Page 32 of Keeping His Brat

She put both hands on her hips. “Samuel Aaron Mason! What do you think you’re doing?” she asked in a demanding tone.

Sam stopped, craned forward to see past the medical folks and his eyes settled on her. “There you are!”

“Yes, I’m right here trying to figure out why you’re fighting with the doctors when you’ve had me scared half to death!” She glared at him.

He glared right back, but slowly settled back against the pillow, with his eyes fixed on her. “See how you react, waking up in a hospital with strangers around. Then they wouldn’t let me see you.” He turned the force of his angry stare towards the doctor, who seemed completely unfazed.

“Mr. Mason, I told you I sent a nurse to see if she was waiting for you. Now, are you going to let us fix you up? Or are you going to continue having a tantrum and wasting our time?”

“I—”

The doctor, whose nametag read ‘Dr. Oliveri’, cut him off. “Idohave other patients to deal with besides stubborn cowboys, who are old enough to behave better!”

Sam looked cowed. He mumbled something about being confused and then huffed. “Fine. I’ll behave, but she stays.” He sounded annoyed but his manners were old-fashioned and ingrained. Showing respect to his elders, especially women, was part of that.

Despite the situation Charlie had to cover her mouth with both hands to muffle the giggles. It was funny seeing Sam out of his element. Normally on the ranch he was the boss, and of course in their relationship he was also in charge. It had been a long time since she’d seen someone take him down a peg.

Sam’s eyes narrowed and settled on her. “Don’t you go getting any ideas, girl. You’ve been bossy enough the past couple of days.”

She snorted. “For good reason, as it turns out! I told you it was more than a cold.” She paused, turning to the doctor. “It is, right? More? He doesn’t get sick much so when I saw him completely out of it like that, I was scared.”

“Definitely more than a cold yes. How much more I won’t know until we can take blood. Which,” She eyed Sam with a cold look. “—he was refusing to let us do.”

“All right I’m behaving, go on and do your tests,” he said, grumbling. But he held out his other hand to Charlie and she walked around to the far side of the bed to take it.

Chapter 10

Sam was so completely out of it that he wasn’t aware of the ambulance or the ride to the nearest hospital, which was a good half hour from the ranch.

“Weird ass dream,” he mumbled at one point as he gave up the fight to keep his eyes open.

The jostling as he was being moved woke him. He was too tired to bother opening his eyes, but there was a sensation of being rolled along.

The background sounded like some kind of medical drama. The kind of show he’d always hated. There was too much beeping from various machines and people talking over each other. In his confusion, his mind put him into one of the few episodes he’d seen. He’d somehow become a supporting character in the most surreal dream he’d ever had.

It felt so realistic that he was confused. His arm hurt in several places. The cut from the barbed wire the other day had been aching, but now there was another pain farther up. Were you supposed to feel pain in a dream? That didn’t seem right somehow.

Sam tried to wake up, but he felt disconnected from his body. His eyes were heavy and hard to open but when he did, nothing he saw reassured him. His arm, lying on white sheets, had a tube taped on the inside of his elbow, exactly where the pain had come from. It was connected to a bag hanging next to the bed.

He stared at the clear tube, hypnotized by the slowly dripping fluid inside, until he forced his eyes away. There was a man next to the bed dressed in pale blue scrubs. He was holding a needle and preparing to poke Sam with it.

That woke him up fast enough and a surge of energy went through him as he struggled to sit up. “Where the hell am I?” he demanded.

“Woah, hold on. I’m going to need you to lie back down, Sir. You’re at Aspen View hospital and—”

Sam interrupted him. “Where’s Charlie? What happened? Was I in an accident?” The questions came out rapid fire, and Sam was aware that some of them were badly slurred. His mouth didn’t seem to be working properly.

“I’m not sure who Charlie is but I can check on him in a second. If you’ll just settle down so I can draw blood.”

“Her. Charlie—Charlotte.”

“Okay, I’ll check on her, but I’m sure she’s fine. The ambulance brought you from home with a high fever and dehydration. No reason for her not to be okay. Now, please, let me draw your blood so I can go look.”

“No. I’m not letting you do anything until I see Charlie. She’s going to be panicking. I know her.”

He pushed off the lightweight blanket that covered him and then looked down to see he was only wearing boxers. He spared a quick moment to wonder where the hell his clothes were. Thinking back, he couldn’t recall his last clear memory, but somewhere along the way he’d lost his pants.

“Sir, please don’t try to get up. You’ll pull out the—”

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