A Mess of a Man (Cruel & Beautiful #2)(99)

Three pairs of eyes turn to glare at me. I can feel the eyes of the other people in the waiting area as well. Their judgment doesn’t matter. Laney makes the first move.

She’s on me before her dad can wrangle her away. Her fist connects several blows I take, knowing I earned that and more.

“You *. You don’t get to show up now. You’re too late.”

“Laney,” her mom says. She rests a hand on my forearm. “She’s going to be a while. You don’t have to wait.”

“I know. And I’m sorry my appearance is causing your family distress. But I have to stay.”

Her lips compress in a thin smile. She shuffles her family to a far corner. I slump in a seat and rest my arms on my legs as I cover my face.

“He shouldn’t be here,” I hear Laney rant.

“The bastard has a lot of nerve,” one of her friends adds.

I look up to see four more pairs of eyes that could only be Sam’s friends giving me death by castration looks. I fist my hand in my hair as I find the floor for solace and push their words away. There isn’t anything they could say to get me to leave.

Time passes like a slow leak. Hours later a man in blue scrubs comes up. When her family stands, I wait until he reaches them before standing and moving close enough to eavesdrop.

“She’s fine,” he says in greeting. I can’t see his face, so I can’t anticipate his next words. “Although the tumor looked …” His words are drowned out by Sam’s mother’s gasp. “Her breast tissue didn’t look very healthy.” I rock on my feet wanting to find a chair, but force myself to stand to try to hear anything else he has to say. “She’ll be in for a little while longer before she’s taken to recovery. You guys might want to go get something to eat. It probably won’t be until later this afternoon before you can see her.”

I go back to my seat where I plan to wait it out until I know she is safe at home.

“You should leave,” one of her friends spits out at me as they head out.

“I should,” I whisper. “But I’m not.”

“She’s not going to want to see you. But you don’t care do you? It’s all about you.”

She’s right about part of that. I don’t care that she doesn’t want to see me. Still I sit. Night comes and I watch her family escorted through the patient doors. And hours later, I watch them leave.

“She says go to home,” Laney hisses at me before telling her friends they can go back.

Still I wait.

I overhear her mother tell Sam’s friends she’s being moved to a regular room. She glances at me as if she’d hoped I would hear. I wait before following them to that waiting room where I plant myself as a fixture.

As time passes, several nurses feel sorry for me in my rumpled clothes and overall disheveled appearance. They bring me bottles of water and tell me they don’t want me to end up in the emergency room. So I drink the water, but I refuse food. I just need to see Sam leave this place. Nothing else matters.

I continue to wait, only answering e-mails while Mark and Jeff cover for me.

It isn’t until late a couple days later that the doors open and Sam is ushered out in a wheelchair. When our eyes connect, I wait for any reaction.





Laney, God love her, clamps my hand in a bone-crushing grip, all the way to the hospital for my surgery. How in the world did she go through this alone? Okay, she had Mom to guide her, and Dad and Evan were with her, too. I was off at school with my head up my ass my senior year, and not a care in the world. I could kick myself in said ass right now.

“What would I do without you?” My words are choked.

“What do you mean?” Her eyes pin me.

“You’ve done so much for me this past week. Work, the rescue from Ben’s, the surgery. I mean, I seriously don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Sam, I’m your sister. It’s what families do for each other.”

“Yeah, but when you had your surgery …”

“You were in college. Did you think I would pull you out of school to help?” She laughs. “I had Mom. And Evan was my savior.”

“Yeah. You didn’t have an * boyfriend who dumped you like a hot potato the first minute he found a lump in your boob.”

“Jesus. I wish I had something better to say than I’m sorry, Sam. If I’d known what a jerk he turned out to be, I would’ve kicked him in the balls that night at Mom and Dad’s.”

“And I would’ve let you. But I guess it’s best he showed his colors now rather than later. Can you imagine if this had happened after we were married?”

Her hand squeezes mine tighter, if that’s even possible. “You guys talked marriage?”

“No! It was only a hypothetical comment.”

She relaxes her grip and I flex my hand.

“Sorry. It scared me for a minute that he had the potential to do that much damage.”

“Oh, he had the potential. I just never saw it coming.” My hand automatically goes to my chest and absently rubs the place where my heart is. Like that’s going to ease the ache that seems to have permanently lodged itself there. “I wish life had a rewind button, you know?”

“How so?”