just either a whisper-yell or a yell-yell, if that was what you had done.”
“It wasn’t. Fuck.” I set my coffee down to drag both hands through my hair. “You scared me.”
“Well, you scared me yesterday and you made me wait until now to find out what happened. Enough is enough. What the heck was going on inside that hospital? Don’t tell me it was work because I already know it wasn’t.”
“It wasn’t,” I admitted, letting my head drop back against the couch and staring at the black flecks in her ceiling. “Craig got into an accident. He wasn’t wearing a helmet. It was bad.”
Her back shot ramrod straight and some coffee spilled, rolling down the side of her mug. She didn’t even seem to notice, which was very unlike her. “Is he okay? How bad?”
“Bad enough that Chris had to ask me if he could resuscitate him or if he had anything in place saying they weren’t allowed to.”
“Holy flying antelope.” Her eyes grew wide and her lips parted. She gave them a quick swipe with her tongue before her gaze darted back toward Adi’s room. “What did you say? Please tell me you didn’t do what I think I would’ve done.”
“I did,” I said before closing my eyes for the next part of my confession. “I mean, I didn’t tell them they couldn’t resuscitate him. I just asked Chris not to if it came to that.”
“Make that flying flipping elephants instead of antelope.” I opened my eyes just in time to see her scooting to the edge of her seat. More coffee sloshed out, but she still didn’t notice. “Did it come to that? Is Craig alive?”
“He’s alive. Chris saved him.”
Her shoulders visibly relaxed. “You asked him to let Craig go and he didn’t do it?”
I nodded. “I didn’t exactly ask him. There were no words, but he knew what I was thinking.”
Katie sat back again, the most satisfied smile on her lips. “I wasn’t sure about Chris before, but I am now.”
“What?” I gaped at her. “It could all have been over. We wouldn’t have had to worry about Adi with him or about him coming after her or hurting her ever again.” There were about ten more points on the tip of my tongue, but Katie had heard them all before.
She simply smiled wider. “Yes, it could have. But it wouldn’t have been right.”
“Why not?” I blew on the surface of my coffee before testing a small sip.
My sister sighed but she also still looked way too smug for my liking. “He had a job to do, and he did it.”
“Yeah, but why would that make you like him even more? That’s ridiculous.”
She shook her head, a sad light entering her eyes I wasn’t sure I’d seen before. “Nope, it makes me like him even more because he became a doctor to save lives, and he did exactly that when it was hardest.”
“He saved the life of a man who’d have ended mine in a heartbeat given the opportunity.”
“I wasn’t only talking about Craig’s life. He saved yours too when he saved Craig’s—and Adi’s. You should be with Chris right now, April. What are you even doing here?”
“How did he save our lives?” I jabbed my free hand toward the bedrooms and lowered my voice. “He saved a man who’s trying to take that little girl in there away from me. I know his job is to save lives, but did he really have to save that life?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “What’s really going on here? You can’t honestly be mad because he didn’t let a man die?”
“I am, but…” My brows pulled together as I squeezed my eyes shut once more. “I’m also just really embarrassed that I asked him to do that. And guilty. There’s a ton of guilt too.”
She waved her fingers with a flourish as she pursed her lips. “Listen, if he can’t take a request like that from you under the circumstances, he’s not the right guy for you anyway.”
“That’s what Cyrus and Luna said too.”
“See? Everyone who really knows you knows you didn’t mean it. I’m sure he knows it too. You’d never have been able to live with yourself if he had done it, sis.” She leveled me with a look that meant business. “If you feel this bad about him not doing it, can you even begin to imagine how you would’ve felt if he had done it?”
“No.” I lifted the blanket to my chest and snuggled underneath it