When I heard Halo ask someone if they knew where I was, I got off the gurney and opened the curtain. “I’m right here.”
“Oh, man.” He winced. “Who did that to you?”
“Some asshole who believed he needed to defend the honor of his sister.”
“She sure set me straig
ht, didn’t she?”
“In that way that only Sloane can.” I followed him out of the emergency room and over to the bank of elevators.
“I’m sorry, Tackle.”
“So am I.”
“What for?”
“Mainly that we didn’t tell you sooner. We wanted to, but then everything happened with Tara, and we decided to let you be happy for as long as we could.”
“I’m not unhappy.”
“I know. We just didn’t want to put a damper on it. Ya know?”
“Yeah, I get it.”
“So, that thing she said about whether or not she’d marry me? I kind of fucked that up big-time.”
“What did you do?”
I spent the time we waited for the elevator and during the ride up to the fourth floor, telling him all the stupid shit I’d done since I found out Sloane was pregnant. When the doors opened, both Halo and I were laughing.
“I, uh, bought her a house. I mean, I didn’t know I was buying it for her exactly when I did, but maybe I really did know.”
“Huh?”
“Remember Chestnut Hill Park?”
“How could I forget it? It’s where you broke my neck.”
“You broke your neck. I didn’t. Anyway, remember the house across the street and how whenever Sloane came along with us, she’d sit and stare at it?”
“Vaguely.”
“You’ll remember when you see it. My dad, the crew, and I have been renovating it. When you were first in New York with Tara, Sloane and I started living there.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. It’s pretty amazing.”
“No, not wow the house; wow, you love her.”
“Yeah, man, I do. Not that I’ve told her yet.”
“Why not?”
“After all the bonehead things you did with Tara, you’re giving me shit?”
“Oh Dios mío,” Carolina said when I walked into Sloane’s room and she saw my face.