His Every Word (7 page)

Kallie chuckled with him, although her heart wasn’t in it. “Thank you so much,”

she said, as Dr. Forrest quickly scrawled a series of numbers on a piece of paper and then handed it to her.

“Not at all,” Dr. Forrest said, putting a hand on her shoulder and escorting her to the door. “You can call me any time, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

And then the meeting was over and she was outside his office, staring down at the barely legible numbers he’d written down for her.

“How’d it go?” Detective Phillips asked.

She glanced up at him. “Huh? Fine.” She was distracted, uneasy, unsettled.

They started for the elevators and she realized she didn’t even know where she was going next.

“Everything okay?” Phillips asked, his eyes searching for clues in her expression.

“You’re supposed to be my security, not my therapist,” she snapped “So could you shut up and leave me alone for a second?” And then, sighing, she apologized for her outburst.

Phillips appeared unfazed. “It’s not a problem. You’re under a great deal of stress. Maybe we should get you some fresh air.”

Kallie nodded, grateful for someone else to take charge, if only for a moment.

She followed him to the elevators and then they exited the hospital, where she stood and watched passersby and tried to make sense of everything she’d heard.

Hunter wasn’t out of the woods yet, she realized. The doctor had told her as much, and as hard as it was to accept, she needed to deal with it. At the same time, there was something about Dr. Forrest himself that made her uneasy. He was nice enough, but he just didn’t give her any confidence. She felt worse now than she had before meeting with him.

Phillips suddenly took out a cigarette and lit it, inhaling and blowing out a plume of smoke. His eyes were squinting as he inhaled again. “Tough meeting with the doctor?” he said.

Kallie glared at him. “I didn’t know you smoked.”

“Quit for nine years. Yesterday would have been nine years and two months.”

He grinned and blew out another plume.

“You just started smoking again?” she asked, incredulous.

“Still have my old pack, the one I kept in my nightstand since I quit, for “just in case.” As it turns out, that old pack came in handy after all.”

“Throw it away. Don’t start back up again now.”

“I was miserable without my cigarettes. Now I feel like myself again.” He held the cigarette comfortably between his thumb and forefinger. “Anyway, enough about my bad habits. Tell me what that doctor said that got you so upset.”

She folded her arms and wrinkled her nose as the scent of acrid smoke reached her nostrils. “The surgeon said that Hunter’s not out of the woods yet.”

“Is that all? They have to say that sort of thing—it’s like part of their rulebook.

Otherwise, they can get in trouble if things take a wrong turn.”

“He said most complications take place in the first forty-eight hours post surgery.”

“More standard medical speak and ass covering,” Phillips replied without missing a beat.

“How do you know?”

“I work in law enforcement and I deal with MDs all the time. They all say that stuff and it’s always about avoiding malpractice lawsuits. I wouldn’t let it scare you, Kallie.”

For the first time since she’d seen him in Hunter’s room, Kallie was actually glad to have the detective with her. He was less threatening now, and seemed to be just a regular guy who had a difficult job. Besides, he clearly felt terrible about what had happened—it had driven him to take up smoking again.

“Thanks for saying that,” she told him.

“Not a problem.” He smiled, flicked his cigarette butt to the sidewalk and stepped on it.

“I want to go back inside and be with Hunter,” she said.

“Of course.”

So they went together.

When they got to Hunter’s room, he was still sleeping. Kallie took a seat next to his bed and the detective went and sat right by the door, pulling a curtain beside the bed to give her more privacy.

Kallie checked her phone. She’d turned it off earlier and now, upon turning it on again, saw that she had more than a dozen new messages.

It would be friends and family and God only knew who else, telling her how sorry they were but probably secretly glad that they’d gotten voicemail. That way, they wouldn’t actually have to have a conversation with her.

Kallie put her phone away and determined to check messages later—for now, she just wanted to sit with Hunter and be quiet and watch his chest slowly rise and fall.

Simply knowing that he was alive and stable and that time was passing was enough. Precious time would go by and as each minute ticked away, the chances of him recovering and staying healthy grew stronger. She would sit here every minute that she needed to, every second of every hour, to make sure he was safe and taken care of.

When her phone began ringing again, she tried to ignore it. But it continued ringing, so she finally picked it up and saw her mother’s cell number.

She didn’t want to answer, but couldn’t justify ignoring her mother when she was supposedly flying into LA that day.

“Hey Mom,” she sighed into her phone.

“Where have you been? We kept calling and calling—“

“Sorry Mom, I’ve been at the hospital with Hunter all morning and I haven’t been keeping track of time.”

“I was getting worried. Please, Kallie, you need to stay in touch with us.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

There was a long silence as her mother digested Kallie’s apology. “Anyway,” she said, her voice betraying tiredness as well as some frustration, “we’re here in LA and we want to see you. Can we meet you at your hotel for dinner?”

“I don’t know if today’s good to meet. I want to be with Hunter right now.”

“We’re not asking for a full day together, Kallie. Just an hour or two. I want to see you. Your father wants to see you.”

“I know. It’s just that right now is a very fragile time for Hunter. He’s not even forty-eight hours out of surgery and he needs someone here with him.”

“You should go,” Hunter spoke suddenly.

Kallie nearly jumped out of her chair. “Hold on a second, Mom.” She put her cell to her lap and looked at him. “You’re awake?”

He turned his head sideways and looked at her. “I was sleeping like a baby until your phone woke me up.” His tiny grin showed her that he was mostly joking.

“I’m sorry about that. I’ll turn it off.”

“You need to go and see your parents,” he said.

“My parents will be fine. You’re the one I’m worried about.”

“I’m fine, too.”

“I want to be here.”

He smiled. “You can come back later.”

“Please, I can’t leave you just yet.”

Hunter reached out and grabbed her hand. His thumb drew tiny circles on her palm, giving her chills up and down her spine. “You go and see your folks and do whatever else you need to do at the hotel. Come back when you can. I’m not going anywhere.”

Kallie knew Hunter was right. She couldn’t blow off her parents when they’d come all the way out to see her and make sure she was all right. They wanted to support her and be there for her. Of course, they’d also sent Sean to try and bring her back to Ohio, but that was something else entirely.

Kallie picked her cell up again and told her mother that she’d meet her for lunch back at the hotel.

When she got off the phone, Hunter was watching her and grinning.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“Everything,” he said. “I’m on more drugs than Keith Richards at a bachelor party.”

His joke reassured her. Really sick people—people about to get even sicker—

didn’t make silly jokes like that. Hunter was getting better, and the doctor’s comments about him not being out of the woods were just precautionary statements, like Detective Phillips had said.

Heartened by what she was seeing from Hunter, Kallie decided that she could handle being away from him for a few hours. She collected her things and gave him a kiss on his stubble-covered cheek. “I’ll be back soon,” she whispered in his ear.

“Five minutes or five hours, it’s all the same to me,” he said, his eyes drooping already. “I’ll just be sleeping and dreaming of you anyway.”

***

When Kallie met with her parents for lunch at the hotel, the last thing she expected was to see her brother’s fiancé, Lydia. But there she was along with Sean and Kallie’s parents, waiting in the hotel lobby.

Immediately, Kallie was surrounded, and then they were hugging and kissing her and telling her how much they loved her. There were lots of tears, and Kallie thought that she’d never seen her father so vulnerable before. He was practically blubbering as he hugged her to his chest and kissed the top of her head. “My little girl,” he said. “What would I have done without you?”

“I’m fine, guys,” she said, trying to break away and get some space.

Lydia took her hands and looked her in the eye. “You are so famous now!” she cried, happily. “You’re like Princess Dianna and Julia Roberts rolled into one. Everyone on the news out here is talking about what happened to you! It’s so dramatic.”

“That’s me—Princess Di,” Kallie said, pretending to smile. After all, who wouldn’t want to be compared to a dead princess?

“Chill, babe,” Sean said, putting his arm around Lydia and trying to back her off.

“Don’t tell me to chill,” Lydia said. “Kallie’s my friend. I wanted to—“

“Just give her some room to breathe.”

As people settled down, eyes began turning to Detective Phillips, who stood passively a few feet away, watching the lobby intently.

“Um….who’s that guy you came in with?” Lydia asked.

Kallie sighed. “He’s a friend of Hunter’s.”

“Does he always stand like a statue and ignore other people?”

“Come on, babe—he’s obviously a bodyguard,” Sean said, with barely suppressed frustration.

“Well, how should I know?”

Kallie’s mother grew anxious, looking at Kallie with frightened eyes. “Why do you need a bodyguard? Are you still in danger?”

“No, I’m not in danger.”

Her dad looked puzzled. “Then why is that guy with you?”

“It’s just a precautionary measure, guys. Everything’s fine. Can we go eat now?”

They went inside the hotel restaurant and were immediately seated in the rear, at a private table away from the rest of the patrons. Their waitress had clearly recognized Kallie, and she was blushing and fumbling as she took their drink orders.

“See what I was telling you?” Lydia said, elbowing Kallie lightly in the ribs.

Kallie smiled, as patiently as she could and tried to keep the sarcasm from her voice. “So good to see you, Lydia.”

“I wouldn’t dream of staying back in New York. After all, Sean was involved too.”

Sean had ordered a beer and seemed eager to guzzle it quickly down when it arrived at the table.

Kallie glanced at him, hoping he would flash one of his usual grins, but his face was drawn and humorless.

“You okay, Seany?”

“Never been better,” he replied, and belched unapologetically.

“Sean won’t say much about what happened,” Lydia sighed. “All I know is what I’ve read or seen on TV about it.”

“Well, it was a very frightening time,” Kallie said. “He probably doesn’t want to think too much about it just now.”

Lydia nodded, her large hoop earrings jangling. “Sure, I get it. Plus, Sean wasn’t a big hero like your guy.”

Sean made a face and laughed under his breath.

Kallie felt a wave of embarrassment on her brother’s behalf. Lydia just wasn’t a bright person, and she wasn’t particularly kind either—though she meant well enough.

“Sean was actually very brave, and I couldn’t have gotten through it without him,” Kallie told her.

Sean was surprised. “You mean that?”

She nodded. “Of course I do, Sean. I love you. You’re my big brother.”

“Awwww,” Lydia said. “That is so fucking sweet.”

Sean rolled his eyes and had another swig from his glass.

“Maybe your friend would like to join us for the meal,” Kallie’s father said, pointing to Detective Phillips, who was now standing guard at the door of the restaurant.

“I doubt it.”

“You should ask him if he’s hungry,” her mother agreed.

Kallie thought about it. She hadn’t seen the detective eat so much as a cracker since he’d begun shadowing her earlier in the morning. He must be hungry.

She didn’t really want him to eat with her family, but then again, it couldn’t go any worse than it was already going.

Kallie got up from her seat and went to where Detective Phillips had stationed himself. “Hey,” she said.

He turned his head and glanced at her stiffly. “Hey. Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Just wondering if you wanted to come eat with us.”

He shook his head. “I should stay here, keep an eye out.”

“It’s okay. You must be starving.” He didn’t answer. Just from his hesitation, she knew it was true. “Come on, sit down and eat with us. You can still guard me. In fact, if you sit between me and my brother’s fiancé, you’ll be protecting me from severe emotional distress.”

That brought a smile to Phillips’s face. “I guess I can do that.”

They walked back to the table and Kallie asked the waitress to add a table setting next to her, making sure he sat between her and Lydia.

Lydia began to pout, but Kallie just ignored her.

Once everyone was settled and entrees had been ordered, Kallie’s mother began inquiring about Hunter.

“How is he?” she asked, her voice cautious and concerned.

Kallie thought about it. “He’s doing well,” she said. “But it’s still early.”

Her parent’s exchanged looks. “Nobody knows why that man attacked you,” her father said. “The police haven’t discussed his motives.”

The waitress came to the table and began setting down plates of food. Kallie had ordered a turkey club sandwich. She stared at it as she decided how to answer the question. Everyone at the table was waiting for her reply.

“It’s complicated,” she said. “It’s a long story.”

“Give us the short version, then,” her father pressed.

“The man who attacked us was pure evil. His name was Terrence Craven, and he was a really bad person. He was a bully and Hunter refused to be bullied. I suppose that enraged Terrence to the point where he tried to kill him.”