The Very Naughty List

39. Hailey

39

HAILEY

When I wake up, my eyelids feel heavy, and for a few minutes, I just let them stay closed.

There’s a dull ache in my head, and my muscles feel stiff. Then I start to remember what happened.

I pull my eyelids slowly open and have to squint to block out the bright fluorescent lights above me. I’m groggy and disoriented, and waking up inside what looks like a hospital room doesn’t do anything to ease my stress.

I get ready to look around for a button to call the nurse, but then I hear deep voices calling my name from down the hall.

It’s the triplets, and from the sound of urgency in their tones, they are all demanding to be let in to see me. They sound panicked as they argue with the nurse outside my closed hospital room door.

“I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t go in. Only immediate family members are allowed into the room to see her. She still hasn’t woken up and?—”

The nurse’s frustrated explanation is interrupted by the sound of Nick’s gruff voice.

“I’m a firefighter and in line to be fire chief someday. I’m here at this hospital every time there’s a fire or ambulance run, saving lives and working with your staff on a daily basis. And if you don’t let us into that room right now to see Hailey Bennett, I’ll?—”

“But sir, this has nothing to do with your role as a firefighter, or emergency services. It’s a standard hospital rule that only immediate family members are allowed inside the room of a patient who is still unconscious. When she wakes up, I will be happy to ask her if she would like visitors.”

“Not good enough.” Sebastian’s voice is harsh. “We need to see her now .”

I quickly gather my voice and call out of the room before the guys wind up doing something that will get them in trouble.

“I’m awake! It’s okay, you can let them in. I’m awake now!”

There’s a slight sound of confusion and some shuffling around outside my door, and I really hope that Sebastian hasn’t knocked the nurse down and caused a scene.

When the door opens, I’m relieved to see all three of them standing in the doorway right behind the nurse, who thankfully still looks to be in one piece.

“Ah, Hailey.” She smiles at me through tight lips. I can tell that the Cooper brothers have been a thorn in her side, and something flickers through my chest at the realization that they would’ve done anything to get to me. “You gave everyone quite a scare, but you’re going to be just fine. The doctor will be in to see you soon. Are you feeling up for any visitors? These three men have been really wanting to see you.”

I nod my head eagerly, ignoring the fact that it still aches.

Without waiting for her to move out of the way, the guys push past her from both sides and surround my hospital bed. Their gazes are a bit wild and panicked as they scan me up and down to make sure I’m okay.

Reid bends down and places a gentle kiss to my cheek while Sebastian takes one of my hands to hold in his. Nick looks over all of the medical charts hanging on a hook at the foot of my bed, clearly trying to decipher what the doctor’s notes say.

“This all looks good. It seems like you’re going to be just fine, no lasting damage.” His voice is audibly relieved.

“Fucking hell, Hailey, we were so worried about you. I’m so damn glad you’re okay.”

Reid takes my other hand as he speaks, and I squeeze his fingers softly, the worry that twisted my gut when I woke up draining away just from having them all here with me.

It’s everything I need.

It washes away everything else.

But then another burst of noise in the hallway yanks my attention away from the Cooper brothers and the little bubble we seem to be in. My parents rush into the room, speaking over each other and crowding around me as the triplets take a step back to let them in.

Pippa pauses at the foot of my bed, her eyes widening as she glances around at the triplets. She shoots me an empathetic look, and then her gaze darts toward the door where Lucas is standing.

As soon as my brother walks into the room, everything becomes immediately tense.

Lucas is pissed.

I can see the steam practically wafting from his ears, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so mad before. He glares at each of the Cooper brothers with a look that could kill as he strides up to my bed. He doesn’t say a word to any of them, clearly not wanting to have it out with them here inside the hospital.

“How are you feeling?” Lucas asks me. His voice is strained, and I can see the muscles in his jaw clench. His entire body seems tense, and I get the feeling that he’s only one ill-timed remark away from exploding at all three of his best friends—assuming that he still even considers them that.

A sick feeling grows in my stomach when I think about all the damage that Dylan’s bullshit has caused.

“I’m fine,” I tell my brother. “It wasn’t a bad accident. It could’ve been worse.”

Before I can say more, a doctor walks in, raising his brows at how crowded the room has become.

“Ms. Bennett, I’m glad to see that you’re awake. I know you gave everyone quite a scare, but I have good news for you. You’re just fine.” The doctor smiles warmly at me, but it doesn’t really help matters. I think even he can sense the tension in the room. “We’re going to keep you another night or two, just to err on the side of caution and make sure that you’re perfectly okay before releasing you. After that, you’ll be free to go. You’ve got a minor concussion and some bruising, but no major injuries.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” My father nods, his expression drawn.

The doctor does a few checks on my condition, then tells me that he’ll send the nurse in with some water before leaving the room.

I almost wish he would stay, just to keep the awkward tension from returning after he closes the door behind him.

But the moment he’s gone, it all comes rushing back.

“You can go now,” Lucas says coldly as he turns to the triplets.

Sebastian crosses his arms and plants his feet, lifting his chin. “You can try and make us.”

My heart sinks, a pit forming in my stomach as I see the beginnings of a standoff forming.

“Come on, Mom and Dad,” Pippa whispers as she hooks her arm around our mother’s arm and starts to pull both of our parents out of the room. “Let’s go get a few snacks to temper all of these guys’ hangry attitudes.”

My father looks back over his shoulder as if he’s wondering whether or not he should stay and try to keep the guys from killing each other. But Pippa is great at getting people to go along with her, and she successfully manages to remove my parents from the room.

That’s when the real fireworks begin.

“What the fuck ?” Lucas rounds on the Cooper brothers as soon as we’re alone. “I’ve heard the rumors about how you’re all with my sister. I’ve seen the pictures on social media. And before you go trying to tell me that it’s all some fake charade, you can save it. I’m sick of being lied to.”

“Calm down, Lucas,” Reid says, lifting a hand.

“You want me to calm down when I find out that my three best friends are fucking my sister? And sneaking around and lying to me about it too? How about instead of calming down, we all go outside, and I beat the shit out of each of you? I can’t believe Hailey would ever?—”

“Hey, watch what you say about her,” Sebastian growls protectively, his hands curling into fists.

I sit straight up in the bed, horrified at the thought that the triplets and my brother all seem ready to throw down.

“Lucas, stop! You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

My brother turns to look at me, but he clearly doesn’t want to listen. He’s got his mind made up that his three best friends have gone behind his back and taken advantage of his little sister, and he’s just as hurt and angry as I was afraid he would be.

But I can’t have them all fighting. I care too much about all of them to watch their friendship fracture. I need to do something to try to calm him down and de-escalate this whole situation.

“Lucas, listen ,” I say, my voice as strong as I can make it, even though I still feel a bit woozy. “You can’t just go around believing rumors and gossip that you see on social media. You know better. It was nothing. We were all just… having a bit of fun together. It started out as fake dating, like we said, and it still is. We just hooked up once or twice—it’s nothing serious and nothing that’s going to continue. It’s not even worth being mad about.”

All three of the Cooper brothers turn to look at me, expressions I can’t quite read on their faces. I’m downplaying all of this to my brother to keep things from escalating, but it feels like I’m lying more now than I was before, when we were keeping all of this from him.

Still, I let my words stand. I can’t have all of this ruin my brother’s friendship with his best friends.

“You know how Dylan is,” I continue desperately. “He has it out for me. He’s holding on to a grudge over my leaving him because he has a bruised ego. He’s just trying to drag me through the mud and ruin my reputation. The triplets and I were just trying to get him to back off from giving me a hard time, and things got a bit carried away. There’s… there’s nothing else going on.”

Silence falls in the wake of my words as the triplets keep staring at me and my brother seems to process what I said.

The door opens a moment later, and the nurse comes in to hook something up to my IV. She glances around the room at the four men who are all standing there silently staring at her. The tension thickening the air is enough to make her leave quickly before I think to ask her what she put in the drip.

The achiness in my head is still there, compounded by the confrontation that I’m trying to defuse. I try to search the faces of the men as I wait to see what Lucas is going to do now.

Nick has a pained look in his eyes, Sebastian looks hurt and confused, and Reid looks almost angry. Something feels wrong in my chest, and the expressions on their faces just make it even harder to breathe.

I feel like I just took a hammer and broke something fragile, and it makes tears burn the backs of my eyes.

But it’s better that I keep things at peace between the four of them, even if it means betraying my own heart, and possibly even risking hurting theirs.

I want to say something else, to fix this and smooth things over between all of us. But the more I try to think of the right words to say, the more my brain starts to feel fuzzy. I listen as Nick starts to say something to my brother, but I can’t quite make out the words. His tone sounds tightly civil, like he’s trying to call a truce.

My head starts to feel heavy, and I lay it back against my pillow.

“Hailey, are you okay?”

“F…ine.”

I hear my brother’s question, but when I try to answer him, my words sound slower than they should.

I watch Nick walk around to where the nurse had been messing with the drip. His motion leaves a blur in my field of vision as my eyelids droop.

“They gave her some pain meds,” he informs the others. “Probably to combat the headache of her concussion.”

The wooziness from earlier gets more intense, and I’m struck by the sudden overwhelming urge to just tell all the people in this room that I love them—Lucas, the triplets, all of them. I blame it on the drugs kicking in, and the sleepy haze that makes me want to be more honest than I probably should.

Fortunately, sleep wins out before I can form any more words, and I feel myself sinking against the pillow as my eyes close and the sound of their voices accompanies me as I drift off.

I wish I could hold on to my lucid thoughts for just a bit longer—but maybe it’s for the best that I can’t.