“Yes, he is. However, he’s not going through it alone. A family around a person who is ill or has had surgery will make them feel better quicker. He’ll depend on you all a great deal, but the trick is for him to be able to take care of himself too.” He asked her if she was going to go out with him. “I’ve been thinking about it since he asked me. Do you have any objections to him going out to dinner with a surgical nurse? Well, I’m actually an anesthesiologist.”

  “So long as he’s happy, I could care less if you had fifty kids and twenty-five ex-husbands.” She laughed with him. “No, really, I don’t care whom he dates. We’re all good men, and I do not doubt that he’ll treat you like a princess.”

  “Thank you, Jenson. I might go if he remembers that he asked me. Sometimes it’s the juice they get before surgery that makes them less inhibited about asking people out. We’ll just have to wait and see what he wants.” Jenson had a feeling that Clay would remember and want to date this woman frequently. He liked her and could see why Clay had asked her out.

  As he sat with Clay, he told him everything that he could remember about his surgery. He even told him that Jade was going to be upset with him if he didn’t do as he was told. Then Jenson laughed.

  “I’m sure that mom and dad will be on your ass too about doing what you’re told. I’ve never seen them so stressed out before. But it’s all good news like we were hoping for, and we couldn’t ask for a better surgeon.” He then told him about the pretty surgical assistant. “Lizzy was just in here. She told me that you asked her out. She’ll go out with you if you remember to ask her again. I’ll try to drop some hints to you when you wake up. I like her if that makes a difference. Not that it should, but I do.”

  Jenson watched as the nurses came in and out of the room. He was hooked up to a blood pressure monitor he watched diligently every time it turned on and read his pressure. It never seemed to rise very high, for which he was glad. After the nurses left the two of them again, he spoke to Clay.

  “Thanksgiving is tomorrow. We completely forgot about it. Mom said that when you got home, she’d make sure she had everything ready for us all to have a meal together. Then after that, Christmas. After that, I’m going to be married. Can you believe that? I can’t. I’m excited and nervous at the same time.”

  He thought about all the plans that were taking place to get himself married to his fast-becoming best friend and the love of his life. Telling Clay about the venue building, he was glad that they’d paid for the other repairs going on. To make it seem less like it was repayable favor.

  “I’m not unhappy about the big wedding. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone that doesn’t have a great deal of money. The food alone is costing more than I paid for my first year of law school. Mom is so excited to have this going on that I find that I can’t tell her no to things that I don’t care about. I also think that Jade is having fun planning it.” He thought about the gifts that he was going to give his brothers for standing up with him. “No pressure here, but unless you want to be standing up there with a stranger, I’d suggest to Jade that you can find your date.” His dad came into the room with him, dressed like he was, and sat down. “I was just telling him about the wedding.”

  “I can’t take any more of the information that the doctor is giving us. I know he was telling us good news all the way around, but it’s about my son, and it was just too much for me. You too?” Jenson told his dad that was why he’d come here. “It’s a good place to be. Have you told him anything about the surgery?”

  “Not really. I’ve been rambling about different things. Mostly nothing that matters at all.” Dad nodded. “Before I forget to tell you something, the other day, I heard mom talking about a cruise. When was the last time you took one with her? I think it’s been too long, even if it was only a month ago.”

  “I was thinking that same thing just this morning when we were driving in here. That was where we were headed when Trevor called us. To make plans.” Jenson told him about the honeymoon that he was planning with Jade. “Oh, she’ll love that, Jenson. A tour of Europe? I’ve not been there in ages. I’m not going with the two of you, but I am going to think about planning a trip with your mother soon.”

  The two of them talked to each other and Clay. When the nurse came in to take his vitals again, she told them he’d be going to his room soon. That they were lowering his medication so that he’d wake up. He asked if he’d be in any pain when he did.

  “No. He’ll still have a lot of leftover medications in his system. Getting him to wake up will help us determine if there were any short or long-term issues with him being operated on. Also, with the medication he was given to put him under.” Dad asked if they thought that would happen. “I can’t tell you for sure, Mr. Strong. But as the doctor pointed out to you, he’s young and healthy. You have to believe that he’s going to be just fine.”

  “We will.” When she left them, Dad looked over at him. “It’s difficult to watch your child be in pain. Even more so when you can’t do anything about it. He’ll be fine, I’m sure of it, but no parent wants to see their child hurting like this.”

  “I don’t want it either.” About twenty minutes later, Clay turned to look at him. He couldn’t talk yet, his face was tightly bandaged, but he put out his hand to dad, and he took it. Watching dad cry while he told Clay that he was going to be fine hurt his heart too. Seeing his big strong dad crying hurt him deep within his heart.

  The surgeon came in to remove some of the bandages just after he and dad had gotten some lunch delivered. Mostly the bandages that were the ones that were wrapped around his head. When he cut them away, Clay could move his mouth. But he was cautioned about doing too much. It would make him sore.

  Clay would doze in and out while talking to them. Clay would ask the same questions over and over—did they find any cancer? Was he going to be all right? Things that they didn’t have an answer for yet, but Clay didn’t seem to mind. Then he asked about Lizzy. After explaining to dad who she was, he told his brother what she’d said.

  “Why would I care?” Clay dozed off with the promise from him to be awakened if she came by. They were moving him down to his room when he saw Lizzy standing by the nurse’s station talking. Clay woke up and saw her. Smiling at her, he reached for her hand. “There is my pretty date.”

  She laughed and asked him how medicated he was. Clay took her hand into his and didn’t let it go when he fell asleep again. Every time she tried to take it back, he’d wake and take her hand into his.

  “We’ll have dinner.” She asked him if he was hungry. “Not really, but I will be. I’m betting if you kiss me right now, I’ll be so much better.”

  “I can’t do that, sir. I’m on duty until midnight. However, I will come by your room to see you after I’m done. I’m not saying you’ll be getting a kiss, but I will go by to see how you’re doing.” He thanked her. When he was in his room again, Jenson thought that the pain was making itself known to him. As soon as he was moved over to his bed, Clay asked for pain medication. That alone told him that he was hurting badly.

  Lizzy did come by to see Clay, but he was still in and out of it. He didn’t wake up to talk to her, but she asked him to make sure that Clay knew that she’d kissed him when he did wake. Dad thought it was funny that Clay was doing better with women knocked out than his other brothers were doing fully awake.

  “What are you talking about, dad? Clay has always had an easy time getting dates. I swear to you, he’s been practicing his moves since Charlene Bauer kissed him in preschool when he was five.” The two of them laughed. “You should go on home, dad. I’ve got this. He’s going to be released sometime tomorrow, and I know that you and mom are going to be dealing with him, and you’ll need all the rest you can get. Trevor is coming in later to stay with him all night too.”

  “I’m so proud of my boys.” Emotional, Jenson told his dad that they had good role models. “I never thought that there was anything wrong with Clay. I have to admit that I was ready to knock him around a bit when he made your mother cry the other day. But he came back into the house and hugged her. To know that he was dealing with this makes me feel like a fool for not making sure he was all right.”

  “I don’t think that anyone of us knew what to look for. Trevor had been gone for a week, and when he returned, he saw it. We were too close to him to see what was happening.” Dad said that he should have checked. “You can’t check on us whenever we’re having a bad day and think that it’s something seriously wrong. As I said, we were all too close to him to see anything. The doctor did say that it had grown. There isn’t any telling how long it was there before Trevor came home.”

  “I know that. I do. But it doesn’t make me feel any better knowing that he was suffering.” Dad stood up. “I think that I will go home. I told your mom that I’d be home before too much longer. She’s worried, as you can well imagine, and I want to be there for her too.”

  Jenson hugged his dad tightly and told him to drive carefully home. Once he was seated with Clay again, Trevor showed up. He’d brought an extra sleeping bag for him, saying that they’d take turns watching him.

  “You think we have to watch his every move?” He said that Jade and mom both made him promise that one of them would be awake all the time. “They’re worried. But I don’t know that I could sleep very well without knowing he’s being watched over anyway. This scared the shit out of me.”

  “Me too. When he agreed to go to the hospital, I knew that something was wrong. He’s like you in that respect. Stubborn as all hell.” Jenson said he didn’t think of himself as stubborn. “You’re not now that you’ve met Jade. You were close all the time to losing your shit. But differently, than Clay had been. You were just pissed off. He wanted to kill. He told me that. Scared the crap right out of me when he said he wanted to snap my neck.”

  “I was hurting.” Clay didn’t move when he spoke from the bed, but they both asked him if he was all right. “Yes. Better but still in pain. But not from the mass or whatever it was. Do you know yet? I’m not nearly awake right now, but if you tell me, I’ll try to remember what you say.”

  “We won’t know anything until later. When they come to tell us, do you want us to wake you?” Clay said no, he wanted to rest. “I can understand that. The nurse that was in here before Trevor arrived said they might keep you an extra day. Depending on how well you do tonight. I’d stay if I were you. They’re not going to be giving you the good stuff when you leave.”

  “Right now, I think I’d have to agree with you on that. I’m sore like I said, but it seems like my body is hurting too. More than likely, I think, because I was so tense all the time.” Clay couldn’t yawn yet, but he did try. “I’m going to sleep now. See if you two can keep your mouth closed for a while, and we’ll talk tomorrow.”

  Telling his brothers good night, Jenson stepped into the hall to call his parents. Telling them that he’d been talking to them, but he was still in pain. He could tell they were both relieved to hear that, and he told them that he loved them.

  “We both love you too, Jenson. You stay with Clay and Trevor, and we’ll see you sometime in the morning.” Telling them good night, he hung up. When he went into the room, Trevor was in the chair, and his sleeping bag was on the mattress. He told him it was his turn to watch over him.

  Letting him take the watch was all right with him. Jenson messaged Jade to tell her that he loved her as well. Jenson laid down. He was exhausted and worn out. Tomorrow was going to be a much better day. He knew it.

  Chapter 2

  Lizzy watched the clock. Harris was now twenty-three minutes late for surgery, and she wasn’t going to sit on the meds much longer while they waited on him to show his ass. Mr. Logan had been prepped and ready to go for the last forty-five minutes.

  “I just got word that he’s in the hospital.” Everyone gave a sigh of relief when the head nurse told them that. Giving Mr. Logan a bit more juice to get him ready to have the operation start as soon as Dr. Harris joined them had her wondering what his excuse was going to be this time. “He’s in a mood, they told me.”

  While she didn’t care for talking about the doctors herself, she knew that April Banks was giving them a heads-up to keep from pissing Harris off more. She couldn’t stand to work with him and was only here today because someone had called off. More than likely because they didn’t want to work with Harris. He was a prick.

  As soon as Harris was in the scrub room, April went to assist him. Everyone in the surgery room could hear him yelling at her. First, his gloves didn’t fit then she hit him in the nose while trying to mask him up. When he came through the doors and looked around, she knew that he was going to be causing more trouble today.

  “Why are you here?” Lizzy told him that she was doing her job. “We’ll see about that. Let’s get this shit done. I have things that I want to do today.”

  Leaning toward him to adjust the IV, she could smell him. Alcohol. He smelled strongly of it. When April leaned in and sniffed him, too, he turned on the older woman and slapped her. As soon as she was down on the floor, Harris turned to her.

  “You say a word, and I’ll have your license. Do you hear me?” She didn’t so much as blink at him. “Answer me, you fucking cunt. You keep your mouth shut. All of you. She fell, that’s all. She fell over because she’s old and clumsy. That is what you’re all going to say.”

  “Mark, I want you to call to have Dr. Harris removed from this room.” Mark moved toward the phone, and Harris snarled at him. “Do it. Even if you have to leave this room to get help, I want you to call the police while you’re at it. He’s just injured someone.”

  Mark moved but not fast enough to clear the door. However, one of the other nurses was able to get out of the room and lock the operating door behind her. Lizzy was never so glad to have someone helping her as she was at this moment.

  “Dr. Harris, you need to back away from the patient. I’m going to wake him up so that his surgery will have to be done some other day. By some other doctor.” He snarled at her. Like he was some kind of wild animal. “Back away now.”

  Instead of doing what she wanted, he reached for a scalpel on the clean tray. Just as he was putting his hand on the sharp blade, Mark was able to knock the entire tray of instruments to the floor and kick them around. Stepping in front of Mark so that he’d not be hit again, Harris hit her with his fist, knocking her back against the surgical table and on the patient. Since they were all locked in, there was no getting Mr. Logan to safer grounds.

  Mark dashed in front of her and handed off one of the many vials of medication that was there for the doctor to us. Filling it with Morphine, guessing at the dose, she rammed it into his back as he was strangling Mark.

  When Harris dropped, Lizzy slid to the floor and sat there for a few minutes with her head back. She assessed her own wounds while one of the other nurses that had been in the room checked to make sure that Mark was going to be all right. In just a few minutes later, there were police at the door yelling at them to not move. She wasn’t planning on it.

  The head of the surgical department was held outside the operating room while the police were taking down information. Mr. Logan was sent to recovery, and Mark was sent to the Emergency department. They were still asking her question when Dr. Strong showed up and began barking orders about how Lizzy should be being treated as well. While she knew of the other doctor, they’d never worked together, so she didn’t know her. It wasn’t until Mrs. Strong, the elder came into the room that things started happening for her at a dizzying speed.

  Ending up in the E.R., she didn’t answer any questions about what had happened. If she was honest with herself, she wasn’t quite sure what had happened. Yes, Harris was drunk, but he’d reacted like he was on some kind of drugs that made him hyper-angry. However, like not telling anyone what happened in there, she kept that opinion to herself.

  “Dr. Sharple?” She called out that she was here. “My name is Jade Strong. I was just in the operating room with you. Do you remember me?”

  “Yes. You got me down here. I was told not to say a word to anyone. I’m assuming that would include you too?” Jade laughed and said she thought that Lisa Strong was getting it all for them. “Now, her, I know. She can work a room better than anyone. Is there anything that I can do for you?”

  “I’m here to stitch you up. Clay, my brother-in-law, found out that you were hurt and sent me here to give you the best of care.” She said that was nice of him. “He’s done nothing but talk about you since he got home yesterday. Do you want to be under or just numbed? I’d say under, but that’s just me.”

  “Under.” Almost as if she had the medication ready, Lizzy began to feel the effects of being put under. “Christ, that’s the good stuff. My head was—”

  When she woke up, she didn’t know where she was. Lizzy knew that she was in the hospital, even in a room but with her face covered like it was, there was no way for her to tell just where she was in the hospital. It wasn’t until someone took her hand that she felt better.

  “It’s me, Clay.” She squeezed his hand just a little tighter. “I’m not supposed to be here, but since Jade made the arrangements for me to look after you, no one is going against her orders. How are you feeling? If you need something for pain, I only need to call out for you.”

  “I’m all right. I have a bit of a buzz still from what Dr. Strong gave me. How many stitches did she need to put in?” He told her. “Well, that’s not too bad. I know that she makes tiny stitches so that they hold better. So knowing that she put fifty-three in doesn’t sound all that daunting. How are you?”