“You’re doing that now.”
Cross paused, and I looked up at him. “What?”
“You think it was that guy at work that pisses you off?” he asked, and I blinked. The idea hadn’t even occurred to me. I’d had my head so far up my ass that I hadn’t gotten past my own guilt to think who could have done this.
“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. Hell. I don’t think Benji would get violent. Jesus. I didn’t even tell the cops that he and Paris had an issue. I will. I’ll tell them right now. She would. Right?”
“Unless she doesn’t want to make waves at work.”
“Fuck. You’re right. She hates being seen as weak. Feels like she can’t be anything but strong, and with some of the people that work there, I can see that actually being an issue.”
Cross stared at me for a minute, and I blinked.
“What?” I asked.
“You seem to be spending a lot of time with Paris these days.”
I flipped him off, ignoring a gasping sound from the woman next to us.
“Here? This is where you’re going to have that talk with me?”
“Sorry.” Cross closed his eyes and let out a breath. “It’s just bringing up memories again. You know?”
“At first, I thought the only memories that would come back for us was every time we saw Arden in a hospital bed all hooked up to a bunch of machines and in pain. Now, it’s you and Macon. And even Hazel.”
“You didn’t see Hazel on the ground, bloody, and left tied up. I never want to see that again, not even in my dreams. And yet, here we are, with another of us hurt.”
“Doesn’t make any sense to me,” I said, frowning.
“What doesn’t make any sense to you?” Cross asked.
“That this keeps happening. I know we’ve lived in a decently safe bubble, even with the issues we had before. I still can’t believe that she’s hurt like this. And there’s fucking nothing we can do about it.”
“She made it this far because you were there to help her.”
“Maybe. But if I had only been a second faster, or if I hadn’t let her go off on her own, we wouldn’t be here at all.”
“I’m going to tell you something that you’ve told me before.”
“And what is that?” I asked, nervous.
“If you spend the rest of your life on what-ifs, you’re going to hurt yourself and those you love in the end. So, focus on what you can do. And while we’re figuring that out, we can wait and see how Paris is doing. Because she’s going to be okay, right? There’s no other option.”
I nodded at Cross’s words, knowing that he was right. And I had said something similar to him when we were all worried about each other. So, I would wait. And I would hope to hell that Paris was going to be okay. She was my friend. My coworker. Nothing more than that. But hell, I just wanted her to be okay.
“She’s going to be all right,” I said softly.
“Yes, she will.”
Cross took the seat on the other side of me, and we sat there, waiting until Dakota came in with her son, and Myra walked through the double doors, searching for us. When their gazes finally landed on us, their eyes narrowed, relief crossing their features a bit as they came towards us.
“Any news?” Myra asked, her voice crisp.
“Still waiting for Hazel to come back out.”
I looked over at Cross, frowning. “She should be out soon, shouldn’t she?” I asked.
“I’m here,” Hazel said, and I stood up so quickly that I almost knocked Joshua over. I put my hand on his shoulder, steadying him before letting go. He slid his hand into mine and his other into his mom’s.
I gave it a squeeze and looked down at the kid.
“She’ll be okay, right?” Joshua asked.
“Yes, she will,” Hazel answered for all of us, and my shoulders sagged. I leaned against the chair slightly. I gave Joshua’s hand another squeeze, and he did the same back before letting go and holding his mom around the waist.
The doors opened again, and Macon and Nate were there, practically storming in. The rest of the waiting room stared at us, and I didn’t blame them. Especially considering that the Brady brothers were pretty big dudes and we took up a lot of space. Now, there was a whole group of us waiting. I only needed to know if Paris was going to be okay.
“She’s going to be fine,” Hazel repeated. “She needs a little bit of time to get some medicine and rest. She’ll be going home soon.”
Dakota smiled and opened her mouth to say something, but Macon spoke first.
“Hey, Joshua, now that we know your Aunt Paris is doing fine, let’s go check out the vending machines.”
Dakota narrowed her eyes. “We don’t need to add sugar to this day,” she said.
“No, but we can still look,” Macon said, holding out his hand.
Joshua took it and smiled at his mom. “I’ll be fine. You guys can talk about the adult stuff while Macon takes me away.”
I held back a smile because Joshua was way too smart for his own good sometimes.
Macon and Dakota stared at each other—or rather they glared—and I waited to see what would happen.
After what seemed like forever, the standoff ended, and Dakota gave a tight nod before Macon and Joshua turned and exited the waiting room to presumably head to where the vending machines were located.
“Okay, tell us,” I said, my voice shaky. Everyone stared at me for a minute before looking back at Hazel.
“She has a mild concussion, no broken bones, a few scrapes, and one cut that might require stitches. They’re still working on that. She’s awake, a little groggy, and pissed off.”
That put a smile on my face.
“So, a pissed-off Paris seems about right,” I said, and the guys gave me a look, while the girls just smiled.
“I’m so glad that you were there,” Hazel said before reaching out to hug me. I squeezed her back, kissed the top of her head, and then moved away quickly before Cross could glare at me for touching his woman. Not that he would hurt me, but I didn’t want my brother to get any ideas.
“So, she’s going home soon?” Nate asked with his hands stuffed into his pockets. He stood by Myra, and the two of them were determinedly not looking at each other. I still didn’t know what was up between them, but I didn’t have time to deal with that right now.
“Probably tomorrow. The staff wants to keep her overnight for observation. You guys can head home. They’re not going to let anyone back there right now. And frankly, we all know that she wouldn’t want you guys to see her like this anyway.”
“You’ll keep me updated?” I asked, the urgency in my tone surprising even me.
“Of course, I will,” Hazel said, sliding her hand into Cross’s.
I swallowed hard, stuffed my hands into my pockets like Nate, and gave a tight nod.
“Sounds good. Tell her…I don’t know, just tell her I’m glad she’s okay.”
Hazel gave me a weird look, and then I smiled and walked away, Nate right behind me. Macon walked back into the waiting room as we were leaving and raised his brows.
“Everything’s okay. We’re headed home.”