Page 75 of Second Rodeo
My stomach drops. “What’s wrong?”
Tears slip down her cheeks. “Hayes… there was an accident.” Her voice wobbles, breaking on the words. “Right out on the road. Regan—she was hit.” A sharp inhale. “Someone from the wedding was leaving. She’s at the hospital.”
The floor vanishes beneath me and everything stops.
Chapter 32: Hayes
“Let me see her,” I growl, storming into the hospital,myhospital, knocking over chairs and tables in my blind desperation to get to my wife.
The ER’s security guard—Frank, who I’ve gotten to know over the past few months and who I’ve shared countless late-night coffees with—steps in front of me, hands raised like that’s going to fucking stop me from getting to her.
“Doctor Walker, you can’t be in here like this.” His voice is firm, but his eyes betray him, there’s real concern there, buried beneath the authority. He’s never seen me like this before, hell I guess none of these people have. I’m good at hiding this side of me. The version of me that shows up when I feel out of control.
Scarlett catches up, her grip locking tightly around my bicep. “I’ve got him,” she says quickly to Frank. “Just give me a second. I can calm him down.”
I shake her off without effort. Because no, there is no calming me down right now. I sent Regan away.She left because I told her to.And because of me, because I pushed her, she got into that car accident. And now I need fucking answers, and I need them now.Even if it costs me my job. Even if it means losing my medical license.
“Where is she?” I bellow, the anguish clawing its way out of my chest. I’ve never felt so out of control. Even after finding out about Samuel’s death on the circuit and the bull he’d been riding, the ache of losing him felt nothing like this. The guilt, the regret, it’s all crashing down on me. Around me. If I felt like I was drowning before, this feels like death.
Scarlett shoves me down into a seat in the waiting area, steering me away from the gaping patients who don’t deserve to witness my breakdown. And then the front doors burst open again but this time it’s Regan’s family. Cash, Rae, Lydia, Lawson, Molly, Colt, and Troy—all still dressed in their wedding clothes, like they were just on the dance floor, mid-laugh, mid-toast, mid-living,when they got the news about their sister.
“You’re fuckingdead.” Colt’s voice is a razor against my already shredded nerves, and before I can blink, he’s in front of me, his fist colliding easily with my jaw. A clean, brutal punch I didn’t see coming.
My head snaps to the side, pain detonating in my cheek, but I don’t react. Blood drips from my split lip down onto the pristine hospital floor and the plastic chair that I’m seated in. I wipe it with the back of my already cut hand, then look up at him, my vision edged with black as Scarlett screams.
“More,” I taunt him.
Because if she dies, I die too. It’d be a happier ending than living without her knowing I’m the reason she’s here.
“You did this to her,” he snarls, shaking with rage. “Molly told me that you told her to leave when she was upset. I’m not giving you the decency of another punch just so you can black out.”
Troy’s the one who steps in, lowering Colt’s arm as Cash and Molly drag him back, but the look in his eyes says if he weren’t the governor, he’d take a swing at me too.
Frank comes running up to us, half out of breath, his, voice like a thunderclap. “If y’all don’t calm the fuck down, I’m throwing all of you out of here right now.” His glare lands on me. “Doctor Walker,show some class for your positionand Marshall family, you practically run this town, start setting a better example for the people watching you.”
I barely hear him. My breath shudders out of me. “Where’s my wife?”
“She’s not your wife!” Colt snaps over his shoulder as Cash hauls him toward the exit and out the front door.
And then I’m falling.
My knees hit the floor, and the room tilts, a dizzying mess of fluorescent lights and sterile white walls. Maybe it’s the alcohol. Maybe it’s the fear. Maybe it’s the punch I just took to the side of the head.
Or maybe it’s the sickening realization that I pushed away the only woman who ever saw me as more than the rodeo king turned doctor and didn’t hate what she saw. Who saw how broken I was and the way that I push people away, only to stay steadfast next to me. Now she might slip through my fingers before I ever get the chance to make it right. Before I have the opportunity to thank her and tell her that I see her too.
Why didn’t I tell her sooner?
Why did I let my father’s cruel and unfair words get to me?
Why did I wasteso much time pretending like I didn’t want her?
Regan didn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve any of this.
The doors to the back wing swing open, and my head snaps up. A doctor steps through—Doctor Singh, the newest hire at Whitewood Creek Community Hospital and my peer. Her gaze lands on me, and it’s not pity I see there. It’s disapproval.
Fuck, I deserve that too.
She’s been my coworker for months now. Technically, I’m her superior when it comes to what she’s dealing with tonight with my background in ICU residency. But right now, none of that matters. Right now, I’m just a desperate man—sweaty, drunk, bleeding on the emergency room floor.
