The Golden Goalie (Green Thunder #2)

Chapter 22

Rico

I lean against the door to the bathroom and try to get my own racing heart to settle. I swear she took ten years off my life tonight. I rub my heart that hasn’t exactly recovered yet. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sound of her panicked voice when I answered my phone. I close my eyes. I don’t want to ever hear that kind of panic from her again. There’s movement on the door handle behind me, and I stand up. “Hey,” I say softly as she opens the door. My heart gives another beat of relief to see her in regular clothes and not the hospital gown that she was swimming in. I step close, needing to touch her. I put my hand around her elbow and guide her back to the bed while we wait. I barely get her settled before the nurse comes bustling back in. “Okay. You are good to go. All your instructions are on that paper, Hon.” Then the nurse pins me in her gaze. “Dad, you need to step it up and take better care of your girls.”

“I will,” I tell her, meaning it with every fiber of my being. Amber and I are going to be talking. Well, I’m going to be talking, and she’s going to be listening. We finally get to leave. I put a hand on Amber’s back and lead her to the door and out into the hallway where Aiden and Bri are standing, carrying on a very intense conversation. They turn when we walk towards them.

“We’re cleared to go home,” I say as we move past them. “Aiden, do you mind pulling up my truck?” I throw him my keys, not giving him a chance to argue. He disappears as Bri comes up on Amber’s other side and walks next to her, talking quietly to her. I don’t tune in; my brain is firing off everything that needs to happen next to take care of Amber the way she needs to be taken care of.

When we get to the front of the hospital, Aiden steps out of my truck. I walk Amber over to the passenger side. Bri and then Aiden both hug her. Bri grasps her hands and says a few more things, and I can see that Amber is fading. “Okay, in you go,” I say, taking control. I put my hands on her sides and lift her up and into my truck and shut the door behind her. Brielle gives me a hard look before walking over to the entrance and disappearing inside.

“Well, Dad,” Aiden starts.

“Don’t,” I cut him off. He stares at me with that intense gaze of his. “They wouldn’t let me in unless I was family. I told them I was with Amber. They assumed I was the baby’s father, and I never said anything different. Amber was panicking and alone.” I rub a hand over my chest. “Don’t make a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be.” I don’t stick around to hear what he thinks about all this. It doesn’t matter. What matters right now is taking care of Amber. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Garcia,” he calls out right before I climb in. I turn back, ready to go head-to-head with him. “Get some sleep.”

The fire leaves me. “I will.” I climb into the truck and settle behind the wheel before I glance over at Amber. I turn the vents so they’re tipped towards her. “You warm enough?” I ask softly.

“Yes, thank you.” Her voice is so soft and unsteady, so different from the fiery girl I first met. I hate it. The ride is silent, and I don’t bother to push her. She’s beyond exhausted. Besides, I don’t think once I start, I’ll be able to stop. I hate that she’s in the state she’s in. I just want to see her happy, healthy, and taken care of. I think of the fact that she’s alone, and anger burns in me. I can’t believe that any man would walk away from his woman when she’s carrying his baby. If she were mine, I’d never let her go. I take a breath, pushing away those dangerous thoughts because she’s not mine. I glance over at her. At least not yet, she’s not. I try to rein in my thoughts; I need a good workout today after I get a few hours of sleep. I need to blow off some steam. Maybe I’ll head over to Aiden’s later.

When we get to Amber’s house, her eyes are barely open. I hop out and come around to her side. I help her down and inside. “Oh, Baby,” her mom greets us at the door. “Bri told me. Are you okay?”

Amber looks absolutely depleted, so I step in. “She’s okay. She just needs to sleep now.” Her mom’s eyes meet mine, and she must understand what it is I’m trying to convey because she nods.

“Okay, Love, let’s get you to bed.” I let her mom guide her away from me, and I have to stop myself from following them. I want to be the one to help her into bed, but I know that’s not going to happen. So, I pace a circle in their small living room instead. About ten minutes later, her mom comes back into the living room. “What happened?” There’s no softness in her tone now; there’s just the worry of a mother.

I motion to the couch, and she sits down as I give her a rundown of the night. I can see the worry all over her face, and I try to ease it. But I get it. “We’re going to make a gameplan going forward, but right now, she needs sleep.”

She nods and sighs, sounding as exhausted as I feel. “My Amber has many wonderful qualities, but she’s stubborn as all get-out.”

“Oh, I know.”

She gives me an appraising look. “She’s going to be difficult to keep down.”

“I know.”

“She won’t want to slow down or cut any of her classes or hours at work,” she continues.

“I know.”

She finally stops. “So, what’s the plan for my stubborn girl?”

“I don’t know yet, but there will be a plan,” I tell her honestly.

“You’re not scared of dealing with her?” she asks.

“Scared? Of Amber?” I laugh. “I’m terrified of her.” She cracks a smile at that. “But I’m not scared of going head-to-head with her.”

She studies me. “Given your profession, I can’t say that I’m surprised.”

I walk over to her and pick up her hand, like I would my own mother’s. “We’ll take good care of her, even if we have to force her.”

“Okay.”

I glance down the hallway towards where I know she’s sleeping. “Maybe just don’t stand up to her on your own, though. Wait for backup.”

She laughs. “Smart man.”

I grin at her. “I’ll check on her later.”

She stands up and pats my cheek, reaching high to be able to do so. “You’re a good man. Thank you for being there for our girl.”

Our girl. Her words do something to me, and I feel lighter than I have in days. “You’re welcome.” I head back out to my truck, my plan to go get sleep forgotten. I head over to Aiden’s. I need to blow off steam and he has the perfect workout area to do that in. After calling him and getting the okay, I drive to Aiden’ and Bri’s place.

Aiden meets me at the door. “You good?”

“Yeah, Man. I just need to blow off some steam.” He steps back and lets me pass. Since I know the way, I walk past him and head downstairs. Unsurprisingly, he joins me a few minutes later. Neither of us say anything as we get into our workout. With the music pounding and sweat flying, the pressure building inside me finally begins to ease. Sebastian joins us after a bit. Gunner even makes an appearance. Though neither of them say anything, I know that Aiden texted them. I feel grateful, knowing I’m not alone in all this.

When I’m finally depleted, I finally start stretching and cooling down. “You good?” Seb asks from the floor next to me where he’s stretching.

“Yeah. Aiden tell you about Amber?”

“Yeah, but I was asking about you,” he returns.

“And how are you doing when Stephanie is really sick?” I ask.

He grimaces. “Yeah. Okay, I get it. What can we do?”

I shake my head. “Nothing. I’m going to figure it out.”

“Wrong answer,” Gunner says, dropping next to us.

“We’re a team,” Seb reminds me. “If one of us is in pain, we all are. Now what can we do to help?”

I breathe deeply. “I’m not sure yet. She needs more rest, more water, needs to eat more, reduce her stress, work less...it’s a lot and she’s not exactly easy to convince to do any of those things.”

“I feel your pain,” Seb says, and I can imagine he does. Stephanie isn’t exactly easy-going either.

“But I’m going to figure it out.”

“And when you do, you’ll let us know so we can help,” Seb reminds me.

“Right,” I agree. I stand to my feet suddenly exhausted. “Thanks, Guys.”

Aiden and Gunner nod. “Get some sleep, Dad ,” Sebastian says with a grin.

I turn a hard look on Aiden. “Really?”

Aiden shrugs. “You were the one that put it out there.”

“I was just trying to get into the hospital with Amber. They wouldn’t let me in if I wasn’t family, so I...” I stop when I see all three of them are smirking. “I hate all of you.” I head up the stairs.

“No you don’t; you love us,” Sebastian calls out loudly behind me. I give him a hand motion that lets him know exactly how I feel about all of them, and I hear them laughing behind me. I crash and sleep for several hours when I get home. When I wake up, I immediately begin to come up with a plan for helping Amber. It begins with taking her to her next appointment. I want to be there when her OB follows up with her; I don’t trust her to tell me everything. And to be able to really help her, I need her to tell me everything.

It takes a lot of convincing and maybe some good old-fashioned luck on my side, but I’m able to go with Amber to her appointment a few days later. Of course, she made me meet her there instead of picking her up. Stubborn woman. I’m going to be putting a stop to that nonsense as soon as I hear from the doctor today what we’re dealing with. I get there a little late as I had to come after practice. I take in the state of the parking lot and the outside of the building and am not feeling super hopeful about what I’m going to find inside.

I head inside, and my fears are not relieved at all. The waiting room is crowded and chaotic. It smells like pee, and the wallpaper is brown and pulling away from the wall. It takes the receptionist a painfully long time to even identify the fact that Amber is one of their patients even though Amber left strict instructions that I was allowed back. I finally make my way to the back, hating every moment in this place. It’s depressing and dirty, and this is not going to work. I knock on the door and hear Amber’s voice. “Hey,” I say as I slip inside. Her face relaxes the slightest, and my heart softens. “You doing okay?” I settle in the seat next to her, wishing I could pull her into my side. I squeeze my hands together instead.

“I’m okay.”

We wait almost an hour for her doctor to finally come in. She spends less than five minutes with us and basically writes Amber off as a head-case. I’m irritated when I stand to my feet. “I think we’re done here.”

Amber stares up at me in surprise. I take her arm and help her to her feet. “Uh, thank you.” It sounds more like a question. I lead her out of there, not bothering to thank the rude doctor.

“Hey, Speed Demon, I can’t walk that fast.” I immediately slow my stride, so she can keep up with me. “So, I take it you didn’t like my doctor,” she says.