The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(65)

Was she going to have to prove that statement? Apparently not; the woman at the front desk just checked Maddie’s ID and gave her Theo’s room number. She hid her left hand, just in case.

She forced herself to not run through the halls of the emergency room, so it felt like forever until she got into his room. There were two doctors standing there blocking him, so she couldn’t see his face.

“Theo?” She looked at the doctors. “Is he okay? Is he awake?”

“Maddie?” His voice was weak, but it was his. He looked up at her and reached out his hand. She almost pushed one of the doctors out of the way so she could grab it.

“Theo. Oh, Theo, you’re awake.” His eyes were open, but he looked bleary and out of it. She looked back up at the doctors. “I’m sorry for rushing in here—” She wasn’t sorry at all, but she assumed she had to say that. “Is he going to be okay? Did they tell you what happened?”

The doctor who she’d almost knocked over patted her on the shoulder.

“Mr. Stephens, do you feel okay to receive visitors? And can I—”

Theo stopped her with a wave of his other hand.

“I want her in here. And you can tell her everything.”

The doctor turned back to Maddie.

“He should be okay, but we need to check him out for a bit more time. He has a concussion, but we’re still figuring out what the effects from it might be. I’m Dr. Stewart. The medics told us what happened, but if you were there, we’d love to hear it from you, too.”

The doctor’s voice was gentle and soothing, and she looked at Maddie and at Theo like she really cared. She made Maddie feel better immediately.

“I was there. I can tell you.”

Maddie told the doctors the story of the rally and then the protest turned riot, and just as she got to the end, she gasped.

“Alexa! Oh God, I have to tell her what happened. What am I saying? She probably already knows what happened. She’s probably freaking out.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked back up at the doctors. They looked confused. “Sorry. Theo works for the mayor—no, right, I already told you that—but Alexa is my best friend, she also works for the mayor, they’re all going to be so worried, I just want to make sure everyone knows where he is.”

Dr. Stewart nodded.

“Sounds good. Oh, and I’m sure he’ll get this instruction multiple times, but the concussion means he should avoid screens for a while.”

Maddie looked down at the phone in her hand, and then up at the TV in the corner of the room.

The doctor smiled.

“Exactly those kinds of screens. They’ll just make everything worse. We’re going to let him rest and go check on some other patients, but someone will come back in a little while to give him a few more tests.”

Maddie nodded.

“Okay, thank you. I’ll be here.”

She started to step outside the room to call Alexa so she wouldn’t wake Theo up. But Theo had gone back to sleep still holding her hand tight, and she couldn’t let go. She pulled her phone out of her pocket to see missed calls from a bunch of numbers she didn’t recognize, along with two from Alexa. She clicked to call her back.

“Peter told me you were at the rally. Are you with Theo? How is he?” Alexa had a note of panic in her voice that Maddie hadn’t heard in a long time.

“I’m with him in the ER. He woke up sometime between getting in the ambulance and me getting here. The doctors didn’t say much to me, but they said someone will be back to give him more tests soon.”

Alexa let out a sigh.

“He woke up. Okay, that’s a good sign. Oh thank God. When I called you and called him and didn’t hear anything . . . I was panicking a little.” Maddie should have thought to call Alexa earlier, at least just to let her know she was heading to the hospital. But she’d been so panicked herself, she couldn’t even think that far. “I’m chained to my desk because my phone is ringing off the hook. Text Drew anything the doctors say; he’ll be able to tell us what they really mean.”

Maddie looked down at Theo, but he was still sound asleep with a faint smile on his face.

“I will. Do you have Theo’s brother’s number? Someone needs to tell him what happened before he sees it on the news. He can call their mom. She’s . . .” Maddie stopped herself before she told Alexa that Theo’s mom was on vacation. Alexa might wonder why the hell she knew that.

Luckily, Alexa seemed distracted by everything going on and hadn’t seemed to hear that part. She wasn’t kidding about her phone ringing off the hook; Maddie could hear it in the background as they talked.

“Yeah, I’ll text it to you so you can let him know. You know more than anyone else right now.”

Maddie suddenly realized that Alexa—and Ben, if Theo hadn’t told him what was going on between the two of them—would probably wonder why the hell she of all people was the one there at the hospital with Theo, the one talking to the doctors, the one who knew more than anyone else right now.

“Um, okay, sure, I can get in touch with him. I’m just here because I went to the rally today because you guys kept talking about it, and then when he got hit I thought someone should be here with him, and everyone else there who knew him was working, so . . .” “Sure, right, of course. I’m glad you’re there. I have to go, but please text any updates.”