I lifted my head, put my hands to his waist, pushed away a bit and looked at him.
“I have to go out there and talk to them. See if the doctors have anything to say yet.”
He stared at me a beat and then, final y, he said, “You aren’t in this alone.”
I tried to pul away but he brought me back with his arms tightening.
“Jet, you aren’t alone.”
I nodded and tried to smile.
It didn’t work.
His hands came to my face, holding me by the jaw and he did a lip touch.
he did a lip touch.
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
His lips twitched but it wasn’t exactly amused and it wasn’t exactly unamused.
“You’re so ful of shit.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chilli
By the time we got to the waiting room, Mom, Daisy, Tex, Ada and Lottie were there. They’d been told Dad was in surgery. That’s it, nothing else. It was now a waiting game.
Eddie took his badge out of his back pocket, hooked it onto his belt and walked to reception to see if he could get more answers.
I caught the gang staring at the blood on my jeans, then Mom moved forward and pul ed me into a one-armed hug, Lottie joined us and we became the McAlister huddle.
Then Tex engulfed us with his wide arm span and Daisy burrowed in, bringing Ada with her.
Tex, Daisy and Ada gave the only thing they had to give, seeing as they weren’t surgeons, nurses or miracle workers, they gave comfort and we took it.
Eddie walked up to us, Tex noticed and we disengaged.
Eddie put me into the Eddie’s Woman Hold and said, straight out, “Gunshot wounds were from the other night and shoulda been treated, stab wounds more recent. He lost a lot of blood and Slick did a lot of damage. It doesn’t look good.”
I was glad he said it straight out. I wanted to know and it said a lot that he trusted me enough to say it, though tears started rol ing from Lottie’s eyes.
Indy came in a few minutes later with the cookies she’d made the night before. Al y fol owed her with a cardboard tray fil ed with lattes that Jane had made.
It was the beginning of the parade.
Mom made some cal s and Trixie, Lavonne and Bear showed up. Lavonne and Trixie stationed themselves like sentries next to Mom and Bear sat alone with his head in his hands, probably thinking twice about his career choice as a bum.
Vance and Matt did fly-bys, doing chin-lifts to me and talking to Bobby and Eddie, then they peeled off and disappeared.
After awhile, Daisy took off with Ada and Trixie in tow and came back with bags fil ed with burgers and fries and more cardboard trays of drinks.
Daisy handed me a burger saying, “Nothing says
‘hospital waiting room’ like greasy fries and a burger with cheese.”
I doubted the burger joint was going to use that in their next advertising campaign.