Kim left, and Max breathed a halfhearted sigh of relief. He felt bad for manipulating her and sending her on a phantom errand, but she didn’t like hospitals. It was half the reason she’d kept Tess at home the whole time Jed had been sick.
Dan stood and clapped him on the back. “Is Jed awake?”
Max shook his head, remembering with a start that the doctors probably hadn’t told Dan anything at all. “No. He’s in a coma.”
THERESTof the day passed without event. Nurses came and went every few minutes, and Dr. Greene every half hour or so. Nothing changed. No one said Jed was getting any worse, but they didn’t say he was getting better either.
Max listened to medical jargon shoot back and forth as he kept vigil over Jed. The monitors around him beeped and hissed, but Max paid them no heed. Instead, he took stock with his fingertips, tracing the strange pale purple blotches that appeared on Jed’s overheated bare skin and losing count of the racing pulse in his wrist.
Jed’s heart was beating too fast. The stampeding tattoo reminded Max of Flo when she was a pup. She used to sleep on his chest like a newborn baby, and all he could do was worry that her tiny heart would beat right out of her body.
“Have you eaten today?”
Max glanced at Carla. From time to time, the ICU staff relaxed the rules and let someone else in. It was strange watching the Valescos keep watch over Jed, bittersweet in the worst possible way. They loved Jed like he was their own, and their pain at seeing him so sick tore at Max’s already aching heart.
“Max.”
“Hmm?”
“You should eat. He’ll be pissed if you make yourself sick.”
If only. Max longed for Jed to wake up and grumble at him for using every pan in the kitchen to cook pasta. It wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, but Carla was right. He needed to eat, and he needed to sleep. If he didn’t, it wouldn’t be long before he was no good to anyone. “Can you get me something?”
“Kim already did. She’s right outside.”
Max sighed. He should’ve known Kim wouldn’t stay away for long. He left Jed in Carla’s capable hands and made his way to the waiting area. There he found not only Kim, but Nick too.
Max stopped in his tracks. “What’s he doing here?”
Nick stood. “They let me out for a couple of days to be with Jed.”
Max glared, taking in the healthy, nourished glow of Nick’s skin. Without the weathered lines of alcohol abuse, he seemed well rested and at ease.
Lucky him.“Be with him?”
Nick exchanged a glance with Kim. “He’s my brother, Max. I want to see him.”
“Well, you’ll have to wait. Carla is with him.” Max’s gaze fell on a foil-wrapped package balanced on top of Kim’s purse. “Is that for me?”
Kim passed it over without comment. Max unwrapped the sandwich and dropped into yet another hard plastic chair. It was the first thing he’d eaten in twenty-four hours, and it tasted like sawdust, but he forced it down. He wondered if this was how Jed felt all the time, though Dr. Howarth had tried to tell him there was nothing he could’ve done to feed Jed better.
Feed him. Jed said that made him sound like one of the damn chickens. Max let out a sudden hysterical chuckle.
“Something funny?”
“Nope.” Max met Nick’s eyes and tossed the balled-up foil over his head. It missed the trash can. Max picked it up on his way out and glanced over his shoulder. “Are you coming or not?”
MAXSTOODguard by the window while Nick shuffled to Jed’s bed. Nick touched Jed’s heated skin. He gasped and withdrew his hand like he’d been burned. Perhaps he had. Even from behind, Max could tell he was crying.
“I’ve seen him like this before….” Nick sucked in a shaky breath. “After surgery in Boston, he was out of it for days, but he was different then. I knew he was going to wake up and give me a hard time without even opening his mouth. Now… fuck. Now it’s like he’s already gone.”
Max suddenly hated Nick more than he ever had. Hated him for turning his sister into a bored housewife, for teaching his kids to never trust a man, and worst of all, for writing Jed off when he was clinging to life with both hands.
He lunged forward and shoved Nick away from the bed. “You don’t need to be here if you think he’s already dead.”
Nick stumbled. Max grabbed Jed’s hand, but instead of a blazing palm, he found unyielding, stone-like flesh. Jed’s hand was like ice. Max’s heart dropped through the floor. He touched Jed’s arms, his chest and face, but found the same. The fever was gone. Jed’s heated flush had paled to a grayish white, and he wascold… cold like death.
“Oh, God, he’s freezing.”