Thirty-Three and a Half Shenanigans (24 page)

“That’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it.”

“What?” I looked at her.

My cell phone rang just then, and I wanted nothing more than to throttle Skeeter. I’d told him to text me. Now how was I going to explain talking to him to Neely Kate? In my haste, I reached for my phone more quickly than usual, and Neely Kate sensed I was trying to hide the call from her and snatched it from me.

“Neely Kate!” I shouted, reaching for the phone.

“What are you hiding from me, Rose?” she said, looking at the phone. “It’s Joe.”

Neely Kate looked up in surprise. “Why are you hiding a call from Joe?”

“I’m not,” I said, snatching the phone from her. “I didn’t know it was him.”

Why
was
he calling?

“Hey, Joe?” I answered.

“Rose, are you driving?”

I cast a weird glance to Neely Kate. “Yeah, why?”

“I want you to pull over.”

My heart started racing. “Why?”

“Rose, darlin’, just do it. Please.”

“Okay,” I said breathlessly, panicking over what Joe needed to tell me. It had to be bad if he wanted me to pull over to the side of the road.

“What is it?” Neely Kate asked.

“I don’t know.” I pulled the truck onto the shoulder as I tried to catch my breath. “Okay, I’m pulled over. What is it?”

“Mason’s been in a car accident.”

“
Oh, God.
Is he okay?”

“They’ve taken him to the hospital. He hit his head pretty good, so they want to do a CT scan.”

“What happened?”

“He’d just left the sheriff’s department and was on his way back to the courthouse. He ran off the road and hit a pole.”

I shook my head. “But he’s such a careful driver. How did it happen?”

“I don’t know. We’re investigating the accident now.”

“Why isn’t
he
calling me? Oh, no.” A new wave of panic hit me. “Is he hurt really bad?”

“Rose, calm down,” he said in a low, soothing voice. “I spoke with him after the accident, and while he was dazed for a bit, he seems better now. He cut his forehead and there was a lot of blood, so I’m sure he needs stitches. I think they just wanted to be safe.”

Something didn’t feel right. “I’m on my way,” I said, my voice breaking.

“Rose, just stop and take a deep breath. Wait a few seconds to let this sink in, okay?”

“Okay.” Tears burned my eyes. “Do you think he’s going to be okay?”

Joe chuckled. “Mason Deveraux’s too hard-headed to let a light pole seriously injure him.”

I laughed through my tears. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“I’m sorry to be the one telling this to you, and I didn’t want you to hear it from someone else.”

“Thank you.”

“Is Neely Kate with you? Maybe she should drive.”

I took a deep breath. “No. I’m fine. I’ll be at the hospital soon.”

“Rose.” He hesitated. “Call me if you need anything, okay? I’m here for you.”

“Thank you.”

I hung up and turned to Neely Kate.

Her eyes were wide with fright. “Is Mason okay?”

I nodded. “Joe thinks so. He was in a car accident, though, and he hit his head. Joe said he needs stitches, and they’re going to do a CT scan to make sure nothing’s wrong.”

“Do you want me to drive?”

I took a deep breath, feeling calmer as I slowly let it out. Joe assured me that Mason was fine. My feeling of foreboding was just an overreaction. “No, I’m okay. I’m sorry we can’t try to find Billy Jack, but I have to see Mason.”

“Rose.” She leaned over and rubbed my arm. “Mason comes first right now. It’s okay.”

Neely Kate talked to me all the way to the hospital. I was glad she was there to keep me company, because my mind was racing with all kinds of worst-case scenarios, despite Joe’s insistence that Mason was okay. If he was okay, why hadn’t he called me himself? What if Joe had pretended Mason was in better shape than he was because he was worried I’d have my own accident on the way to the hospital? Neely Kate could tell I was a bundle of nerves by the time we got to the hospital twenty minutes later.

“You know that Mason’s too bullheaded to let anything bad happen to him, right? His run-in with Daniel Crocker proved that to be true.”

I nodded, but tears stung my eyes. Something was really wrong. An ache filled the back of my head, reminding me of the feeling I’d gotten with two of my recent visions. What did
that
mean?

As soon as I parked, I raced through the emergency room entrance up to the counter. “I’m here to see Mason Deveraux.”

The receptionist, a woman who appeared to be in her forties or fifties, looked up at me with mild interest. “Are you family?”

“I’m his girlfriend.”

Her gaze returned to her computer. “Then you’ll have to wait in the waiting room,” she said, sounding bored.

I splayed my hands on the chest-high counter and leaned forward. “And if we were married? Would I have to wait then?”

“No,” she said as though I’d asked the stupidest question in the world.

“Can you at least tell me if he’s okay?” My voice rose in frustration.

“We only give that information to family members.” She glanced up at me with disdain, then said, “But you’re welcome to sit in the waiting room.”

I wasn’t about to take no for answer. “Will you at least tell him I’m here? He’s been a patient here before, and I sat with him in his exam room. Just a couple of months ago.”

She shook her head, looking irritated. “Sorry. I can’t relay messages from the waiting room to patients. You’ll just have to stay where you are.”

I walked away from the counter and pulled out my phone, dialing Mason’s cell phone. My anxiety grew when it went straight to voice mail. I considered calling Maeve, but I didn’t know if anyone had informed her yet. I didn’t want to scare her, since I didn’t know anything other than what Joe had told me.

I stared into Neely Kate’s face, pulling back my shoulders. “I’m not gonna wait. I’m goin’ back there.”

She gave me a slight nod, a determined glint in her eyes. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you in to see him. Just wait until the receptionist is distracted enough, then run back there.”

“What are you gonna do?”

She laughed. “Create a distraction.” She started moaning and grabbing her stomach. “Oh, I feel like I have the flu.”

There were about twenty people gathered in the waiting room, and a few looked up at her.

She coughed several times, spinning around in a circle, spreading her “germs.” “
Hypothetically
, if I had just gotten back from Africa a few days ago, and I
might
have been on a bus with some people who were throwing up blood, what do you suppose they had?” she asked, wide-eyed and innocent.

A couple of people jumped out of their seats in panic.

“Ebola!” one of the men shouted, pointing at her.

The waiting room became deafening as people screamed and scrambled to grab their things.

The receptionist stood up, looking over the counter. “What’s going on in there?”

“She has Ebola!” an elderly woman shouted.

The whole room was soon in an uproar, and the receptionist started for the door to the reception area.

“Someone call security!” a man shouted.

Neely Kate leaned close to me. “When that receptionist gets out here, you make a beeline for the back.”

“Thank you,” I murmured. Neely Kate was bound to get into a lot of trouble for this, but she was grinning ear to ear.

The receptionist waddled next to Neely Kate, clearly irritated. “What is the meaning of this?”

I edged back to the door, slipping through the opening. I would have made a clean getaway except a woman pointed at me and shouted, “She was with the girl who has Ebola! She must have it too!”

I knew I didn’t have much time, so I hurried down the hall to the first exam room. I peeked through the window in the door and saw a little boy with his mother.

The receptionist burst through the doors, flinging them open so hard they bounced off the walls. “You can’t be back here!”

I looked into the second room and found it empty, then quickly moved on to the next room. “I’m sorry, but I have to see Mason.”

She was shorter than me, but she had to outweigh me by a good seventy pounds. Still, she was faster than I’d expected. “You are in a lot of trouble. Security is on their way.”

I moved to the next window. An older couple looked up at me with alarm, not that I could blame them. Shouting was still streaming in from the waiting room, and now some crazed woman was playing Peeping Tom.

The receptionist had quickly gained ground and was several feet away. My desperation grew. I wasn’t leaving until I saw Mason with my own eyes.

“Mason!” I called out. But what if he was in a coma hooked up to wires and IVs? He wouldn’t be able to hear me, let alone find me.

“Miss,” she hissed, her fingers digging into my arm as she caught up with me. “This is a hospital filled with sick people. You are being disrespectful by shouting like that.”

“I don’t want to make trouble, really. I just have to see him, then I’ll leave. Please!” I shouted.

I put up a good fight, but she started tugging me back up the hall.

Just then a door at the end of the hall opened, and Mason appeared in the opening. “
Rose?
”

The sight of him upset me instead of giving me relief. A nasty cut about two inches long ran across his forehead, and the left side of his face was covered in dried blood. The front of his shirt had a large bloodstain on it, and his face was paler than usual. “
Mason!
” I jerked hard and broke loose, running down the hall toward him.

“Hey, it’s okay.” He pulled me into a hug, and I clung to him, even though the thought registered that this was all wrong. I was supposed to be the one comforting
him
.

“You’re covered in blood.” My voice broke.

“I’m okay.”

The receptionist grabbed my arm. “You are leaving
now
.”

Mason’s grip on me tightened. “She’s staying.”

“Mr. Deveraux, she and her friend have disrupted the entire waiting room in a stunt to get her back here without permission. We can’t reward bad behavior.”

“Neely Kate, I presume?” I heard the dry amusement in his voice.

The woman crossed her arms over her ample bosom. “It’s not amusing, Mr. Deveraux. That young woman has convinced half the waiting room that she has Ebola.”

His eyebrows lifted as he looked down at me. “She told everyone she had
Ebola?
”

“No.” I tried to look innocent. “She only asked a hypothetical question.”

I could see he was trying to decide if he actually wanted to know more.

“I asked the receptionist nicely, Mason, I swear. But she wouldn’t let me back here, and she wouldn’t tell you I was here. I was scared to death. I knew you were getting a CT scan of your head, and I kept envisioning you in a coma. I couldn’t just sit out there and wait.”

He gave me a soft smile. “It’s okay. I’m sorry you were so scared.”

“She has to come with me, Mr. Deveraux.”

Mason stepped between us. “And I said she’s staying.” When the woman still glared at him, he gave her his no-nonsense look. “Or I can leave with her.”

She huffed out a loud breath. “I’m filing a report.”

“You go ahead and do that,” Mason said, sounding angry. “And I’ll file one too.”

“I’m sorry,” I said as he ushered me into the room and shut the door behind us. “I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble. But I had to see you or at least know you were okay.”

“No.” He grimaced as he sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed my hand, tugging me to sit next to him. “This is all my fault for not calling you in the first place. How did you know I was here?”

“Joe.”

A scowl covered his face, then he grimaced in pain.

I turned to look at the gash on his forehead.

“Honestly, Rose, it looks worse than it actually is. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot, and I have a nasty cut.”

“I can see that. Do you really need to get a CT scan?”

He frowned. “Joe talks too much.”

“Well, is it true?”

“Yes, but I’m sure it’s an overreaction. I lost consciousness for a short bit, probably less than a minute, and my pupils were a little dilated. While I’ve assured them I’m fine, they’re still insisting that I get my head checked out.”

“You should be lying down, Mason.”

“Rose, I’m fine. I’ve lost a little blood. I have a killer headache, and my side hurts some. Otherwise, I’m perfectly okay.”

“You are not fine. Why haven’t they given you stitches yet?”

“They said they were going to wait until after my CT scan.”

I hopped off the table and pulled several paper towels out of the holder and held them under running water. “What happened?”

“A car passed me, then stopped abruptly, but mine didn’t slow down when I stepped on the brakes. So I ran off the road to avoid rear-ending the car. I tried to miss the pole, but when I swerved, the tires hung up on some gravel. I clipped it with the left front end.”

“Your brakes didn’t work?”

“They must have gone out.”

I walked over to the exam table and set most of the paper towels down, then started wiping his cheek with the one still in my hand. “And your head?”

“The air bag went off, but I still hit the door.” He reached up and grabbed my hand. “You don’t have to do that, Rose. The nursing staff will do it.”

“I have to do
something
.”

He leaned over and gave me a kiss. “I know.”

I looked away, focusing on wiping off the blood. “So, why
didn’t
you call me?” I tried not to sound accusatory, but it was hard to hide my hurt feelings.

He hesitated. “I’m so sorry, Rose. I should have. But I lost my phone in the accident, not to mention I knew what I looked like. I didn’t want to scare you.”

I tossed the bloody paper towel into the trash and picked up another wet one. “Well, you scared me worse. I imagined all kinds of terrible things.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. What can I do to make it up to you?”