FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER they were at the hospital. Nick kept a set of gym clothes and bar clothes in his truck at all times because he never knew when something would come up and he’d need to change. Right then he was just grateful he didn’t have to go to the hospital in the suit he’d worn last night and raise suspicions of why. He didn’t want that for Jenn, especially since nothing had happened.
They spotted Luke’s rental car with its doors open beneath the E.R. canopy. Nick jogged inside the entrance, Jenn’s hand in his. The smell of disinfectant made his nose twitch.
The waiting room held only a few people. An older couple and two women, one of them holding her arm. A man rubbed the back of an upset-looking young girl who seemed close to being sick on her daddy’s lap.
“Nick, over here.”
He followed the sound of Ethan’s voice and saw his brother heading toward them at a run.
“I was just paged. They’re in there.”
Nick followed Ethan, still holding tight to Jenn’s hand. They entered a cubicle and Nick bit back a curse when he saw Matt’s leg, which was twisted at an odd angle. Matt stared at them all, wide-eyed, tear tracks staining his cheeks.
Nick moved to his son’s side and leaned over the bed to kiss his head. “You okay, bub?”
Matt’s lower lip trembled. “It hurts. And I won’t be able to play ball.”
“He’s been given something to take the edge off his pain,” Ethan told Nick, looking over Matt’s file. “They’re waiting on final X rays before taking him to surgery.”
Nick swore silently, then forced himself to smile reassuringly at Matt. “You’ll be fine. Don’t be scared. Matt? You’ll be okay.”
Ethan finished studying the chart, a frown on his face. He set it aside and gently examined Matt’s leg.
Nick’s dread grew.
“But I don’t wanna have surgery. Can’t they just put a cast on it?”
Ethan met Nick’s gaze and held it for a long moment before shifting his attention to Matt. “No gettin’ around it, kiddo. Surgery is a must for this break. But you just wait until the girls get a look at the cool cast you’ll have afterward. They’ll be falling all over you.” He winked at Matt. “Girls like that sort of thing.”
An orderly came into the room. “And how is everybody today? You Matt?” He waited for Matt to nod. “Nice to meet you. I’m Rick and I’m your driver for today. You ready to race?”
Ethan squeezed Matt’s uninjured leg. “Rick wins all the gurney qualifiers around here.”
“I don’t want surgery.”
Ethan nodded. “I know, Matt, but like your dad said, it’ll be okay. I’ll be there the whole time. I promise.”
“You’ll do the surgery?” Matt asked, his eyes bright with tears.
“No, it would be a conflict because you’re my nephew, but I’ll be in the room supervising your doctor and flirting with the nurses.”
“You always do that.”
Even under so much strain they all chuckled.
A nurse stuck her head in the door. “Excuse me. Any of you parked in the E.R. entrance? A Dodge?”
“Me.” Luke stood.
“We need it moved, please. I take it you’re Mr. Tulane, Matt’s father?” The nurse smiled at Nick when he nodded and held out a clipboard full of forms. “We need you to fill these out immediately and report to registration so they can get everything cleared while your son’s being prepped.”
“I need to stay with my son.”
“You can’t go back, Nick. I’ll stay with him.” Ethan ruffled Matt’s hair. “Are you ready to race?”
The orderly took that as his cue and began moving the gurney. Nick accepted the forms automatically, his mind too full to grasp all that was going on. His son was having surgery and was scared out of his mind, and the nurse wanted him to fill out paperwork?
“Wait.” He leaned over and gave Matt a hug and a kiss. “I love you, buddy.”
“I love you, too, Dad.”
Nick heard the tears in Matt’s voice and worked to swallow the lump in his own throat. “I’ll be waiting for you when you wake up.”
Matt sniffled, but stayed quiet.
“Better get to the starting gate.” The orderly wheeled Matt out of the room.
Nick stood there like an idiot. What now? Where to begin? He had to get someone to cover for him at the garage and this evening at the Coyote. And he probably should call the insurance company or something before the papers started showing up, shouldn’t he? And what about Matt’s pediatrician?
“Take care of the forms and try not to worry. Registration will tell you where to wait for Matt.” Ethan nodded at Jenn, and then paused by her side on his way out. “Thanks for coming with him.”
Jenn was shaken by the sight of Matt so pale against the hospital sheets, his leg mangled. “Nick?”
He waved the clipboard in the air, looking as if he wanted to throw it across the room. “This is ridiculous. My son is having surgery and they want me to fill out forms?”
“It won’t take long. Think of the paperwork you have at the gym for membership. The hospital has to do this upfront.” She moved close. “Come on. Let’s go fill everything out and get to registration so we know where to be when Matt is done in surgery.”
Jenn led the way out of the E.R., figuring one of the nurses would tell Luke where to find them when he returned from parking his car. Nick stormed along beside her, glaring at the floor, and muttering under his breath about the papers in his hand.
“Nick? Nick, what happened? Where’s Matt?”
Oh, not good. She felt Nick stiffen and saw his head jerk up. Nick’s parents approached them.
“They took Matt to surgery,” she explained.
“Did you get a second opinion?” his father demanded. “If the nerves are damaged, he’d be better off with a specialist.”
Nick glowered at them. “Ethan checked Matt out. Someone else is doing the surgery, but Eth said he’d stay with him.”
“Who? Which doctor? Ethan is a fine surgeon, but he isn’t a pediatric specialist,” Alan Tulane grumbled. “If it wasn’t life or death, why didn’t you tell them to wait for a specialist?”
“Dr. Tulane.” Jenn glanced at Nick briefly before focusing her gaze on the irate man across from her. She’d dressed in capris and a T-shirt but hadn’t wanted to take precious time to smear on some makeup, but regardless, she wasn’t going to let Nick’s father berate him when Nick hadn’t done anything wrong. “I know you’re upset over the accident, but I’m sure if Ethan had felt there was a need for a second opinion or a specialist, he would have said something.”
“She’s right,” Nick’s mother, Marilyn, agreed. “Calm down, Alan. We’re all worried about Matt, but it won’t help anyone if we’re arguing while he’s in surgery.”
Near the registration desk, Jenn spotted an empty area with four vacant seats. “Mrs. Tulane, why don’t you head for the post-op waiting room while we fill out these forms? We’ll be there as soon as things are done.”
Separating the two men was key right now. Nick’s body was tensed from head to toe, and his hands formed two rock-hard fists.
Marilyn flashed Jenn a grateful smile. “That’s a good idea. Alan, let’s go.”
Jenn waited until the older couple had moved on, and then she gripped Nick’s hand and tugged. “Let’s go over and fill out the papers. It’ll make things go faster at registration if they’re already completed.”
“Why didn’t I call a specialist?” Nick growled.
“He’s concerned, Nick. Just like you.”
Nick dropped into a chair, swearing under his breath. Jenn dug into her purse for a pen and handed it to him. As if he were only now coming to awareness, Nick looked at the papers and blinked. He squeezed his eyes tight, then sat forward, the papers seeming fragile in his work-roughened hands. Seconds passed and still Nick didn’t move.
Jenn frowned, pretending she wasn’t watching him. She studied the various hospital employees as they went about their business. Finally Nick clicked the pen as if to write, held it over the paper and then hesitated before the tip touched the page. He rubbed his forehead.
“Nick?” She sat forward. “Is something wrong?”
“Why can’t the people in registration do their jobs? They’re going to make me repeat all this anyway.”
“Stop,” she whispered. “Blaming the people in registration isn’t going to change the fact that Matt got hurt. Just calm down and fill the forms out.”
A muscle vibrated in his jaw. He clicked the pen a second time. Stared at the papers and fumbled for his sunglasses.
“You don’t have them. I think I remember seeing them in the apartment before we left. Sorry, I should’ve said something.” She’d wondered about his habit of wearing sunglasses from sunrise to sunset. Other people probably thought he wore them to enhance an ultra-sexy image, but Jenn thought it had more to do with glare.
He rubbed his eyes again. Was something else wrong? Why didn’t he fill out the forms?
Nick shifted on his chair, hunched over the clipboard. She heard the sounds of paper rustling and glanced down. Nick was moving the forms back and forth ever so slightly. Just like Matt.
Jenn noted his intense focus, the way he kept rubbing his head and the way his lips moved as he read. Almost as if he was trying to sound out the words?
An awful suspicion came into her brain. Surely not. Nick ran two businesses and was quite successful at them. There was absolutely no reason to think he couldn’t…what? Couldn’t read?
He rubbed his forehead harder and muttered another curse under his breath. And then Jenn thought of other things. The books on tape. The way Nick got upset when she’d asked him to read with Matt. Nick wasn’t the type of father to blow off something like that. Not unless he couldn’t do it. And if he couldn’t do something, he—
Hired help. Suzanne’s husband. His managers. Her.
Could it be true? Could he have built up such a solid wall of coping strategies over the years? Was it possible?
You don’t know that that’s his problem.
But what else could it be? Why wasn’t he writing? Dyslexia was diagnosed now after a long series of tests and evaluations, but when Nick was in school, it wasn’t. Especially in rural areas. Instead, kids were considered lazy and slow. Problematic.
“Give me the papers.” Her voice was hoarse and shaky. She cleared her throat, hoping with all her heart she was wrong. She had to be wrong. It was just too painful a possibility to contemplate. But her head whirled with all the things she’d noticed while spending time with him, things she’d shrugged off as unimportant.
Nick lifted his head and stared at her, his eyes bleak. Beleaguered, as if he were waiting for an ax to drop. If there was a problem, he hadn’t trusted her enough to tell her, and this wasn’t the time or the place to confront Nick about her suspicions. Anyone upset, with a child in surgery, wasn’t able to think straight or concentrate on filling out papers. And until she knew otherwise, she had to assume that was all his hesitation was about. Not about dropping out or not having a basic education.
But the look on his face. Nick seemed to be waiting for her to call him on it. Guilt, embarrassment. Pride. All the emotions were stamped on his features, and yet he appeared to be preparing himself to be blasted with censure. Meaning she was right?
He wiped a hand over his eyes, rough and angry. “You don’t have to do them. Maybe you should go. You don’t want to hang around here all day.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Give me the papers.”
“Seriously, you can leave if you want.”
“I don’t want to leave.”
“Jenn…”
“Let me help you. I want to help you. Just… let me.”
His face tightened even more but when he turned his head to look at her, his features were intentionally blank. Guarded. But so revealing. Oh, Nick.
She held out her hand and ignored the way it trembled. “Give me the papers. I’ll take care of them.” For now. Then she’d do everything she could to discover what level of reading he had and figure out how he’d slipped through the system. Some kids did. Smart, intelligent kids learned all the tricks there were in order to protect themselves from embarrassment and the teasing of their peers. And so had Nick.
To protect himself from his family?
No wonder they didn’t get along. Nick’s über-successful parents and siblings were a smack in the face to someone who couldn’t—Her eyes misted with tears at the thought of what she’d made him do, the position she’d put him in at the dinner and then the wedding. Obviously Nick was functionally literate, but the thought of filling out papers with her watching him made him hugely uncomfortable.
She remembered the charts at the gym. How he’d slid them across the desk so that she would fill in the blanks. So many individual things that she hadn’t picked up on.
Jenn cleared her throat and took the sheaf of papers and pen from him. “What is Matt’s full name?”
Nick hesitated a long moment, rubbed his forehead and gave her a look she couldn’t decipher.
“I’m not going anywhere, Nick. Please don’t ask me again.”
He released a resigned sigh. “Matthew Colton Tulane.”
She filled in the blank, the moisture in her eyes blurring the words slightly. “Date of birth?”
SIX HOURS. Six freakishly long hours of pacing the floor and enduring his father’s frowning disapproval, his mother’s worried glances and Gram eyeing Jenn like fresh meat. And Jenn…He was amazed she was still there. That she made eye contact and smiled at him. Did she know? Guess? She had to. She was too smart not to. Why had he thought he could actually spend any length of time with her and have her not find out?
How much longer was this going to take?
“You should have called us,” his father muttered for the thousandth time. “If Luke hadn’t called, we wouldn’t have even known to come.”
Thank you, brother.
“I think it’s understandable that Nick was more concerned with getting to his son than making calls,” Jenn said, her tone gentle but firm. Almost as if she spoke to one of the children she taught. “When you arrived, we’d only just gotten here ourselves, Dr. Tulane.”
Gram smirked. Luke coughed. And Nick wondered how he could get rid of them all.
Last night with Jenn had been…a new experience. A sweet one he wouldn’t have minded repeating.
But after seeing the suspicion in Jenn’s eyes when he couldn’t fill out those stupid papers, he knew whatever they’d had was over. What had he been thinking? It shouldn’t have gone so far. Kissing her was one thing, complimenting Jenn to boost her self-image even though any man that looked at her had to see how beautiful she was another given in the scheme of things. But spending the night at her house with his truck out front for her neighbor’s to see?
Even though they hadn’t had sex, gossip would say otherwise. Jenn was probably kicking herself for letting that happen, and hanging around only until Matt came out of surgery and she knew all was well. Women like her did that.
“Garret called and Alex told him about Matt. He said to keep him and Darcy posted.” Luke stared at his hands. “Nick, I’m sorry. I can’t say it enough. Dusty has always been so mild and easygoing. I’ve never seen her spook like that. The cat jumped out of the tree and the next thing I knew, Dusty reared.”
“Accidents happen.” It was hard to force the words out. He hadn’t wanted Matt to go to California with Luke in case something happened and he was too far away to get to his son, but it just proved things like this could happen anywhere, at any moment.
The truth overwhelmed him. He’d felt like a failure before, but now…When was he going to face the truth? No matter what he did, no matter how successful he was in business, he didn’t measure up. Because he wasn’t Tulane material. Tulanes did better. They were well above average. This just proved his father had been right.
“Nick?”
He turned to see Ethan in the waiting room’s doorway. Ignoring the rest of them, Nick raced forward. “How is he?”