Free Play to Win by Tiffany Snow Page B

IV drip in his arm, and his hair in a spiky disarray that at any other time would look sexy but now just made me that much more aware of his injured state…It was enough to break anyone, and it broke me.
    I put my hand over my mouth to muffle my sob. Guilt didn’t even begin to describe the emotion I felt at seeing him this way. Because of me . And likely because of my father as well. I still held out a small hope that it had been a freak of circumstance, but I also wasn’t an idiot.
    Parker’s hand lay on top of the covers and I gently covered it with mine. I couldn’t believe this had happened. It was surreal, like a nightmare from which I couldn’t wake.
    As if to punctuate the whole nightmare theme, the door swung open and Natalie walked in, followed by Ryker.
    “You’re kidding me, right?” I hissed at Ryker, heading him off at the pass and getting all up in his business. “Parker’s been shot and you bring her here? You think now is the best time for a reunion?”
    “She wanted to come,” he said. “It wasn’t like I could tell her no.”
    “So it would seem,” I spat. He heard the scorn in my voice—it was hard to miss—and his gaze turned cold.
    “Does it matter? Tell me the first thing you did when you got home wasn’t to call Parker and tell him everything.”
    I didn’t dignify that with an answer. Turning on my heel, I nearly gagged at the sight of Natalie, her hand cradling Parker’s, running her fingers through his hair. Twin tears trailed down her cheeks in perfect crystal rivulets.
    “You’re going to wake him,” I gritted out, trying to keep my voice down. I knew they’d given Parker pain medication, but the way she was messing with him was sure to pull him out of any drug-induced haze.
    Sure enough, no sooner had I thought it than his eyelids fluttered open.
    I hurried back to his side—the other side, as Natalie had taken my previous position—and saw his eyes open and focus. Unfortunately, they focused on Natalie, and his brows drew together in a frown.
    “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
    The rasp of his voice was low but even so, the words were unmistakable. I hid a triumphant grin, disguising it with a slight cough.
    “Parker, it’s me. It’s Natalie.” The tears had stopped and she smiled the perfect blend of sad and hopeful.
    “Yeah. I know.” He winced as he turned his head, pulling his hand away from hers as he did so, until his gaze landed on me. His hand fiddled with the controls to the bed. “There you are,” he said to me. “Glad to see you’re all right. What did the doctor say?” He completely ignored Natalie as he pressed the button to adjust the bed to sit more upright.
    I gave him the rundown of his diagnosis and prognosis, ending with “And I called Rosemary and told her what to do about your meetings this week and the month-end reports. Your parents have been notified as well.” That last one I kind of glossed over because I didn’t want to go into detail about how un concerned his mother had seemed to be.
    “Good. Thank you.” He blinked kind of slow-like, resting his head back on the pillow, then saw Ryker standing behind me. “Man, what are you doing?”
    Ryker stiffened. Parker hadn’t said it meanly, more like the way I’d ask a girlfriend why in the world she’d start texting the ex who’d taken forever to go away.
    “We’ll talk when you’re not drugged up,” he said, approaching Natalie and taking her elbow. “Let’s go.”
    Natalie let him lead her out of the room, but her gaze remained on Parker and what I saw chilled me: desperate longing and determination.
    They went through the door and a noise from the bed had me swiveling, my attention now caught on Parker.
    His eyes had shut but opened to slits when the door snicked closed.
    “Are they gone?”
    “Yeah, I’m sorry,” I said. “I thought Ryker should know, but I didn’t realize he’d bring her.”
    Parker sighed. “’S’okay. Best to get it over with