Page 76 of My Favorite Bad Decision
He smiles only because she’s still hot, and this gambit continues to work on men of all ages. “That’s how they make sure you don’t want to stay.”
I don’t have time to watch my mother work on seducing a sixth husband in front of her fifth. “I’d like to see the tests performed when she was admitted, as well as her labs,” I cut in. “I assume there was an echocardiogram?”
“Are you a doctor?”
My teeth grind. “No, I’m not, and as you’re well aware, I don’tneedto be a doctor to demand to see the tests myself, with her permission, so I would like to see them.”
My mother gasps. “Kit.” She shoots an apologetic look at the doctor. “I’m so sorry. She’s been traveling all day and was very worried. She’s not normally like this.”
“She’s not?” Charlie asks drolly, and Maren covers her mouth with her palm.
The doctor hands me the file. “Knock yourself out, but it won’t mean anything to you.”
I ignore him and begin flipping through its contents. Her Troponin I and T were in the normal range—they’d be elevated for days afterward if she’d had a heart attack. “Your labs are fine,” I tell her. “The echo shows a bit of atrial fibrillation, but that might be associated with your possible panic attack and is more likely related to your intake of diet pills.”
“Diet pills?” the doctor asks, taking the chart back and flipping through it. “I don’t recall seeing anything about that.”
My mother shoots an angry gaze my way. “They’re notdiet pills. They’re just homeopathic supplements.”
“That she gets illegally from China,” I add.
“We’ll need to know what she took,” he says, scowling.
“Regardless of what she took, nothing in these results warrants an overnight stay, so I’m confused why she’s still here.”
The doctor looks between us. “Mostly because your mother requested it.”
“Unbelievable,” I mutter. “Thank you.”
Ulrika needed attention. Apparently the wholemaybe-I’m-having-a-heart-attackthing wasn’t enough. She needed all of us freakinghere. She needed Roger rushing out to get her steak and me jumping on a plane and Maren sitting anxiously by her side for twelve hours straight.
The doctor backs out of the room, leaving us all facing each other. As usual, somehow, I’m the bad guy here and I don’t especially care.
“Good work, Mom. Glad I flew for four hours, sick to my stomach, when there was nothing wrong with you and yourequestedto stay. Hope it was a sufficient amount of attention.”
Maren’s eyes are wide. I tend to turn my ire on the people who hurt her and my mom…it’s very rarely directed at them. A frown settles upon her delicate brow.
“Kit,” she scolds, “you took off minutes before a party that Mom spentmonthsplanning, so you can climb off your high horse a little here. Especially when you left us to clean up your mess so you could go off to get a tan.” She waves a hand at me, as if my skin tone is enough to condemn me for pretty much everything.
Normally this might chasten me, but not today.
“I wonder if you can begin toconceiveof how many ofyourmesses I’ve cleaned up?” I ask. “Both of you. Mom, how many boyfriends of yours did I have to pull into line? Mare, do you not recall that it was me and not you who had to go break up with Ryan Nicoll because you were too scared to do it? Do you recall that it was me and not you who moved all of your stuff out of that apartment afterward? And you both know that’s the tip of the iceberg. So I’m sorry that, for once in your lives, you were left to clean up a mess of mine. But it would certainly be refreshing if you could’ve done it without this level of resentment, because I’m pretty sure I didn’t act resentful the one million times I did it for you.” I pick up my bag. “I’m glad you’re okay, Mom, but you don’t need to be here. I’m going to bed.”
I walk out and Charlie follows.
My eyes narrow. He’s not escaping my wrath either. “You, of all people, should have known this was bullshit.”
He holds up his hands. “I’m not going to be the person who denies Ulrika attention when she’s in need. And you realize none of this would have happened if you’d just stop fighting her battles. Maren’s, too, for that matter.”
I snort. “You’re either out of your mind or you’ve begun drinking again.”
“I never stopped drinking,” he says with a grin, “as I’m sure you’re aware. It’s my favorite pastime.”
I raise a brow.
“Second favorite pastime,” he amends. “But anyhow…let them fight their own battles for a while, Kit.”
“Fight their own battles?” I ask. “Have you seen what just occurred here? No one in that room had a diagnosis or even knew what tests had been run!”
