Russel tries to step toward me.
“Nuh uh,” Linden says, blocking him. For someone so big, he moves like a prizefighter.
“I just need your keys,” Russel says to me.
“No,” I say.
“Who’s gonna take care of you?” Russel whines.
Linden takes a step closer to Russel, dwarfing him. “Me, asshole.”
Russel scoffs. “You don’t care about her like I do.”
“That’s debatable. Now are you going to be an obedient little soldier and march out of this room or do you need assistance?”
Russel stares Linden down, then his eyes meet mine. “You’re making a mistake.”
Linden glances at me, and I get the sense that if I asked him to, he’d slug Russel for me right here in the middle of the hospital room.
“Go,” I tell Russel, my throat so dry the word comes out like a croak.
Russel gives Linden one last scathing glance, then hurries through the door.
“Sorry. He must have come in from the stairway,” Linden says, watching me carefully.
“Have you been keeping him out this whole time?” I ask.
Greta steps into the room holding a pizza box piled with napkins and paper plates.
“There was a mix-up of the Canadian bacon and pineapple with a gluten free Margherita so we had to do some swapping. Ipromise I washed my hands.” She glances at me, then her dad, as if sensing the tension between us. “You guys okay?”
Linden arches an eyebrow at me.
I let my gaze linger for a fraction of a second on his face before forcing my eyes away. “We’re good.”
I manage to nibble a little bit of the pizza but the cold cran-raspberry juice from the vending machine is the real winner. When Linden and Greta are cleaning up, I call my supervisor and leave a message. I’m not scheduled to fly again until Wednesday—a five day Seattle-Alaska loop. I have plenty of sick leave, but I hate letting my crew down.
If I was back in Seattle, I would have a room full of my friends and colleagues ready to help me out. In Finn River, I only have Annaleise and my dad.
I text Quinn and Annaleise an update in the group chat Annaleise has renamed “Finn River Snake Charmers.”
MEG:
Doctors think I might be here a few days
QUINN:
How are you feeling?
MEG:
Tired, but I’m okay.
ANNALEISE:
I heard that a hot cowboy firefighter is part of that equation
MEG:
