Well Played (Well Met #2)(24)

“You know your mother.” Dad’s voice broke through my scrambling thoughts. “She wouldn’t let me call you until morning. She didn’t want you to worry.”

“Okay, but I’m worried now. Look, let me call in to work real quick, and I can be at the hospital in about fifteen minutes.”

“No, no. Don’t do that, your mother will kill me. I wasn’t supposed to call you till they’ve finished running tests. Just go to work, and keep your phone on you if you can, okay? I know you’re not supposed to . . .”

“Oh, the hell with that,” I said. “I’ll keep my phone in my pocket, and they can fire me if they don’t like it. You call me the second you hear something, okay?”

I barely remembered the drive to work. My mind was five years in the past, replaying that first phone call from my dad from the emergency room. He’d tried to downplay Mom’s condition and his worry, but that time he hadn’t stopped me from joining him at the hospital. That itself was what made me go to work that day. Mom never wanted me to worry, but Dad had a hard time going through this stuff alone. We’d clocked lots of hours together, side by side in waiting rooms. Once Mom was okay we went back to basically talking through her, but during a crisis he needed me.

So the fact that he didn’t need me today was encouraging. But I still took my phone out of my backpack when I got to work and turned it to vibrate. I was about to slip it into my pocket when instead I unlocked it. Before I had a chance to think about it, I sent a text to Dex. Mom’s in the hospital. I wasn’t sure why I did it; we didn’t usually text during the day. Our time was at night. But I felt like I had to tell someone, and no one else in my immediate circle knew my history with my mom’s health. Not on the level that I’d told Dex about it. So I sent that text and then slipped my phone into my pocket.

Almost immediately it vibrated and I dug it out, expecting it to be Dad with an update. But to my surprise, it was Dex. Oh shit. Is she okay?

I don’t know yet, I responded. Dad’s going to update me as soon as he knows. I’m at work. I winced as I hit Send. When I wrote it out like that, I looked like a real jerk. Why had I gone to work today? I should have been with my parents.

But Dex’s response didn’t judge me. I’m sure he’ll let you know something soon. I’d tell you not to worry, but of course you’re worried. Let me know if you need distraction.


I’ll definitely need distraction. Just no dick pics, okay?


Ha! Not exactly my style.



I blinked at that. Dick pics were a hundred percent Dex’s style. In fact, I was frankly surprised that he had never sent me one. Or any other picture of himself or some other lickable part of his body. Now that we’d adopted text messages as our major form of communication, I had figured it was only a matter of time. After all, this was the guy who’d sent me more than one U up? text the first summer we’d hooked up. Maybe he really had changed.

I put my purse in its drawer, and before I opened the office for the day I ducked in to see the office manager. Lindsay and I had been cheerleaders together at Willow Creek High, and while we hadn’t been besties, she was the one who’d hooked me up with this job when I’d needed one. And sure, in some ways it was weird to have an old high school classmate essentially be my boss. But she was also a friend, and I knew I could count on her on a day like this.

As usual, she was the first one here, so I wasn’t surprised to see her already behind her computer, frowning at something on her screen.

“Hey.” I kept my voice low so she wouldn’t jump out of her chair, and I flashed her a weak smile when she looked up. “Real quick, I need to keep my phone out today.” I took it out of my pocket and waved it in illustration. “My mom’s . . . uh, she’s . . .” To my surprise, I couldn’t say it out loud. I could text that she was in the hospital, but saying the words out loud made it more real.

As it turned out, I didn’t need to say anything. “Oh, God, yes, of course.” Her brow furrowed in concern. “Is she . . . Is she gonna be okay?” There was that good thing about small towns. I didn’t have to explain. Everyone just knew.

She’d already risen to her feet with her Concerned Face on, which just made me revert back to my usual smile. The one that said Nothing’s wrong! Everything’s great! Nothing to see here! “Oh, she’s going to be fine,” I said in the sunniest voice I could manage. “I’m just waiting for Dad to call, and he gets worried if he can’t get hold of me right away, you know?”

Lindsay nodded slowly and sat back down. “Well, don’t worry about it. If Dr. Cochran says anything, I’ll take care of it. And when your dad calls, if you need some privacy, feel free to come in here. I think I’m the only one with a door that shuts.”

And that way she’d be the first to know what was going on. But that was the trade-off, wasn’t it?

I went to unlock the front door, fully expecting to spend the morning on pins and needles while I waited for a call from my dad. I knew it would be a while before I heard from him—hospitals were notoriously slow—but that was a good thing, right? If there was something seriously wrong with Mom, they’d move a lot faster, and Dad would have called by now. It was all well and good that Mom didn’t want me to worry, but we were past that now.