Wild Sky 2 (47 page)

“
Get Morgan! Get Morgan!
” Dana shouted, and I rocketed up and threw open the door.

“
Morgan!
” I looked back to see that Cal had opened his eyes, and he was smiling weakly up at Dana, who’d started to cry.

“Hey,” I heard Cal say. “Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay…”

Morgan rushed in and gave Calvin a quick scan and made sure he had water to drink, but then he ushered us all out of the room to give Dana and Cal some privacy.

As I went into the hall, I realized that Morgan had brought Dana’s sister, Lacey, back with him, and I was struck by the strange coldness in her eyes as she watched Dana kiss Cal right before the door closed.

“How could she love a D-addict?” Lacey asked.

“He’s not an addict anymore,” I told her, and she focused those icy eyes on me.

“Once an addict always an addict,” she said. “But whatever. If he hurts her, I’ll kill him for her.”

“Yeah, you really won’t have to kill anyone,” I said, but she’d already turned away, watching as Milo, Morgan, and Garrett all high-fived down at the end of the hall, in the lobby.

“Who’s that?” she asked. “He’s cute.”

“Who, Garrett?” I asked. “This is his dad’s—”

Lacey cut me off impatiently. “No, stupid. I’ve met Garrett. He’s an idiot. Who’s the cute one, the one I haven’t met?”

“That’s Milo,” I told her, and it was weird—the next words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. “He’s mine.”

Lacey laughed at that, and all of the little hairs on the back of my neck went up, particularly when she said, “Yeah, that’s not how it works, bitch,” and then walked away.

I was about to follow her into Dr. Hathaway’s office when Dana opened the door to the operating room. She was looking extremely happy—like she was having the best day ever. “Morgan said he brought Lacey? That’s amazing that she felt comfortable enough to come out here.”

It
was
amazing, and I decided to chalk the name-calling up to jealousy combined with years of torture and abuse. This was definitely a happy ending—the return of Dana’s long-lost sister combined with Calvin being cured of his addiction.

Plus, we’d saved Jilly’s life. We were on a roll.

“Can you go sit with Cal for a sec,” Dana asked me, “while I say hi to Lace and make sure she has whatever she needs?”

“Of course. She’s…” I pointed into Dr. H’s office.

“Thanks,” Dana said. But then she caught my arm and said, “I don’t think I’ve said it yet, but…”

She hesitated, so I shook my head. “You already thanked me,” I reassured her. “It’s okay.”

“No,” she said. “I wanted to say that you kicked ass last night. Morgan and I, we both gave up, but you didn’t, Bubble Gum. You refused to quit. And you took command and, well, Cal’s alive because of you.” And then she said the words I never, ever thought I’d hear. “Good job.”

She hugged me again, adding, “Don’t get used to that.”

I wasn’t sure if she meant the hug or the
Good job
, but regardless, I was smiling as I went in to see Cal, who was sitting up in bed.

“Hey,” he said. “Rumor has it you started my heart with your freakishly freak-show G-T ability.”

“Someone’s been spending too much time with his new friend Garrett,” I said. “And as much as I’d like to, I’m not sure I can take total responsibility. Right before your heart started beating again, Dana was all
Come back to me, babe!
”

“Huh,” Cal said, trying to hide his smile. “Funny how she didn’t tell me that part.” He held out his arms to me.

I went in for a hug. It was one of those old, familiar hugs where I had to bend down for it. It was how we were going to have to hug from now on, since his walking days were over. That made my heart twinge, and I had to work it, hard, not to cry.

“It’s okay,” he said, patting my back. In a typical Cal move, he was trying to make
me
feel better. “My heart’s still healthy. So that’s good, right? The way Dana put it, if I had to choose only one, it was better to fix the thing that keeps me alive, right? Be a bummer to be able to walk around only to drop dead from a heart attack in a year. This way, I get to live to be old and cranky.”

“Dana’s very smart,” I said, pulling back and sitting on the edge of his bed.

“But not when it comes to her creepy little sister.”

“Hey,” I said. “Lacey’s been through a
lot
.”

“Be empathetic, be sympathetic,” Cal told me, “but promise me you won’t trust this girl. At least not right away.”

“I trust her about as far as I can throw her,” I told him. And I knew he wasn’t talking about anything having to do with the way she’d just looked at Milo, but I certainly wasn’t going to trust her around my boyfriend, either.

“Thank you,” he said. “So. About this
Long Live Goat Cheese
tattoo on my forehead. In Comic Sans, my
favorite
font…?”

I laughed with delight. “You heard that?”

“Every word,” he said. “Chupacabras, unibrows, nose-picking at weddings. It was impressive. But I remain the Would You Rather master. Behold! Would you rather take a weeklong bus journey with a dozen evil clowns and a bathroom that doesn’t work, or spend an hour in a bed with a dozen tarantulas?”

“Evil clowns?”

“On a strict vegan diet of cowboy beans,” he said. “The tarantulas, however, haven’t been fed in two weeks. Still, if I had to make a guess, I’d bet the evil clowns were angrier and therefore more dangerous.”

I rolled my eyes. “Cal, you’re ridiculous.”

“You love me so much,” he said with a smile.

I smiled back at him. Because I so did.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our agent, Steve Axelrod, and the entire team at Sourcebooks—especially our editor, Aubrey Poole!

Thank you to Aidan; to Jason Gaffney and his Mr. Right, Matt Gorlick; to Fred and Lee Brockmann; and to Dexter, Little Joe, and Buster. And a big shout-out to the Melanie Mania gang, and the cast and crew of
Russian Doll
!

But most of all we thank our partners in life and love: Ed Gaffney and Vern Varela for their fierce and relentless support!

About
the Authors

Suzanne Brockmann and her daughter, Melanie Brockmann, have been creative partners on and off for many years. Their first project was an impromptu musical duet, when then-six-month-old Melanie delighted Suz by matching her pitch and singing back to her. (Babies aren’t supposed to do that.) Since then, Mel has gone on to play clarinet and saxophone, to sing in a wedding band, and to run seven-minute miles. She is one of Sarasota, Florida’s most sought-after personal trainers. Suz has driven an ice-cream truck, directed an a cappella singing group, and can jog a twelve-minute mile if chased. She is the multi-award-winning,
New York Times
bestselling author of more than fifty books.
Wild Sky
is the mother-daughter team’s second literary collaboration and the sequel to
Night Sky
. Their next collaborative project is an indie movie called
Russian Doll
in which Mel will star, while Suz executive produces. Each strongly suspects that the other is a Greater-Than.