Chase hung up without saying good-bye, but Brody didn’t take offense. He removed himself from the comfort of Elisa’s body and went in search of his clothes. His boxers had been flung somewhere on the other side of the room. He snagged them off the floor and yanked them on.
“What’s wrong?” Elisa’s soft voice penetrated the deafening silence of the room.
He glanced at her before pulling on his pants. “My sister Courtney was in a car accident. She’s in surgery, so I need to get to the ER.”
“You have a sister? Is she okay?” Elisa’s voice was still husky from sleep, and her hair was a tangled mess. Dammit, he wanted to crawl back in bed with her and shut everything out.
Her first question made him realize Brody hadn’t mentioned Courtney before, or much else about his family for that matter. However, now was not the time to talk family dynamics.
“I don’t know about her condition,” he explained after pulling his shirt on and buttoning it up.
“I’ll go with you,” Elisa said as she slid out of bed and walked into her closet. Not thirty seconds later, she came back out in a matching sweat suit and running shoes.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said when she stopped in front of him.
“I know.” She grabbed his hand and brushed the top of it with her thumb. “Let me do this for you.”
Something inside him shifted at her words, and she managed to steal the last piece of his heart. Why he’d kept that so closely guarded from her, he had no idea. Brody hadn’t had good luck when it came to love. He almost always managed to hurt whatever poor woman who’d had the bad judgment to fall in love with him.
“Okay,” he found himself saying, because he wanted her by his side. He wanted to spend whatever time he could with her.
A few minutes later they were on the road in his car. Trouble had only a handful of walk-in clinics and doctors’ offices. The closest ER was two towns away, give or take fifteen minutes, and Brody was sick with worry by the time he pulled into the parking lot. No one had called him to give him any kind of update since he’d talked to Chase.
Elisa gave his hand a comforting squeeze. “She’ll be okay.”
Her concern was touching and endearing. Never before had he needed someone to lean on. At first he hadn’t wanted Elisa to come with him. Now he was glad to have her by his side.
The bright lights of the hospital interior were shocking compared to the dark night outside. Hospitals had always given him the creeps, knowing that around every corner was either a sick person or someone dying. His mother had spent quite a bit of time in the hospital before she passed away. Thankfully, he’d been so young he had very little memory of her trapped in a hospital bed. Even the time he’d spent in this very hospital when Tyler had been born had made him uncomfortable.
Elisa was a solid, reassuring presence next to him, keeping up with his long and rapid steps. She made him feel safe, as if everything in his life would come together the way it was supposed to. Just her smile alone could chase away the darkest cloud.
He would be a very stupid man to get her go. But he just might have to.
They came to a stop in front of the admitting desk. “I’m here for Courtney Devlin,” he said in a gruff voice to the young nurse.
“It’s family only,” she replied like the good little employee she was.
“I’m her brother.” He had to force strenuous amounts of patience in his voice even though he felt none.
The nurse tossed a glance at Elisa, as though she were going to protest the presence of another person. Thankfully she didn’t. She typed a few keys on the keyboard in front of her, then swiveled in her chair and pointed to a set of enormous double gray doors. “Go through those doors, and sit tight in the waiting room on your left.” The nurse turned back around and pinned him and Elisa with a look. “She’s still in surgery.”
Brody muttered a “thanks” and tugged Elisa beside him through the doors. They closed behind them and clicked, probably from an automatic lock.
“She’s just doing her job,” Elisa reminded him as though she sensed his disdain.
He smiled and kissed the back of her hand. “I know.”
Before finding the rest of his family, Brody made a detour into a smaller room with some vending machines and a coffeemaker. With the way his brain was functioning and his body feeling like lead, he knew he’d need something strong to make it through the rest of the night. Elisa’s presence helped, but nothing could substitute straight-up black sludge.
“Are you all right?” Elisa asked again when he yanked the canister off the base.
“Yeah, I’m just…” He shook his head and sighed. What was he? Hell, at this point he didn’t know anymore. “Worried about my sister.”
Elisa stood against the counter while he poured the coffee into a paper cup. “Not to mention exhausted,” she observed.
Yeah, the bags under his eyes were no doubt a dead giveaway. And possibly the dark circles.
“You probably feel guilty about that, don’t you?” she asked in a quiet voice. “Your sister’s in there, possibly fighting for her life, and you feel bad for thinking about how tired you are.”
He sipped the mediocre but potent coffee, thinking how right she was. And what’s more, how easily she’d picked up on his body language. How all it had taken was a couple of glances and she’d known immediately what he was going through.
Damn.
“I remember going through the same thing when my parents died. In the weeks after their passing, my brother and I were grieving. Marcello was young, confused, and devastated and at times all I could think about was how tired I was. And then I’d feel guilty, like I didn’t have the right because my parents couldn’t feel anything at all. And then I’d feel worse because I’d have to remind myself that I had a little brother to take care of.”
She came toward him, and it was all he could do to keep his hands to himself. Instead, he gripped the paper cup so hard, he was surprised he didn’t crush the thing.
“I shouldn’t be thinking about anything else but her,” he said in a low voice.
“But it’s okay that you are.” Elisa cupped his cheek.
Her soft hand felt like a heavenly caress against his day-old whiskers.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” she went on. “You’re only human, Brody.”
Her comment had him grinning, despite the circumstances. How crazy was it of him that he hadn’t wanted her to come? Even though it hadn’t been that long since Chase had called him, Brody couldn’t remember why he’d wanted Elisa to stay home.
“It means a lot to me that you’re here,” he told her.
One of her brows lifted. “Even though you didn’t want me to come,” she added.
Ah shit, she’d figured him out. Damn observant woman. Too observant for her own good.
He shook his head, trying to make light of it, even though she was right. “That’s not—”
“Brody,” she said on a sigh. “Don’t insult me by pretending I’m wrong. You’re a man, and you feel like you have to be macho and unbreakable all the time. And the last thing you want is the little woman trying to comfort you. I get that.” Her gaze softened and she ran her fingers through his hair. “But doesn’t this feel better than dealing with it on your own?”
Hell yeah, it did. So why couldn’t he admit it?
Before he could say anything, she took the cup of coffee from his hand and placed it on the counter behind him. Then she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her body close. Close enough to savor her plush breasts and feel the indentation of her waist. Despite his body’s instant reaction, it wasn’t a sexual hug. She obviously had no intention of seducing him out of his clothes, and the realization created a tingling sensation in the pit of his stomach.