Hot Sauce (Suncoast Society #26)(60)

“No, ma’am. A regular room.”

She bolted for the bank of elevators, trying not to cry, praying he was okay. If he was in a room, he had to be okay and not dying, right?

Just as she was getting into the elevator, her phone rang.

Lyle.

She answered.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “You sounded serious.”

“Hey, listen, I need to talk to you.” The doors slid shut. “I’m at Bayfront. We were out on the boat and I had to call the Coast Guard because Reed had signs of a heart attack. They came with a chopper and airlifted him. I literally just got here to the hospital and got his room number. I’m going up to see how he is.”

She realized Lyle was awfully quiet, and as the doors slid open on her floor, she realized the call had disconnected.

“Shit!”

Trying to call him back and run and navigate at the same time proved problematic, especially when she kept getting Lyle’s voice mail as she repeatedly tried redial.

Finally, she found the room, blowing right past the nurse’s station in the process.

Reed was sitting up in bed, playing with the TV remote control.

He looked at her, smiling. “Hey, sweetheart.”

Her phone ringing in her hand startled her, and she nearly dropped it as she ran and practically flung herself at him in the bed.

As he wrapped one arm around her, and took her phone with the other, she started sobbing, so relieved to see him alive and talking and not dead!

He answered her phone. “Hey, buddy—”

“Nessie? What the hell is going on? Coast Guard chopper? Are you okay? Is Reed okay?” Lyle’s frantic screams were loud enough for her to hear even over the sound of the TV and her own sobs.

Reed patted her on the back, getting her to sit up so he could reach the TV remote and hit mute.

“It’s me, buddy. I’m okay. It was a bad scare, but I’m okay.”

He grabbed her by the chin and made her look at him. “It was a severe gallbladder attack,” he said to Lyle on the phone, but he was staring into her eyes. “Apparently, I have gall stones. They said I need to have my gallbladder out, but I can go home in the morning as long as I’m stable and see my own doctor.”

She nodded, a fresh round of tears starting, this time of relief.

He cuddled her close again and placed a kiss on the top of her head. Now she couldn’t hear Lyle screaming, so he must have calmed down.

“No, I’m okay. Not something I wanted to check off my bucket list, for sure. Hey, I can attest it was like what you see on Deadliest Catch. Man, those Coasties, they don’t lose their shit for anything. World could be coming to an end and they sound like it’s allll coool, man. It’s alll coool.”





Chapter Twenty-Two


With Lyle settled and no longer panicking, Vanessa realized, with some horror and only after Reed had mentioned it to her, that poor Carlo probably had his legs crossed, if he hadn’t had an accident already.

And if he’d had one, she wouldn’t blame the poor guy.

“Crap, I need to call Jenny.” At Reed’s suggestion, she’d given her friend a spare key and the alarm code for the house in case of an emergency.

She called Jenny. “I need a huge favor.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Can you please go walk Carlo? As in right now? And if he’s had an accident can you please clean it up and not scold him for it?”

“What happened?” Vanessa gave Jenny the brief version. “He was airlifted to Bayfront? Why the f*ck didn’t you call me?”

“Did I mention the part where I was on a boat and didn’t have cell reception, then was worried he was dying and I was driving up to St. Pete to find him?”

She heard Jenny take a deep breath. “He’s okay, though?”

Vanessa stared at Reed. She was sitting up in the hospital bed, snuggled next to him. Lyle would be heading over as soon as his last seminar ended at six, only waiting that long because Reed practically ordered him to finish the day there, and then join them at the hospital.

“Yeah, he’ll be okay. He needs to have his gallbladder out, though.” They’d given him some pain meds that had made him a little woozy, but he wasn’t totally out of it.

“Wow. At least it wasn’t more serious.”

“I know. Believe me.”

“Yes, I’ll go walk the little dude. Want me to bring him home with me?”

She started to say no, then rethought that. “Yeah, I’ll pick him up from you when I get back there. It’ll be later.”

Reed touched her arm. “You and Lyle will need to go back to the boat and take care of that, first.”

Despite everything, he still wanted his boat parked correctly in his slip, and hosed off.

Plus she’d grabbed the boat keys, but had forgotten to make sure the bilge pump switch was on, and didn’t know if the charter customers had tied the mooring lines right or not.

She snapped him a salute from her temple with her free hand. “It’ll be late tonight,” Vanessa warned her.

“That’s okay, just keep me informed.”

“Thanks. I love you, and I really appreciate this.”

“No problem. Love you, too, and hug Reed for me. See you later.”