I kissed her to stop her from talking. Whatever we needed to do, didn’t need to be done right now. My guess was she wanted to talk about whatever it was that had made her hide from me.
The longer I sat by her side and watched her sleep, the more I realized I would do whatever I had to, to keep her in my life.
I’d already severed ties with Nick, but if that wasn’t enough, I was ready to do whatever would be.
I think I may have dozed off when I heard the bay’s curtain open.
“Tackle? What are you doing here?”
When I stood, I woke Sloane up. “Halo, um, did your parents call you?”
“My parents? No, I’m Sloane’s ICE.”
“Huh?”
“My number is listed on Sloane’s phone in case of emergency.”
“Oh. Right. Your parents should be in the waiting room.”
“If my parents are here, why are you in with Sloane?” Halo went to the other side of the bed and leaned down to kiss his sister’s forehead. “Hey, peanut, what happened?” he asked without waiting for me to answer his first question.
“Um…” She looked up at me.
“Something called placenta previa. Evidently, it causes bleeding. The baby is fine, though.”
Halo looked from me to his sister. “Why isn’t Mom in here with you?”
Sloane reached out and took my hand.
“Wait…no. No…fucking…way.” Halo’s face turned red, and his voice got louder with every word.
“Hang on,” I said. “Let’s take this conversation outside.”
“You sonuvabitch,” he seethed.
“Outside,” I repeated, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the bay. I picked up my pace, knowing this thing with Halo was going to escalate quickly. Whatever we had to say to each other, shouldn’t be said in an emergency room full of people.
I went out the double doors the ambulance had pulled up to when they brought Sloane in, out to the parking lot, and stopped. Halo charged toward me, grabbing my shirt with one hand, and punching me in the face with the other.
“You goddamn bastard. You got my little sister pregnant!” he shouted, continuing to throw punches that I did little more than try to block.
“Knox!” I heard his father yell. “Stop this! Now!” His words did nothing to deter the man who had been my best friend for more than half my life from pummeling me. Only when Ben grabbed the back of Halo’s collar and yanked him away from me, did he stop.
“You okay, man?” asked one of the paramedics I recognized from earlier. “Looks like he got you pretty good.”
“I’m all right.”
“Might be a couple gashes that need to be stitched up. Let’s go in and take a look.”
“I’ll be fine.”
The guy laughed. “Let’s at least get you cleaned up, so you don’t scare the shit out of that pretty girl you knocked up.”
I laughed. “Okay, okay. I’ll let you clean me up.” I could already feel my right eye swelling up, and I knew my lip was split and bleeding.
33
Sloane
I looked at the bleeding knuckles on my brother’s hand when he came back into the emergency room bay followed by my dad. “What did you do?”
“Less than I wanted to.”
“Where’s Tackle?”
“I think one of the paramedics is cleaning him up.”
I looked from my father to my brother. “Cleaning him up? What the fuck, Knox?”
“Have a seat.” My dad pulled out a chair and nudged Knox toward it. “The first thing the two of you need to do is lower your voices. There are other people in this hospital who are sick or injured and need care. They don’t need to be disturbed by your argument.”
“Argument?” I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and told myself to calm down. “This isn’t an argument, Dad. My brother just beat up the father of my baby.”
“Don’t call him that,” Knox spat.
I’d never once seen my father lay a hand on my brother, until today. He didn’t hit him hard, but he did swat the back of his head.
I, of course, did the most inappropriate thing ever and laughed out loud.
Knox spun around and looked at him. “Did you know?”
“I had my suspicions, as did your mother, but to answer your question; no, until recently, we did not know.”
“That’s why you wouldn’t tell me who it was.”
“You’re right. If I could’ve kept it from you even longer, I would’ve. Do you want to know why?”
“Because you knew I’d kill him.”
“No, Knox, because this isn’t any of your business. Tackle and I are having a baby, and guess what? It has nothing to do with you. Nothing. This is between him and me and no one else. If you can’t accept that, you can leave.”
“Is he going to marry you?”
“The better question is, am I going to marry him? I haven’t decided yet.”
“You have to.”
I stared at him, wide-eyed. “No wonder you’re best friends. You’re both Neanderthals. No, I don’t have to.”
“Is he at least going to take care of you and the baby? Provide for you?”
“Again, none of your business.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“There isn’t anything for you to believe. I’m pregnant, Tackle is the father, and the two of us will figure out how it’s going to work in our own way.”
“When did this happen?”
I looked up at my dad. “Would you please get him out of here?”
“We aren’t finished talking about this.”
“Yeah, Knox. We are. Go back to New York City.” Those last words hurt him. I knew they did the minute I said them. I wasn’t surprised by my brother’s reaction. It was what I’d expected. I’d just hoped for better from him.
“Wait,” I said when he stood to leave. “Dad, can you give us a minute?”
“I won’t be far, and I better not be able to hear you.”
“Sit back down, Knox,” I said when my father pulled the curtain closed behind him. “You’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you, but I want you to listen to me anyway.”
He sat and folded his arms.
“Look at me.” I waited until he
