Page 57 of Dirty Puck

CHAPTER

TEN

BREE

Ihated hospitals. The smell of antiseptic and industrial cleaning products made my stomach queasy. But my friend needed me. I didn’t know if it was the right move, agreeing to move in with him—with stipulations, of course. Still, if it worked out, then I’d probably be able to use him on my resume what with my upcoming stint as a caregiver.

Each step up to the sliding-glass doors shot me back to a time when I practically lived at the hospital with my mom. Right up until she’d decided to live out her days in our home. It didn’t matter how much advanced warning the doctors gave, it was never enough. I hated this for them. I hated that Reece would have to go on living his life without the one person who’d always had his back.

Cancer sucked.

We walked through the doors, stopping at the reception desk. The older woman gave swoony eyes to Reece. In her defense, I doubt she could’ve helped it. I noticed. Thankfully, Reece didn’t.

“I’m here to see Charlotte Reece. She’s my mom.”

The woman sobered herself quickly to type in the name. “Do you have the code?”

“I do.” When prompted, he typed in the code and the woman directed us to the bank of elevators we needed to get to his mom. The hospital was huge.

We waited for the elevator car to get to us. With eachding, my stomach dipped a little more, so I held his hand a little tighter, figuring he needed the support. The doors finally took mercy on us, sliding open, and we walked on. I held the ‘door close’ button to keep anyone else from joining us because I just wanted him to get to his mother without having to stop at other floors to let people off. I continued pressing the floor number to keep us from stopping to pick others up.

A bitch move? Probably. But my only concern in that moment was Reece and getting him to Char. When the elevator opened for us, we had to follow the signs leading us to her room. Intensive Care. That was why he needed the code. We stopped at the nurses’ desk to check in. Two people were allowed in the room at a time.

“What do I need to know?” he asked the nurse. After she verified that he was, in fact, allowed to know the details, she broke it down for him.

“Your mom stopped responding to treatments.”

“I know. What about the trial drugs?”

“The doctor will tell you more when she gets here, but your mom wasn’t a good fit. Her nurses have been managing her care at home.”

“I know, but we were just there. No one showed to check on her.”

“From what we know, she refused care over the weekend. The nurses’ log clearly shows the phone call.”

“She’s been hiding things from me.” Reece rubbed the palm of his hand over his forehead. “So what got her admitted today?”

“Her iron levels dropped too low for her to function. When the nurse showed up this morning, your mother was unconscious.”

“Jesus,unconscious?”

“She regained consciousness shortly after her nurse arrived. An ambulance was called and she was admitted up here due to her underlying condition. She’s getting infusions and we’ll keep her here for a couple of days to make sure it’s just her pain medications causing the anemia and not something more serious.”

He looked absolutely stricken.

“You want to go in alone first?” I asked and the man shot me an ‘Are you insane?’ glare that couldn’t have been interpreted any other way.

“Okay. I just don’t want you to feel pressured or anything.”

Rather than reply, he took my hand again and we walked to his mom’s room. The top section of wall had windows and the bottom was solid. I supposed so the nurses could keep an eye on the patients as they went about their duties.

I held my breath as he opened the door, worried that Char might be upset at me intruding on their family reunion. Her eyes were closed but sprang open as soon as we entered.

“Baker,” she said weakly. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” he snapped and I squeezed his hand tightly to get him to calm down. He glanced at me, nodded once, and then said, “The nurse called. Bree and I caught the first flight we could to get here.”

Char’s eyes moved to me and she smiled as much of a smile as she seemed to be able to muster. “Bree. How’re Benny and Claudia?”

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