Garrett(75)

“Garrett? Are you there?” Stevie asks.

Shaking my head, I give a little cough to clear the emotion out of my throat. My voice is still raspy when I respond, “Yeah…sorry. I’m here. What happened?”

“Um…her red blood cell count is dangerously low. She’s been feeling really tired since her treatments, and by this afternoon she couldn’t even get out of bed…was having some difficulty breathing and some chest pain. She called me, and I brought her to the emergency room. We’ve been here a few hours.”

“Jesus Christ,” I curse helplessly. I hate this feeling of weakness and lack of control. “Why did this happen?”

“Apparently, the chemo battles cancer by stopping the cells from dividing. Unfortunately, it can also stop her blood cells from doing the same. It’s not uncommon…at least that’s what Dr. Yoffman said. They gave her a red-blood-cell transfusion and they’ll monitor her levels. Dr. Yoffman wants to keep her overnight, but he said she should be fine with this transfusion and feels confident she can go home in the morning.”

I scrub my hand through my hair, my mind spinning. The team’s plane doesn’t leave until tomorrow morning, and we’ll be back home early afternoon. I’m wondering if I can get a flight out of here tonight, and I know my next call will be to the airline.

Then a thought strikes me and I become suspicious. “You’re not sugarcoating this for me, are you?”

Stevie snorts in offense, but his voice is patient. “I swear I’m not. She’s going to be fine.”

“Can I talk to her?” I blurt out, needing to hear her own voice before I believe it.

“She’s sleeping right now. I had her phone and saw you called…knew you’d be worried.”

“Okay…I’m going to try to get a flight out tonight because the team flight doesn’t get in until tomorrow afternoon. With some luck, I can be there tomorrow morning before they release her.”

Stevie’s silent for a moment, and then I hear misgiving in his voice. “Yeah…um, listen…she didn’t want you to know. She asked me not to call you when they admitted her and she won’t be happy about me calling you now, or about you rushing back.”

“What the fuck?” I yell into the phone, anger sizzling white hot through me. “She didn’t want me to know?”

“She didn’t want you to worry,” Stevie placates. “She didn’t want to distract you from the game.”

“Fuck that,” I growl. “If something like this ever happens again, you better be the first to call me, and I don’t care if I’m getting ready to board a plane or skate out onto the ice. I should be told this shit, and if you hide it from me again, I’ll take it personally and whip your ass.”

“Whatever,” Stevie sneers. “You’re not my mamma, and I don’t answer to you.”

“Yeah? Well, fuck you, asshole,” I yell into the phone as my gaze flicks over to Alex, who is staring at me in concern. His eyebrows raise sky high.

I wait for Stevie to come back at me, but all he says in a very soft voice is, “Are you done? Feel better now?”

“No,” I grumble into the phone. “I don’t feel better and I’m sorry…that was uncalled for. I’m just a little wigged out.”

“I get it,” he says and then tries to talk me down further. “Look…she’s fine right now, just resting. Take the team flight home and she’ll be back at her apartment by the time you land. It’s all good.”

“All right,” I breathe out in a gust of frustration. “I’ll see you tomorrow, but if she wakes up and feels like calling me…have her do it. I don’t care what time. I just…”

My words trail off, floating out to the universe of uncertainty.

“You just need to hear her voice,” Stevie guesses.

“Yeah…that would help.”

“Got it, girlfriend,” Stevie coos at me, and I disconnect, shoving my phone back in my pocket.

“What the hell is going on?” Alex asks.

“Olivia is in the hospital. Her red blood cell count is low and they gave her some type of transfusion or something.”

Alex immediately grabs his phone out of his locker and unlocks it. “Shit…Sutton left me a text before we even went out on the ice. I’m sorry, man…I didn’t check.”

He holds the phone up and I read Sutton’s text. At least she wasn’t banning me from knowing that my girlfriend was in the hospital. Call me ASAP. Olivia is in hospital. On way there now. Trying to get word to Garrett.