“What are you talking about?”
I shook my head. “I left out part of what Lauren just told me. I didn’t want to upset you.”
“What did she say?”
I took a deep breath. “Lauren’s seven weeks pregnant.”
Gia stared at me for a long time. I don’t know how I expected her to react, but it certainly wasn’t what she did next.
She started to laugh. At first lightly, but that turned into a full-fledged belly laugh. I couldn’t help but join in. The entire fucking situation was just ludicrous. This shit was better than a Jerry Springer episode. We laughed so hard that Gia snorted and said she had to pee. Then we laughed harder.
But the sad part was…we were laughing at exactly what had happened to my mother and Elliott’s mother—twenty-eight years ago.
Round two, here we come.
“You made the right decision.” Gia rested her hand on my bouncing leg to settle it. “The doctors are going to come through those doors anytime now and tell us that he’s fine.”
After we spoke to the doctors last night, I signed the consent forms for Edward’s surgery. We slept a few hours at the nearby Hilton again and then came back this morning in time to send him off for his operation. They’d wheeled him in about four hours ago, saying it should take about three and a half. Gia assumed what I’d been distracted and freaked out about was Edward, which was only partially true.
Even though Gia and I had a good laugh over the insanity of Lauren being pregnant, it brought a lot of bad memories back to the forefront of my mind. Lauren’s kid would be like Elliott growing up…the heir apparent. Gia’s would be like me in this awful family dynamic of having a father who didn’t give a flying fuck about his bastard child. I didn’t think I could handle another lifetime of shit that came along with being intertwined with that family. Of course, this new shit had to rear its ugly head just as I was easing my way back to Gia—thinking it could work for us. But doubt crept back in again now. And it made me fucking miserable. Because time was running out, and I knew I needed to either end this with Gia and let her move on, or get the fuck over myself.
A voice called my name and snapped me out of my thoughts. “Mr. Rushmore?”
Gia and I stood as the doctor who performed Edward’s surgery walked over.
He pulled the paper mask from his mouth and slipped the blue matching hat from his head. “Good news. Your father did great. We were able to remove the aneurysm and repair the artery wall without too much bleeding.”
“That’s great,” I said. I didn’t want to care, but at the same time, I couldn’t help feeling relieved that he pulled through.
“He’s got a very long road to recovery.” The doctor put a hand on my shoulder. “But I’m optimistic he’ll make it there. It won’t be easy. Your father’s going to need you now, more than ever.”
I was just about to thank him when a voice from behind me cut me off. A drunk, slurring, evil voice.
“No one ever needed you.”
15
Rookie move. You never grab the arm of a guy in a fight.
That part I remembered. Yet I couldn’t for the life of me recall what Rush had said you should do when you break up a fight. He’d told me something after I stupidly got in the middle of that rooftop brawl at The Heights months ago. Rush and Elliott were nose to nose since the doctor left the waiting room, and I was pretty sure things were about to get ugly.
“Rush,” I said. He didn’t even hear me.
“Get the fuck out of here. We don’t need you hanging around.” Elliott slurred his words.
Rush spoke between clenched teeth. “Yeah? Someone has to act like a man and stick around to make decisions. By the way, your father had a fatal aneurysm in his stomach. He had it removed today and lived through it. You’re welcome.”
“You aren’t a man. You’re a street thug.” Elliott had been swaying back and forth and started to tip forward. Rush had to put his hand up to keep him from falling into him while he spoke.
“Sit your ass down!” Rush roared. I immediately planted my ass on the chair next to me, even though he hadn’t been speaking to me. I’d never heard him so angry. Unfortunately, drunk Elliott didn’t scare as easily as me. Watching the two of them insult each other nose to nose, I felt like I was sitting waiting for something bad to happen, which I realized was stupid. I might not remember what Rush had said should be done to break up a fight, but I was clear on the fact that I was supposed to call Oak. Since he wasn’t around, I decided to get some assistance stopping this disaster waiting to happen, rather than dealing with the fallout afterward.
Rush and Elliott were so focused on each other, I was able to slip out of the waiting room without an argument. Lucky for me, I found a burly security guard right down the hall. After explaining to him about the tense situation, he followed me back to the waiting room.
The uniformed guard walked up to the stare off that was still going on. “Everything okay in here, boys?”
“Fine,” Rush answered without averting his eyes from Elliott.
“It’s not looking too fine. Having a loved one in the ICU can be stressful and can cause a lot of friction when it comes to deciding on care. But this isn’t how things get handled here. I’m going to have to ask you both to take a seat, or I’ll escort you both off hospital grounds.”
After a solid fifteen seconds of more intense staring, it was Rush who took the high road. He shook his head, turned around, and took a seat.
Elliott started to snicker like he’d won something. So the guard took Rush’s place and folded his arms across his chest while standing toe to toe. “Your turn. Sit down.”
The drunk idiot mumbled under his breath, but finally went to sit on the other side of the room.
The guard looked over at me, then at Rush. “I’m going to stick around for a while. Just gonna take a seat near the door.”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
Rush sat alone stewing and didn’t acknowledge the guard or me. I knew that, for him, Elliott’s presence was a painful reminder that I was pregnant with his brother’s child and the mountain of animosity it would cause for years to come. No doubt it also stirred up his own childhood hard feelings that he’d done his best to move past. It was my fault that everything was again such a mess.
I had a doctor’s appointment this afternoon that I’d planned to cancel. But I started to think things might be better if I wasn’t here. My presence was gasoline on an already hot fire. Rush needed to be here for the sake of his father, and I didn’t need to add to his problems. So I decided to text my dad and see if he might be off today and could run me back out east for my appointment.
Two minutes later, he responded no problem and that he was out running errands and would swing by the hospital when he was done. I figured I’d let Rush know after he cooled off a bit.
A half-hour later, Elliott was snoring in a chair and Rush still hadn’t looked up. He was taking longer to cool down than I’d thought. I stood.
“I’m going to go find a ladies’ room. Want me to get you some coffee or something while I’m gone?”
Rush shook his head.
Okay, then.
I took my time in the ladies’ room. Since it was a one-person restroom, I decided to wash up in the sink in case I didn’t have time to stop home before my doctor’s appointment. Being in the hospital made me paranoid about germs, and I’d been sweating over the Rush and Elliott standoff.
I washed my face and hands, then stripped out of my shirt and washed under my arms. Before I slipped my top back on, I took a good look in the mirror. My stomach was much rounder these days. It wouldn’t be long before I moved out of the did she gain a little weight phase and into the oh she got herself knocked up phase. It had been a while since I’d had a talk with the little guy, and as odd of a time and place as it was to have one right now, it felt like it was needed.