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Chapter Twenty Three

After getting showered and dressed, I walked back into the room to see Nick still asleep. I shook his shoulder gently. His hand was still in the bucket; the ice cubes had been reduced to water. I made a face; his hand didn’t look good.

“Nick?” I whispered. He mumbled in his sleep. I shook him harder.

“Nick?”

His free hand came around, pulling me down. I would have thought he was just being ornery except his chest still rose and fell in sleep.

“NICK!”

His body jerked and I slid onto the floor with an “oomph.” I watched as his eyes fluttered open.

“Huh?”

“I think you might need to go to the doctor,” I said. He looked confused for a moment, but as he brought the hand up to run through his hair, he stopped and stared.

“Ohhh.”

It looked like a rubber glove that someone inflated. The tips of his fingers were black and blue.

“I guess you’re right.”

I helped him get into a shirt. As we were walking to the elevator, Brian stopped us. It was a late morning for everyone; Brian was still wearing his Kentucky Wildcat pajamas.

“Everything okay?” he said. Nick held up his hand.

“Damn, if your hand looks like that I’d hate to see that guys face,” Brian remarked.

Brian raised his hand for a high-five. Nick returned it with his good hand.

“You,” I pointed at Brian. He smiled sheepishly. “You’re supposed to be a good influence.”

Brian shook his head. “Nick and I combined are never a good influence.” he said. He stood, hands on hips as we walked into the elevator.

“If they have to put a cast on that you better think up a good story for Oprah!” Brian called as the doors shut.

We rode down in silence. Nick wouldn’t admit it, but he was in pain. I hailed a taxi and we headed to the hospital.

“Are you okay?” he asked me as the taxi wove through traffic. Chicago was insane, but not nearly as bad as New York.

“I’m fine,” I said quietly. I rubbed the bare spot on my finger. “I called my mom yesterday.”

“What did she say?”

I smiled. “She said that she would have liked to help you punch him out,” I admitted.

“You told her I punched him?” Nick said. He groaned.

“Of course I did,” I said. “She told me that Hunter better watch out when he gets back into town. I think she wants to put a few other body parts out of commission.”

Nick grinned, then grew serious.

“I hate that you’re wasting the morning taking me to the hospital,” he complained. “I’m sure you have other things you need to do.”

I shrugged. “Like what?”

Truth was, I didn’t have anything to do. The best impulse decision I ever made was calling my mom when everything fell apart. Having worked for a lawyer for over ten years, she had the best connections in our small town. My mother could turn into an angry mama bear in a second and she’d do anything, anything to protect her cub.

At that moment the taxi pulled up to the emergency room. I hopped out and ran inside. I explained the situation. Moments later we were ushered in a back door to avoid any craziness in the emergency room. We already had AJ with a black eye and Nick with a busted hand; I wanted to keep the rest of him in one piece.

An hour later I sat watching the doctor set Nick’s hand in a cast. An X-ray showed that he had broken the metacarpal bone in his middle finger and his middle phalanx in his index finger. He also had a hairline fracture in his wrist.

“You did a number on this hand, Mr. Carter,” the doctor commented.

“Yeah, I’ll take the stairs one at a time from now on,” Nick said innocently. I gave him a look; he grinned.

Thirty minutes later we were back in a taxi, heading back to the hotel. The doctor had given Nick a shot of pain medication. With the way he was smiling, I could tell he felt absolutely no pain.

“You know,” he said, leaning towards me like he was going to tell me the biggest secret in the world. “my hand doesn’t hurt anymore.”

I stifled a laugh. “That’s because the doctor gave you a pain killer.”

“Ohhh.” He sat back for a second, then leaned towards me again.

“You know what else?”

I couldn’t help it; I laughed. “What, Nick?”

“You’re beautiful.”

“Nick, I haven’t done my hair and I don’t have a lick of makeup on,” I said. He threw his good arm around me, tugging me closer.

“I don’t care,” he said sweetly. He held up his cast dreamily, looking at it as if he just realized it was there. “Hey, my hand looks like the Hamburger Helper glove.”

The taxi pulled up to the hotel at just the right moment. I helped Nick out and back up to his room. I got him settled on the couch and then went and knocked on Brian’s door. He opened the door still in his pajamas.

“I need you to help get Nick dressed,” I explained. “I would, but he’s loopy on pain killers, so…”

Brian grinned. “Oh this is going to be fun.”

I looked at my watch.

“Don’t have too much fun. You guys have to leave for Oprah in an hour.”

Brian padded off barefooted to Nick’s room. I headed in the direction of the room I was supposed to be sharing with Andrea. I slid my keycard and walked in. She was talking on her cell phone, but disconnected almost immediately after seeing me.

“Liv? O-M-G. Where have you been?”

Still stinging from Jess’s betrayal, I hesitated to open up too fully.

“Well, Nick broke his hand getting on stage last night. We just got back from the doctor.”

“Yeah I heard that. Did you hear some guy got his nose annihilated at the concert?”

I feigned surprise. “Really?”

“Yeah. I guess some guy dressed like a bank robber came up and just punched him. It was right before Nick’s solo.”

“Geesh. Crazy.” I said.

“Hey, did you get to spend some time with your hubby yesterday?” Andrea asked. “I saw you introducing him to the guys yesterday.”

I wanted so badly to say ex-husband or cheating bastard. Instead, I just nodded.

“A little.”

“Good. Oh! Before I forget, a guy dropped this off for you this morning.”

Andrea walked to a small dining table in the corner of the room and picked up an envelope. She handed it to me.

“I promised I’d give it to you.”

I tore open the envelope and pulled out two sheets of paper. One was a hospital bill. The other was a note in Hunter’s handwriting.

“Give this bill to Carter. And, if you tell ANYONE about this, you’ll be bailing your pretty boy out of jail. I know it was him.”

I folded the sheets calmly, tucking them back in the envelope.

“So?” Andrea said. “What is it?”

“A bruised ego,” I said. She looked confused. I shook my head. “It’s nothing,” I said, standing. I looked at my watch.

“I’ve got to go. The guys are doing Oprah this afternoon.”

“Have fun,” Andrea called as I headed out of the room.

----------------------------------------

“Maybe you should have cancelled,” I told Howie as we waited in the green room. I knew Oprah was the real deal; her green room was actually green.

“No,” Howie said cautiously, eyeing Nick. “I think he’ll be fine.”

I looked at Nick, then back at Howie doubtfully. Nick held a glass of Diet Coke, blowing bubbles into the liquid with his straw.

“What kind of pain medicine did that doctor give him, again?” AJ asked.

“I think it was Percocet or Vicodin,” I said.

“He did cocaine for years,” Howie said. “How the hell can he get this loopy off a shot?”

“He’s been clean for a year and a half,” AJ explained. “The first time you get a drug back into your system,” he closed his eyes. “It does some crazy shit.”

Nick looked up from his straw, smiling.

“Hi.”

“We did Ellen without Bri,” Howie said. “Maybe Nick should sit this one out.”

“I was stuck in an elevator,” Brian argued. “He’s sitting right here. That’s going to be a little harder to explain.”

A very businesslike lady walked in, clipboard in hand.

“Guys, you’re on in ten minutes.”

We all looked at each other and back to Nick.

“Nick,” AJ said, kneeling down in front of him. “When we get out there just let us do the talking, okay?”

Nick nodded, putting a finger to his lips.

“Shhhhhhhhhh,” he said loudly. I groaned.

This wasn’t going to go well.