The Roommate Pact(10)
“I was on the drive in, but I tend to get carsick and the ambulance ride wasn’t exactly smooth. It’s already better.”
She asked him a few more routine questions, and when she was confident nothing was so urgent she needed to run and grab the doctor right that second, she slipped in another question as she started the bag of fluids and strapped a blood pressure cuff to his arm. “Where was the fire?”
“Sixth and Pine. You know that multilevel apartment complex they’re building?”
She knew exactly what he was talking about. “Yeah. How bad is it?”
“Damage is significant. Shit was falling everywhere. At least two other guys were in there when I got hit. They weren’t from my station, I know that much, but I hope they’re okay.”
Her stomach dropped and she gripped her hands into fists. She hadn’t heard of any other patients being brought in by ambulance. What if Graham had been hurt and they took him to another hospital?
Focus on your patient. “Do, um...? Is there anyone I can call for you?” she asked, attempting to mask the tremble in her voice.
“My phone’s still on the truck,” he said. “But the chief said he’d send someone up here as soon as he could. The paramedic called my wife and she’s on her way.”
Javier’s gaze shifted over her shoulder and Dr. Singh appeared, offering a smile to the patient before turning to Claire for information. Claire outlined what she knew and what she’d done, then left the doctor and Javier alone.
She checked the clock as she sat at the computer to chart Javier’s vitals. Half an hour remained.
Javier was wheeled away for imaging and other than calling Graham twice more, Claire couldn’t have said what she did until the end of her shift. Her brain had gone fuzzy with the conflicting signals passing through over the last hour.
Unknown firefighter coming with unknown injuries: freak out!
Patient is fine: relax.
Patient isn’t Graham: seriously, relax.
Additional unknown firefighters may have been injured: freak out!
Graham is unaccounted for: RED ALERT!
After she passed off to the overnight nurse, Claire jogged to her car. As she started the engine she suddenly realized she could have called Noah to see if he’d heard from Graham. Or Reagan, to see if she’d seen him today.
But she only lived a mile from the hospital and she’d be there in minutes. Either Graham would be home—where she’d promptly kill him—or she’d hopefully be able to locate his shift schedule for this month and find out if he’d worked today.
When she turned onto her street her gaze immediately landed on Graham’s beat-up 4Runner parked in his usual spot in the driveway. The breath that whooshed out of her was thick with relief, and after pulling in under the carport she dropped her forehead against the steering wheel.
She took several deep breaths, willing her muscles to release the tension that had built over the last two hours. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten so worked up.
Was it because Graham was her friend, or because memories of her dad’s accident had come screaming back?
Or both?
Either way, she had to calm down before she went in. That was the plan, anyway, which went to hell when she walked in the front door and found him in the living room, completely oblivious to the turmoil he’d caused her.
He was deep into some video game, sitting on the edge of the couch, shirt pulled taut across the muscles in his back as he moved. His dark, wavy hair was disheveled and his sleeves pushed up to reveal toned forearms rippling with each manipulation of the controller.
“Graham!”
His gaze didn’t leave the screen. “Yeah?”
A flood of emotions rushed through her—agitation the most potent—and she marched around the couch and stopped directly in front of the television.
Graham leaned to the side in an attempt to see around her. “What are you doing? I can’t see.”
“I don’t care! I’ve been calling and texting you all day. Why haven’t you answered?”
He frowned, his eyes darting to hers in confusion before his attention returned to the portion of the screen he could see, his fingers continuing to toggle the controls. “You mean when you said you hated me? I didn’t think that deserved a response.”
“What about the others?”
“I didn’t see anything else. I put my phone in my room to charge a while ago, though.”
She pressed her hands against her temples. “Meanwhile I’ve been scared out of my mind thinking something happened to you. EMSA brought a firefighter in, and he said the ceiling fell on several of the guys trying to put out a fire at an apartment complex. I didn’t remember if you were working and you never answered your fucking phone!”
This was exactly the kind of situation she’d always wanted to avoid. The fear and constant worry... She couldn’t live like this on a regular basis. She’d watched her mother do it for years.
And they’d experienced their worst fear come true.
Graham stilled for a beat, finally seeming to hear her, then dropped the controller to the carpet and jogged around the couch to his room. Claire followed him, and within seconds he was on the phone. The conversation was short, and when he hung up he wrapped one hand around his neck and tossed the phone onto his bed.