Beau blew out his breath. If he was lucky, Ari would give him the time of day after he’d let her down so many times.
“Man, sit down for a while,” Zack said in a low voice.
Beau looked up to see Zack standing beside him. He hadn’t even noticed the other man’s approach. Zack held a cup of coffee out to Beau and he took it gratefully. He was weary to his bones and needed any surge the caffeine would provide because he refused to even contemplate sleep until he’d seen for himself that Ari was out of the woods.
“You’re wasted,” Zack said bluntly. “You aren’t doing anyone any good, especially not Ari, by stalking around here making the other people in the waiting room nervous as hell and you’re certainly not helping to diminish Ari’s mother’s worry. You saw Ari. You were with her. Her parents weren’t. So to see you so eaten alive like this only makes them think the worst.”
Guilt surged over Beau and he glanced momentarily over to where Ari’s parents sat. Ginger had her head laid on her husband’s shoulder, his arm firmly wrapped around her. Her eyes were red and swollen from the tears she’d shed and worry was bright in both her and her husband’s eyes.
Conceding that he wasn’t helping matters any, Beau took a seat and leaned back, fatigue washing through his veins, nearly overwhelming him in the process. He sipped at the strong coffee and grimaced his distaste.
“I didn’t say it was good coffee,” Zack said in amusement. “But it should definitely give you a zap of caffeine. I think it qualifies as sludge more than actual coffee.”
Beau peered down into the cup and frowned his agreement. Then he sighed and forced another sip down his throat.
The minutes ticked by with excruciating slowness, each one seemingly an hour. Beau watched the hand tick around the wall clock, counting each second. Silence had fallen over the small room, and no one seemed to want to change that.
There were half a dozen other people occupying the waiting room, but they’d all relocated to the far wall when Beau and the others had burst in. He couldn’t say he blamed them. Beau was covered in Ari’s blood, Gavin had dried blood in more than one place from his altercation with the two men he’d killed and the rest just looked pissed off.
Beau leaned back, cocking his head toward the ceiling, forcing his gaze from the clock and his frustration with how slowly time was passing. His eyes had just began to close when he heard the door to the waiting room open.
Bracing himself for disappointment—again—he surged to his feet, only this time the woman wearing scrubs called out Ari’s name. He strode across the room, but Gavin and Ginger were closer and they eagerly approached the nurse.
The nurse frowned when she saw many people gathered at the mention of Ari’s name.
“I’m sorry, but only immediate family is allowed back.”
Beau stood there, stunned. They weren’t going to let him back? What the fuck?
His fingers curled into tight fists at his sides, his desire to hit something—anything—a violent need boiling inside him. He was a simmering cauldron of fury, his impatience reaching its breaking point.
Before he could open his mouth to blast the nurse and dare her to keep him away from Ari, Gavin motioned to Beau with his hand, shocking him with his next words.
“Come on, son.”
Ginger smiled up at the nurse. “He’s her husband—our son-in-law.”
Beau wanted to drop to the floor and kiss his “mother-in-law’s” feet and he would have if he thought he could get back up. Embarrassing tears welled in his eyes at their unconditional acceptance of him. Was this what it was like to have parents who loved you? That behaved like real parents, or like they should?
He couldn’t even choke out his thanks as he walked through the open door behind them because he wouldn’t have been able to get the words past the knot in his throat. To his further surprise, Ginger curled her arm around his, walking beside him as the nurse led them down the hall to one of the rooms.
She gave him a little squeeze, almost as if she knew the weight of his emotions and the impact her words had on him. God, he wanted nothing more than to hug her.
The nurse hesitated at the door and Beau’s stomach tightened.
“She’s groggy from the pain medicine,” the nurse said. “But she’s comfortable for now. The doctor will be by in a few minutes to fully update you on her condition, but I knew you’d want to see her as soon as possible.”
“Damn right,” Beau said gruffly.
The nurse smiled. “Go in then. If she gets restless or agitated, push the nurse call button. Until a surgeon is consulted and a decision is made as to whether she requires surgery she needs to remain as still as possible because we haven’t set her leg yet.”