All she wanted to do was lean over and put her head on his shoulder or take his hand. But she couldn’t. Not until she ended things with Dutch. As soon as she was able to speak with him privately, she had to tell him things were over between them. The feelings she had for Mantis were far too strong to do anything else.
Kip drove cautiously on the slow and treacherous drive back to the house. Based on the number of cars on the road, they hadn’t been the only ones unprepared for the quick and drastic change in weather.
“Slow down, you bastards,” Alegria heard Kip mutter at the other drivers.
“Kip! Look out!” Minnie screamed moments later, right before a car careened into the side of theirs, making impact right near the back passenger door, where Alegria was sitting.
—:—
Mantis paced back and forth in the waiting room, hoping the next person who walked out of the double doors would have news for him.
His father had gone to see if he could find coffee, and his mother was sitting near the window. She’d been shaken up by the car’s impact and had seen a doctor in the emergency room, but outside of a few bruises, she had no apparent signs of injury.
“You should go home,” he told them when his father returned to the waiting room. Mantis had ridden in the ambulance with Alegria and had no idea how they’d even gotten to the hospital. His dad’s car wasn’t drivable. “I guess you don’t have a car.”
“Larry and his son brought us here and left the truck. It has chains and a plow, so if it gets worse, we’ll still be able to get home,” his dad told him.
Mantis tried again to convince them to go get some rest, but they insisted they were staying, especially when the doctor came out and said Alegria was being taken directly into emergency surgery.
When the nurse came out at the next one-hour interval, she told Mantis that the surgeons were getting ready to close. “I’ll need you to sign this,” she said, handing him a clipboard.
“What is it?”
“I need your signature as her medical power of attorney.”
Mantis hadn’t considered that he’d still be listed as such. Why hadn’t she changed it to either Dutch or Doc? It was something they’d have to discuss later. Maybe she didn’t realize it was still him.
“Hey, Doc,” Mantis said when he answered his call.
“I’m trying to reach Dutch. No luck yet.”
“Thanks for the update. If you do talk to him, could you ask him if he’s coming back?”
Doc didn’t answer right away, but he could hear his wife asking a question in the background.
“What did Merrigan say?” Mantis asked.
“How bad is it? Do I need to pull him from this op before he leaves for Mogadishu?”
If Mantis were her boyfriend, and Dutch just their friend, he would’ve said there was no reason for him to abandon the op. But given their roles were reversed, he wasn’t sure what to say. “I guess I won’t be able to answer that until she’s out of surgery.”
“Roger that.”
“Maybe just tell him Alegria’s injuries are serious enough to warrant surgery, and it’s his decision whether he flies back.”
“What about her parents?”
Mantis hadn’t decided whether to contact them now or wait until he knew more.
He checked the time. It was after eleven, which meant it was four in the morning in Marseille where they lived.
“I’ll wait until she’s out of surgery, and then I’ll call them.”
“I feel like this is my fault,” his mother said when Mantis put his phone back in his pocket.
“Why?”
“I’m the one who insisted we go out for dinner. If we’d just stayed home…”