The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(68)

“You weren’t there, and I knew you’d want someone you trusted watching over him, so . . .”

Alexa pulled back and smiled at her.

“He’s lucky to have you here,” she said. “How are you doing? Are you okay?”

Maddie pulled away.

“I’m fine. He’s sleeping a lot so I have plenty of time to answer emails.”

Alexa patted her on the shoulder and waved at Theo. His eyes were already drooping again.

When Alexa was safely down the hall, Maddie returned to her chair next to Theo’s bed and dragged it closer to him. He reached for her hand just as she reached for his.





Chapter Sixteen




THEO WOKE UP WHEN HE HEARD HIS BROTHER’S VOICE. WHAT WAS Ben doing at his place?

He opened his eyes. Oh, right, he was in the hospital. The rally. Sybil had been right, and he’d been wrong. He looked to his left and sighed in relief—Maddie was still there next to him. She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back. He looked over at Ben.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Theo said.

“Isn’t that my line?” Ben leaned over him. He must look pretty bad for that worried look to be on his brother’s face. “Sorry it took me so long to get here. There was a ton of traffic.”

“You didn’t tell Mom, did you?” Theo asked. “She’ll freak out.”

Ben shook his head.

“Oh no, of course I didn’t tell Mom. I figured the best way for her to learn that her oldest and most beloved son had been hit over the head and rushed to the emergency room was to get a text interrupting her vacation from any of her fifteen best friends, all of whom watch the local news religiously. Your brain must really have been damaged; of course I told Mom! She would whoop me so hard if I just, what, decided to pretend that if I didn’t tell her she wouldn’t find out? I tried that a lot as a kid; it didn’t work any of those times. Occasionally, I learn from my mistakes.”

His little brother sometimes made good points.

“You’re right. Please tell me she’s not getting on a plane back here right now.”

Ben shook his head.

“I talked her out of that, and hopefully it’ll last. But you can imagine what she said when I told her that you’d been attacked and were in the emergency room.”

Nope, Ben was back to his brother Ben again.

“You told her I’d been attacked? Benjamin, really? Did you also tell her I have a traumatic brain injury, like Maddie keeps calling it?”

Ben grinned.

“Don’t ‘Benjamin’ me. I didn’t actually say that, but I did tell her you were in the ER. I also said Alexa and her doctor fiancé were here with you—I know that wasn’t true, but it made her feel better, okay? She wants to talk to you, but we can do that later. Be convincingly well when you talk to her, please, otherwise she’ll be on your doorstep by nine a.m. tomorrow.”

“You do have a traumatic brain injury, you know,” Maddie said. “You keep saying it like it’s a big joke, but this isn’t a joke. I don’t care how much better you’re feeling right now.” She looked up at Ben. “They took him down to get a CT scan a while ago, but we haven’t heard anything yet.”

Theo looked over at his brother and sighed.

“I know this isn’t a joke. I’m just ready to go home. I hate this IV, I hate this hospital gown, I want to go home to my bed and my clothes and without so many things attached to me, and I want to be able to at least help deal with this public relations disaster I created.”

Why had he ignored everyone who was so worried about protestors fucking up the rally? Now they would be the whole story, instead of the families he’d worked so hard for.

Maddie shook her head.

“I’ve been googling, and what if there’s bleeding in your brain that they haven’t caught? Depending on the results of the CT scan, they might need to admit you so you can stay overnight for monitoring. The first twenty-four hours are crucial—everyone says that.”

“Who is everyone?” Drew asked as he walked in. Theo was both embarrassed and touched that Drew had come by. Of course Alexa had told him to, but still.

“Hey!” Maddie dropped his hand again and stood up. “‘Everyone’ is the whole Internet and all the doctors.”

Drew put his arm around Maddie. Theo wished he was the one doing that.

“First, that’s true. Second, never google when someone is in the hospital; it just makes you terrified. Have the doctors come back yet since the last time you texted?” He turned to Ben. “You’re Theo’s brother, right? I think we met a while ago?”

Ben nodded.

“That’s me. Good to see you again. And if my mother asks, you’ve been here watching over him since the ambulance brought him in.”

Drew nodded.

“Good to know. Is she on her way here?”

“No!” Ben and Theo both said. “And we hope it stays that way,” Theo said. “She’s on vacation, and it would kill me to ruin her trip like this.”

Ben slapped him on the shoulder a little too hard.

“And she will kill me if anything happens to you, so please listen to what Maddie said and take this head thing seriously, okay?”