Free Hooked by Cat Johnson

paused to swallow while Luke fought the urge to vomit. “Your father had collapsed. She’d called the ambulance first. They were already on their way, so my mother and Lilly met her at the hospital. My dad and I stayed behind to take care of your father’s herd before meeting everyone at the ER.”
    Luke tried to swallow and found his mouth so dry he could barely manage it. “What did the doctors say? Is he all right?”
    The slow sway of Chris’s head had Luke’s entire body quaking. Luke ran a shaky hand over his face. “Tell me.”
    “They said it was a brain aneurism. It ruptured.”
    He shook his head. “What does that mean?”
    “The doctors can tell you better. They told us a third of people die on the way to the hospital, a third die in the hospital, and a third make it if they can operate fast enough.”
    “Which third is my father in?”
    “He flat-lined in the ambulance.” Chris drew in a deep breath and let it out again. “They have his body on machines to keep him alive until you can get home but Luke, he’s brain dead.”
    Anger replaced all of Luke’s other emotions. “Why the hell didn’t you call me first thing this morning? At five-thirty when it happened, instead of worrying about the damn herd?”
    “We decided we couldn’t tell you this over the phone. That’s why I got right in the truck and drove here. To tell you in person and drive you home.”
    “Then why didn’t you tell me the minute you got here?” Luke’s eyes flashed.
    Chris’s expression softened. “That was my own decision. I wanted to let you finish the event.”
    “Fuck the event, Chris. This is my father.”
    “What difference would an hour make either way, Luke? It doesn’t matter now.”
    “I could have been with him.”
    “Luke, he’s gone. When you get home, they’re going to unhook the machines.”
    “No, maybe—”
    Chris shook his head. “There is no maybe. He’s gone.”
    It couldn’t be true. People came out of comas all the time. Luke had just seen something about that on television. “How can they be sure?”
    “They’re sure, Luke. They brought in some neurologist.” Chris shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”
    Luke felt dead inside as the full impact of what he was hearing numbed him.
    “I just need to get my gear, then grab my bag at the hotel and check out.” He clung to the details, as if putting things in order would turn his world right side up again, because it sure as hell wasn’t that way now. Then another reality hit him. “My mother?”
    “She’s…” Chris looked at a loss for words. “She’ll be happy you’re home.”
    “We have to get going.” Luke stood, surprised he could do so, and began shoving gear into his bag.
    “I know.” Chris began coiling Luke’s bull rope. “We’ll be home by nightfall.”
    “Okay.” Luke drew in a shaky breath and let it out just as Annie came around the corner.
    Her smile faded the moment she saw him. If he looked half as bad as he felt, Luke guessed Annie had figured out something was horribly wrong just from the expression on his face. He had to tell her what had happened. They had tentative plans for tonight and he needed to cancel. The other guys would have to be told too. And he’d have to let somebody in charge know he wouldn’t be competing next week. He didn’t know how long it took to plan a funeral, and he couldn’t leave his mother so soon afterward anyway, so of course he couldn’t compete this coming weekend.
    He just didn’t know if he had it in him to say it out loud to even one person, let alone repeat it all a whole bunch of times.
    “Luke?” Annie’s gaze cut from him to Chris, and then back again. A frown creased her brow. “You okay?”
    He started to nod but it turned into a shake when he realized he wasn’t okay at all, and he wouldn’t be for a very long while. He turned to Chris with a pleading glance.
    His friend’s hand came up and gripped his shoulder. “I’ll tell her.”
    “And