brother’s wedding, and I didn’t even care if there was some blood in my hair. The bleeding had stopped, my vision had cleared, and while I had a headache worth writing home about, it was nothing I couldn’t handle despite clenching my teeth to get through it. If I left my brother’s wedding, it would transform into a nightmare. Leaving Amy in charge of the reception would end the reception. The disaster would be talked about for years. Somehow, she would make it even worse than me taking a baseball to the head.
Luckily for me, the blow had been a graze, it hadn’t hit anything important, and I figured the only reason I bled was thanks to one of the dumbass clips taming my hair.
I wanted to keep the wedding disasters to the things I hadn’t planned for. A baseball to the head counted, but it wouldn’t kill me.
I hoped.
Some risks were worth taking, and I’d have to remind my brother later I loved him that much.
A call to Wolfgang would fix my ruined dress and makeup problem, but I hesitated. Telling him what had happened would result in well-earned mockery. I retrieved my phone from its cleavage prison to discover it still had some life left in it. Dialing his number worsened my headache.
The rest of the day would suck, but I would make it through somehow.
“What went wrong?” Wolfgang answered.
“I took a stray baseball to the head. I need your makeup skills and my reception dress. Help a woman out? Please? I’m not above begging at this point.”
“A baseball? To the head? How did that happen? Are you all right? If you were hit with a baseball—”
“Don’t you even dare suggest I go to the hospital.”
Wolfgang sighed. “What happened?”
“Fate, karma, the universe, or whatever you want to call it, wishes I would die already. I fell into the pond. I bet I’ll make the front page. Who knows? Maybe someone caught the whole thing on video. I might go viral.”
The groan on the other end of line promised Wolfgang was at the end of his rope, too. “Your brother must be freaking out.”
“Ben’s keeping him busy taking pretty pictures to immortalize the day I almost drowned in the botanical gardens pond.”
“Where were you hit?”
“It was a graze off the side of my head. My hair should hide any bumps. The bleeding stopped.”
“Are you dizzy, have a headache, or feel ill?”
I suspected once I tried to get up and walk around, I would be dizzy. I wasn’t a fan of my own head right now, and I could be honest about otherwise being all right. Unfortunately, if I lied, he would know it. He always knew. “Maybe.”
“I’ll be there in twenty. I’ll bring the dress and your makeup, but you’re going to the hospital before the reception. If you go to the reception.”
“I am not.”
“You are, because I am taking you there.”
“If you take me there, I’ll miss the reception,” I hissed.
“My mother can handle the reception organization if we’re not done in time. She’ll have fun.”
She would, too. The woman could probably organize a rally given ten minutes and a bullhorn. “I’m not going to the hospital.”
Someone reached over my shoulder and stole my phone, and I recognized Rick’s chuckle. “I’ve no idea whom I’m speaking to, but I’ll contain the lady until her ride to the hospital. I’ve been recruited to make certain she goes. Yes, by Mat. Twenty minutes, you say? Excellent. I’ll see you then. I’ll bring her to the gate.”
My damned traitor of a brother. “Hey. That’s my phone. I was using that.”
“Now I’m using it to make certain you go to the hospital. The groom’s wishes trump yours in this case, princess.”
A god-level adversary had crossed my path, and unless I did something about it, I would lose to him and his wicked ways and theft of my phone. “I will get revenge on you both if you make me go to the hospital.” Ignoring my brother would earn me a scolding later, but Rick would be the true challenge of the pair; I bet he’d ignore my fussing without any effort at all on his part. “I will begin with stealing your puppy’s love.”
Rick laughed. “She loves everyone, but I will always be her favorite. I wish you the best of luck with that. Ah, pardon me, Wolfgang. Hope’s putting up a fight. Is she, perhaps, allergic to hospitals?”
“Yes, I am. Can I have my phone back now? I need to schedule