Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Except they do. Our money. I’m pretty sure Lamone got wind of the fact that Callie and I are together. And now you and Rory.”
I nod. “Right. But it can’t be all for the woman in that room. Pat Lamone is a lot of things, but altruistic is not one of them. I just don’t believe it.”
“Neither do I, cuz,” Donny says. “Neither do I.”
My phone buzzes, and I pull it out of my pocket.
“It’s a text from Rory. Frank is off the bypass machine. Doing well.”
Donny regards his own phone. “Just got the same from Callie. I guess I should turn my ringer back on.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking. I should’ve turned it off while we were up there.”
“No harm done now. We’re going to have to be more careful. We weren’t really thinking.”
“No,” I agree. “We weren’t.”
“We need to be thinking about Rory and Callie right now. We can take them to a late dinner. Maybe get their minds off Frank for a bit.”
“I agree.”
I text Rory.
Donny and I want to take you two to dinner.
Not until he’s out of surgery. But it shouldn’t be long.
I understand.
We end up back in the ER waiting room where we began.
“I’m going to book a suite at the Carlton,” Donny says.
“Good idea. There’s five of them, so maybe two suites?”
“Yeah. Two. Jesse and his mom can stay together, and the three girls.”
“Sounds good. I’ll see if I can help Rory with canceling her students or whatever.”
“Good idea. I’ll let Callie know she doesn’t need to come into the office until she feels she can.”
“And what after that?”
“I guess we wait.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
RORY
An hour later, Dad is out of surgery. He’s in the ICU, and only one person can be in there with him, so of course it’s Mom.
Callie and I go back to the ER waiting room to let Donny and Brock know what’s going on.
I melt into Brock’s arms. I have no more tears left in me.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” he whispers.
I shake my head into his chest. “It’s so not okay. But he’s alive, and his prognosis is good.”
“Do you feel like dinner?”
“Do you mind if we invite Jesse and Maddie along?” I ask.
“If it’s okay with Donny, it’s okay with me.”
After a rather awkward dinner—Donny and Jesse together is a recipe for awkward—Brock and Donny take us to the Carlton, where they’ve reserved suites.
Jesse is rigid. It’s clear he doesn’t want to be beholden to the Steels.
I leave that to Callie and Donny to deal with.
In the meantime, Brock takes Maddie and me to the suite he’s reserved for us. As much as I want Brock to stay, I know he has to get back to the ranch.
“What else do you ladies need?” he asks Maddie and me. “I’ll have it delivered to you.”
“You’ve done plenty,” I say.
“Yeah,” Maddie says. “We can get a toothbrush and toothpaste from housekeeping. And we’ll just sleep in our underwear.”
“Listen,” Brock says. “We’re going to be family when Callie and Donny get married. We want to do whatever we can to make this easier on all of you. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to open up an account”—he fiddles with his phone—“on Instacart for you, and I want you to order whatever you need. Got it?”
“All right.” I nod. “Thank you, Brock.”
He cups my cheek then, presses his lips over mine. “Anything you need. And I mean anything.”
Maddie goes into the other room to give us some privacy, and I wrap my arms around Brock’s neck and kiss him. A deep, loving kiss.
“I wish you could stay,” I say.
“Me too, but you need your family right now, and your family needs you.”
I nod and kiss his lips once more. “I love you.”
“I love you too, sweetheart. I’ll text you when I’m home. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“You text or call if you need anything. You hear me? Anything. Let me know how your dad is doing.”
“Thank you.”
And then Brock leaves.
Maddie returns. “Daddy’s going to be okay, right?”
“Yes, we’re going to think positive. Dad is going to be okay.”
Maddie sighs. “You and Callie are so lucky.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You each have a Steel.”
“I suppose so.”
“I wish I had a Steel.”
“You’re twenty-one years old, Mads. You’re way too young to be thinking about settling down.”
“I know. I’ve been crushing on Dragon for so long.”
“Dragon? Please. He’s Jesse’s age, for one. That’s like what—eleven years older than you are?”
“Yeah, I’m kind of getting over him. A week ago at Murphy’s, Dave Simpson was paying a lot of attention to me, and he’s about the prettiest Steel there is.”
“So now you’re into pretty boys? After Dragon, the dark prince?”
“I don’t know.” She sighs. “I just want to think of something other than how worried I am about Daddy.”
“I hear that.”
“So tell me. Tell me about you and Brock. I heard you tell him you love him.”