The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(67)

He reached for her hair, and she leaned in closer to him so he could push it off her shoulder for her.

“I think I was thinking about it earlier. I don’t know why.” He brushed his fingers against her cheek. “Glad you’re here.”

She ran her hand up and down his arm.

“I’m glad I’m here, too.”

He smiled and closed his eyes again.

About an hour later, Alexa appeared at the door of his room. Maddie dropped Theo’s hand and stood up. Had Alexa noticed her holding his hand? No, she must not have; she was staring up at the machine with Theo’s blood pressure and heart rate on it.

“Drew told me to take a picture of this and text it to him.” She held up her phone and snapped the photo before she looked at Maddie. “How is he?”

Maddie stretched. Her body was stiff from being in the same position in that chair for so long. And her hand felt cold and empty. It felt weird to not be touching him, after holding his hand for so many hours.

“I can’t tell. He wakes up every so often and says a little something, then falls back asleep. He asked me what we were doing here; he didn’t remember what had happened. He’s thrown up a few times. But the doctors—and the Internet—say all of that is normal.” Maddie had spent the last hour looking up a lot of information about concussions on her phone. “We’re still waiting on the CT scan. How’s everything at the office?”

Alexa pulled up a chair on the other side of Theo’s bed and sat down.

“Still wild. I can only stay here for a second, but I just had to see him. The mayor was on all the local news—and some local news shows elsewhere in the state—talking about what happened, but Theo will be very proud: in all of the interviews, the mayor managed to turn the subject back to statewide pre-K and how important it is.”

“I am very proud.” Theo opened his eyes halfway and smiled at Alexa. She reached out and grabbed his hand, which gave Maddie a pang.

“Hey, there you are,” Alexa said. “We’re barely managing without you in the office, you know. But everyone is trying to pull themselves together until you get back. Leave it to you to play the hero.”

Theo laughed, a stronger laugh than he’d managed so far.

“Me, play the hero? It’s my fault this whole thing happened in the first place. Plus, I couldn’t have been less of a hero; I was just standing there and got knocked to the ground.”

Alexa looked at him, then at Maddie, with her eyebrows raised.

“That’s not the story I heard. Peter said you yelled for Maddie to watch out because one of the protestors was near her, and when you started to run toward her, his friend knocked you out.”

Now Theo and Alexa were both staring at her.

“Oh.” Was Alexa going to make some big deal out of this? “Yeah, that is what happened. It was”—she closed her eyes for a second—“a pretty scary few minutes there. I shouted your name and tried to warn you, but . . . it was too late.” She refused to cry. “Anyway, no, you weren’t just standing there.”

Theo reached for her hand. She wanted to grab on to his, but Alexa was right there. She turned to pick her phone up from the table and pretended she hadn’t seen. After a second, he dropped his hand.

Theo sighed.

“I’m never going to get Mallory from the L.A. Times to take me seriously again now that she’s seen me being loaded into an ambulance. Her article about the rally probably rightly blamed me for this whole thing.”

Alexa pulled her phone out.

“One, you’re not to blame for this whole thing. Two, let’s check to see if Mallory’s piece is up.”

Theo reached for her phone.

“Let me read it.”

Maddie snatched the phone out of his hands.

“Did you not hear what Dr. Stewart said to you? No phones! No reading! No screens at all! You have a traumatic brain injury.”

Theo rolled his eyes again, but his yawn kind of destroyed the effect.

“That’s just a fancy word for a concussion. People get concussions all the time. It’s no big deal. I feel fine.”

Maddie handed Alexa’s phone back to her.

“Don’t let him have it. He says he feels fine, but just wait: he’ll fall back asleep within seconds after you leave the room.”

A nurse appeared at the door.

“It’s time to take you down for your CT scan, Mr. Stephens!” Why did nurses always sound so cheerful?

Alexa stood up.

“It seems like Maddie has this in hand, and I should get back to the office. Theo, feel better and do what Maddie and the doctors say. Maddie, text me any updates, please, especially anything from the doctors that we can get Drew to translate. If you’re still here in an hour when he gets off, he’ll come by.”

Maddie met Alexa at the door.

“He keeps trying to make light of this, but I’m worried. We’ll know more after the CT scan, but he was out of it for a while.”

Alexa nodded.

“I could tell you were worried. I am, too.”

Alexa wrapped her arms around Maddie and held her tight. Alexa’s big, warm, loving hug felt so good.

“Thanks for taking care of him,” she whispered in Maddie’s ear.

God, why did that make her want to cry? She was glad Alexa couldn’t see her face.