting area. She understood. Ryan was one of them, a paramedic at St. Anthony’s, and they were like a family. So was Conner, and he needed support right now.

“Hey.”

They all looked up toward the doorway as Gabby and Sierra came into the room.

“Hey, girls,” Cody greeted them, his voice not-quite-normal-but-close.

“Heard there was a party going on here,” Gabby said. She crossed to Conner and held out a cup of coffee.

He accepted it without a word, but gave her a little nod. That must have been good enough for Gabby, because she gave him a smile and moved to sit next to Dooley.

Sierra stood next to Cody.

No one said anything else. Gabby sat back and crossed her legs. She lifted her cup to drink. Three times. She uncrossed her legs. She leaned forward to rest her arms on her thighs, mimicking Conner’s posture. Then she sighed. Finally she looked around the room. “So, what happened exactly?”

Amanda squeezed her brother. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear this. Yet she had to hear it.

Conner shook his head. He either didn’t know or he wasn’t willing to tell the story.

Dooley cleared his throat. “Um, we took the call.”

Amanda looked at him with surprise. Mac and Dooley and Kevin had been the crew called out?

“You have details?” Gabby asked.