“Any time you want to pee alone, I’m happy to look after the baby,” Becca called out. “And you know I’ll look after the twins, too,” she added to Maddie. “I love spoiling them. It’s the best thing about being an auntie.”
“By spoiling them, she means giving them each a huge candy bar, then laughing in Gray’s face when she hands them back in the middle of a sugar rush,” Maddie told Courtney. “Don’t be deceived by her sweet face. She’s evil.”
“That’s why your boys love me,” Becca called out over their heads.
“And that’s why Tanner and I aren’t having kids yet,” Van said, deadpan. “Not until Becca gets this auntie thing out of her system.”
“I’m never getting it out of my system,” Becca said gleefully. “You should just go ahead and get pregnant. Give in to the inevitable.”
“We’re so going to get you back when you meet someone,” Maddie told her. “Gray can’t wait to do the big brother act on the lucky guy.”
Becca was notoriously unlucky in love. She blamed it on the fact that her brothers loomed so large in Hartson’s Creek. It would take a strong man to deal with them.
“Tanner’s already made an album up of your baby photos,” Van added, laughing at Becca’s outraged expression. “I’m not lying. He claims he’ll get it out the first time you bring a guy home.”
“I’m not scared of Gray and Tanner,” Becca said, laughing. “I know all their darkest secrets. And I’m more than happy to spill them for a fee.” She rubbed her hands together.
“I might take you up on that,” Van said, pretending to twirl a moustache. “Tanner played a prank on me yesterday, and I owe him one.”
“What kind of prank?” Becca asked. “Tell me more.”
Courtney smiled as Van related Tanner’s antics of the day before, when he’d jumped out of the closet, wearing a Freddy Krueger mask. Van had apparently screamed and hit him before he could run away from her. When she described chasing him around the house and yard with the first thing she could lay her hands on – a wooden spoon – the women all collapsed into laughter.
It was hard to remember the last time Courtney had spent time with girl friends like this. Of course she had Lainey – and she loved her to bits – but these women were wonderful. It was nice being able to talk about the Hartson men – or the Heartbreak Brothers, as Van insisted on calling them, much to Becca’s amusement. It was fun to listen about Van and Tanner’s teasing relationship, and Maddie and Gray’s love of being parents.
When her phone buzzed in her purse down by her feet, her first inclination was to leave it and check later. But then it buzzed again, and she realized it was ringing. “Ugh,” she said, meeting Lainey’s eyes with a grimace. “Will you hate me if I answer?”
“Don’t move. I’ll get it.” Lainey held the lock of hair up in her right hand, angling her left side downward to pick up the purse. Courtney bit down a smile at her friend’s awkward movement.
“Thank you,” she said, as Lainey dropped the purse in her lap then wrapped the lock of hair around her fingers before pinning it. Courtney rifled through her bag and lifted the phone out, blinking as she saw the name on the screen.
Ellis Roberts. He was calling from his cellphone, something he so rarely used it gave her a jolt to see the number.
She accepted the call, wincing as Lainey pulled her hair too tight. “Sorry,” Lainey whispered.
“Hello?” Courtney said, as the call connected. “Ellis? Is everything okay?”
There was a sob that cut right through her. It was high and soft enough for her to know it was Mary, not her husband.
“Courtney,” she gasped. “Can you meet us at the hospital? It’s Carl. He’s been shot.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Courtney rushed to the hospital on pure adrenaline, her heart hammering against her chest as she parked in the lot. It wasn’t until she got out of the car that she began to feel light headed.
It felt like déjà vu. Memories from years ago assailed her. A different brother, the same hospital, the same fear. The same horrible, horrible guilt that the last time she’d seen him, he’d looked broken. Because of her.
This was all because of her.
She hardly managed to keep it together long enough to give Carl’s name at the desk.
“Are you a relative?” the officious-looking woman behind it asked.
“His sister-in-law.” It was almost a truth.
The woman nodded and looked him up on the computer in front of her, then gave Courtney directions to the ER waiting room. It was crazy that she even needed to be told how to get there. The way should have been etched in her memory from the last time. But her mind felt fuzzy, as though the connections weren’t firing the way they should. She couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything except try to remember to breathe.
Carl had been shot.