Rebound (Seattle Steelheads #1)(54)

“Hey, look on the bright side.”

I opened one eye.

She shrugged. “You landed about three inches away from a metal cart with a nasty sharp edge.” She gestured at my head. “That could’ve been a lot worse.”

I shuddered and closed my eye again. “You are one big ray of fucking sunshine, aren’t you?”

“Am I wrong?”

With a long-suffering sigh, I—well, I almost rolled my eyes. I thought better of it at the last second. “I plead the Fifth.”

“Of course you do.” She laughed, but there was a note of relief in her voice that calmed my nerves too. Laura wasn’t someone who panicked easily. That was part of what made her such an awesome cop—she was rock steady and virtually unflappable. The only time I’d ever seen her waver had been after one of our fellow cops had been shot, and we’d all spent half the night pacing in the waiting room until someone finally told us he’d be okay. It was unnerving for her to have that same response tonight because it made me wonder how bad this was. Or how bad it could have been.

“This really shook you up, didn’t it?”

“Are you kidding?” she asked quietly. “I keep replaying it over and over in my head.”

I opened my eyes, wincing against the fluorescents, and met her gaze. “Which part?”

“Watching you fall.” She chafed her arms and shuddered. “I thought you were going to break your neck or…”

“Lucky me. Just my head.”

She shot me a pointed look.

I adjusted the icepack on my face, closing my eyes when the room spun. “Am I really as bad as my ex says? About downplaying when I get hurt?”

Laura gave a dry laugh. “I don’t know, Geoff. Do you remember who it was who had to be on desk detail for two months because he didn’t go to the doctor and had to have his ankle operated on again?”

“Okay, fine. Point taken.”

“Mmhmm. And you better not do that shit again. I had to drive around with Rochester for that entire time.”

“Hey, I was the one in a boot after getting bones rearranged.”

“Still not as painful as riding around with him.”

“Oh come on.” I lowered the ice pack and looked at her. “He’s not that bad.”

She shot me a glare. “I swear to God, Geoff—I heard the Epic of Rochester’s appendicitis scare that just turned out to be serious constipation enough times, I can recite it word for word. Including the treatment and the aftermath.” She wagged a finger at me. “Do not test me.”

I groaned, closing my eyes again. “Do it, and I’ll puke in your lap.”

“You would, too.”

“Absolutely.”

We hung out in the room for God knew how long. Laura was doing something on her phone, and she’d apparently texted our captain, union rep, and God knew who else so they knew what was going on. I’d had to put my phone on silent because they were all starting to text and call me, and my head hurt too much to deal with anything.

After a while, there was a knock at the door. “Officer Logan?” A nurse leaned in. “You have some visitors. Okay if I send them in?”

“Visitors?” I sat up a little, wincing with the movement. “Who?”

She turned, saying something to someone outside the room. Facing me again, she said, “Your kids.”

“My—” I sat up all the way. “Really?”

She stood aside, and both my kids hurried in, eyes wide.

“Are you okay?” Claire asked.

“What happened?” David said.

“Just a little mishap at work.” I gingerly hugged Claire, then David. “It’s nothing serious.”

Val and Laura exchanged glances and both rolled their eyes. At least they had the good grace not to say anything.

“So what happened?” Claire asked.

Without going into detail about who had called and why, I explained that Laura and I had been removing someone from the stadium because he was harassing a player, and I managed to get knocked around in the process.

“Seriously, it’s not that bad,” I said. “They just want to do a scan to make sure I didn’t ring my bell too hard, and then they’ll probably glue the cut together.”

“No stitches?” Val asked.

“Nah. Sounds like glue will do it.” I turned to the kids. “Listen, I’m going to be here a while.” I took out my wallet and handed them a couple of bills. “Ask the nurses at the desk, and they’ll tell you where the vending machines are.”

They eyed the cash uncertainly.

“Go,” I insisted. “We’re going to be here a while, so you might as well have something to munch on.”

They still hesitated, glancing at their mom as if they needed her reassurance. Then Claire shrugged, took the cash, and left with her brother on her heels.

Val smiled as she watched them go, and it didn’t fade when she turned to me. “I know this is unexpected, but they were worried when I picked them up.” She shot me a pointed look. “You know, since they know their father.”

“Hey. Hey.”

“I’m just saying. They know if you’re in the hospital, it’s serious, so I figured it would be best for them to see for themselves that you’re okay.”