She’d fucked up her life in a lot of ways, but since she’d discovered she was pregnant, Gypsy had purposely and deliberately started down another path. For Cooper.
But she’d let him down today, in a big way. And she hated herself for it.
The tingle in her left arm was so intense, it ached, and she had to shift beneath the dead weight of two sleeping children to inch herself into a better position, careful not to jostle Belle’s bad arm. The break turned out to be worse than first thought. Deanna was right about the broken wrist, but Belle had also cracked her ulna and had to have a full cast placed.
By then, Cooper had figured out they’d missed his doctor’s appointment and kept asking if he was still going to camp. As soon as she’d told him the truth, he’d joined Belle in meltdown mode. His disappointment had broken Gypsy’s heart and made her feel like the worst mother in the world.
By the time she realized she wasn’t going to make it to the bar by the time it opened, she’d had to call in Miranda to help get Brandy acclimated, which was made worse by the fact that Jack had gotten home today after being gone a week, and Gypsy had, yet again, pulled Miranda away from him.
They’d been in the ER almost five hours, much longer than usual because of a multi-victim trauma that had come in and taken priority, and Gypsy was long past ready to get out of here. She still didn’t know what was going to happen with payment for this visit. She certainly didn’t have the cash to pay a bill of this kind, but to get out of here and get home, she’d be willing to put it on a credit card. Belle had pain meds and X-rays and cast setting. Gypsy wasn’t even sure the limit on her credit card would cover the expense.
A nurse’s aide stopped in the doorway and popped her head through the break in the curtain. In a whisper, she asked, “Can I get you anything?”
Some common sense.
A time machine to rewind several days of her life so she could let Wyatt deal with his own shit.
“Release papers would be nice,” she said instead.
“Your nurse is working on them right now.”
Gypsy nodded. “Can I get a couple of juice boxes? They’re not going to be in the best moods when they wake up.”
“You bet.”
“Thank you.” When the girl moved on, Gypsy closed her eyes and dropped her head back against the chair. She felt hollow with disappointment. Heavy with a sense of abandonment.
She sat here holding someone else’s problem, literally. Again. It really was a theme in her life. One she’d worked so hard to overcome. She’d taken care of her step siblings for her father and stepmother. She’d taken care of celebrities for her club. She’d taken on sole responsibility for Cooper when his douchebag father wanted to abort him.
She tried so hard to break the ugly cycle. She’d stayed in the States when her family had moved to Switzerland. She’d quit her job at the club to free herself of the celebrity garbage. She’d bargained for full custody of Cooper, and she’d bought and run her own successful bar.
She’d actually started to feel in control of her life for a change.
And then…Wyatt.
Fucking Wyatt.
God, would she ever learn?
Voices drifted through the ER. People passed the room again and again. Gypsy had caught snippets of a hundred different conversations.
Then the slide of metal along metal brought Gypsy’s eyes open to Wyatt standing in the doorway.
A rush of relief brought on a flood of tears. Until right this second, she hadn’t realized how worried she’d been that something had actually happened to him.
His gaze darted to the kids, held on Belle’s cast. Pain flashed in his eyes. He slid a hand down his face, paused over his mouth, and murmured, “Oh my God,” with all the shock and guilt the situation warranted.
Before she could ask where he’d been, Cooper stirred. His whiney “Mommy” signaled a very tired, very frustrated, very upset three-year-old tantrum on the near horizon.
Belle on the other hand, didn’t budge. She was sacked out and rightfully so. She’d spent hours in fear and pain.
“Gypsy…” Wyatt started.
“Take Cooper,” she told him, “or he’ll hurt Belle.”
Wyatt slipped his hands around Cooper’s middle and lifted him off Gypsy. “Hey, buddy.”
The nurse’s aide came in with juice, along with the nurse and the discharge papers.
“Can you help me with Belle?” Gypsy asked the women. “I’m afraid to move her arm.”
The nurses stepped in and helped Gypsy move a still-sleeping Belle to the gurney, while Cooper very loudly told Wyatt all about the biggest disaster of Cooper’s little life—missing out on superhero camp.
Now, divested of the two sweaty little Klingons, Gypsy took a deep breath and shook out her tingling limbs. She thanked the nurse’s aide and took the juice boxes, then asked the nurse, “Can we have a few minutes?”
“Of course.”
The two women left, pulling the curtain closed behind them. Gypsy stepped forward and pulled the glass door shut. Having Wyatt walk into the ER was sure to be in the entertainment news before they’d even walked out. No need to give the leeches any more material than necessary.
“Gypsy, I’m so sorry.”
The pain in Wyatt’s voice was genuine, but she was too far gone for it to affect her. As soon as she’d seen that he was safe and well, all her walls clicked into place. She’d already overextended herself, and Cooper had paid the price.
“I was working with Paisley on our duet, and we were in her home studio, and it’s in the basement. I guess the soundproofing killed my cell service…”
The more he explained, the angrier she got. Gypsy ripped the plastic straw from the outside of the juice box, pulled off the plastic, and jabbed it into the hole, then handed it to Cooper.
His diatribe then turned to Cooper. “Man, I’m so sorry about camp, buddy, I’ll—”
Gypsy leaned in and covered Cooper’s ears with her hands, meeting Wyatt’s gaze directly. “Don’t you dare make him any promises.”
“But I can get him in. I’ll call the camp. I don’t care if I have to donate a new building, I’ll get him back into that fucking camp.”
She uncovered Cooper’s ears, and he rested his head against Wyatt’s chest, sucking on his juice. The sight broke Gypsy’s heart. This could have been so good—for Gypsy, for Cooper, for Belle, for Wyatt. But fate had her own ideas. At least she’d shown her hand before Gypsy was in even deeper with Wyatt. As it was, she felt like there was a hole where her heart usually lived.
“I’ve told you before that you can’t fix everything by throwing money at it.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen—”
“I realize that.” She cut him off, unwilling to hear everything she’d heard so many times before. “This situation is as much my fault as it is yours. I knew better than to get involved with you, but I didn’t listen to my instincts.”
“Wait, what?”
“Getting involved with someone automatically changes your priorities. I knew that, but somehow, I guess I hoped… It doesn’t matter. All that matters to me right now is being there for Cooper. And I failed today, in a big way.”