“I can fill this out. If you could hurry and find out where he is, I would appreciate it.” She smiles easily at the lady and I’m confounded by her calmness.
Em grabs onto my arm and digs her nails in deep. “My goal is to see Jaxon as soon as possible. I think we share a common goal here. I’m also pretty sure your mama taught you that you can catch more flies with honey. Quit being a bastard. If you piss her off and make me have to wait out here one second longer than I have to, so help me God, I will rip you limb from limb,” she growls in a low voice to me and stomps off to fill out my brother’s medical forms.
With nowhere else to go, I begin pacing the tile in front of the door that leads to the patients. If someone would just open this damn door, I could breathe a little easier. I pull out my phone and cringe at all of the missed calls from Cole. I can’t believe I didn’t have this on me. I tried calling him about fifteen times on my way over here, but he never answered.
My brother is somewhere back there hurt or even worse...fuck, I can’t think like that. He’s back there and this fucking metal door is keeping me from seeing if he’s okay. Small hands graze across my lower back and I flinch away from the touch. I’m strung too tight and I can’t handle soft words or pitying looks at the moment. Audrey calls out my name as I walk away in the opposite direction. Away from her. Shit, I can’t think straight.#p#分页标题#e#
I lean my forehead against the wall and think about what I can do. Suddenly, the door opens and a nurse comes out. Evidently she’s not new at this because she quickly shuts the door behind her. She glances around the room and does a double take when her eyes land on me. I can see the shock on her face and immediately know that she has to be Jaxon’s nurse.
“Are you Jaxon Riley’s brother?” she asks.
“Twin,” I hastily spit out. The others quickly come over to join me.
“I can take you back there, but I can’t let you see him yet. There’s an additional waiting room for family members. That’s as close as I can get you. You can wait there for a doctor to give you more information,” she instructs. “Wow, you guys are a big group. I’m technically only allowed to let four of you in.”
“I’ll hang back here,” Lane volunteers. Well, it sure as hell wasn’t going to be me.
“Nice to hear you’re claiming the twin-thing again, Jace. Not such a drag anymore, is it?” Em bites out at me as she pushes past to follow the nurse. Ouch. I’d take everything I said back if I could.
Quickly, we all file in behind her and my eyes dart to each door along the way, seeing if I can catch a glimpse of my brother. We round a second corner at the end of the hall, where I see Cole sitting on the ground with his back against the wall and his face in his hands. My stomach plummets as I pick up my pace toward him.
From behind, I hear Quinn gasp, “Cole.” Even though it was only a whisper, he was still able to hear her voice and his head shoots up to look at us. I hate how fucking stressed he looks and how red his eyes are. What does that mean? How bad is this going to be?
“Wait right here in this room,” the nurse says, pointing to the room next to Cole. “Ah, now there are five of you. I’ll try to let you all stay, but they may send one of you out front.”
“Your mom’s on a flight already,” Cole’s ragged voice announces when we all enter the tiny prison they call a waiting room.
“That was fast,” I say.
“No it wasn’t. I feel like I’ve been here for ten fucking years already,” he mutters, while frantically running his hands through his hair.
Quinn finally reaches him and wraps her arms around his body, burying her face into his side. He grabs on to her tightly and hides his face in her hair. We all watch as he sucks in a deep breath. Em takes a seat, bouncing her legs uncontrollably while looking at the two of them. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Audrey standing against the wall by the door. And I’m lost in the middle.
“Tell us,” Em begs Cole.
“We were running a play. It was the last one before Coach was planning to dismiss us. At the snap, Jax shot down the side and cut to the middle just like he was supposed to. Fisher tossed a perfect spiral and it practically dropped out of thin air into Jaxon’s arms. It was flawless. The only thing wrong was that the defenders were expecting it this time so they ran in front of him. Jax got blocked in, so he ran and tried to leap over them into the end zone. Mid-air someone clipped his legs and he spun at an odd angle headfirst into the ground.” Cole grabs the bridge of his nose and shakes his head back and forth.