Forgetting about Carl, Tobias quickly switched the phone to his other ear. “Why? What’s happened?”

“We’re not entirely sure at this point. Susan got up and went to work this morning, but she needed him to watch the store while she drove over to Santa Barbara for some supplies. When she tried calling him she couldn’t get him to pick up, so she tried the neighbor, who went over to rouse him and found him unresponsive.”

“Unresponsive. What does that mean? He wasn’t breathing?”

“He was breathing, but he was unconscious.”

“And now?”

“He’s awake. They’re running all kinds of tests to figure out what could be wrong, but I know how much you care about him, so…I wanted you to know.”

“Are you going over to the hospital?”

“I’m there now. Susan, Maya and Jada are up in the room with him, so I decided not to crowd in.”

He’d decided not to crowd in because his mother-in-law still blamed him for what Tobias had done thirteen years ago and wouldn’t speak to him. But Maddox rarely mentioned Susan and how she treated him. He knew Tobias felt bad enough. Maddox was just eleven months older, but he’d always tried to look out for Tobias. “Will you let me know if there’s an hour or so when everyone will be gone?”

“You’d like to come see him?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure. I’ll do what I can to get you a few minutes, but you’d better drive over to the hospital now, because if I can manage it, it’ll be a very small window. You know how protective Susan is.”

“I do.” He also knew that if she got wind of him being there, she’d do everything she could to drive him away. “I’m going to shower. Then I’ll be right over.”

“I’ll be here.”

“Thanks.” He was about to hang up when Maddox said, “Wait—you haven’t told me what’s going on between you and Harper Devlin.”

“There’s nothing going on,” he said.

“It sure looked like there was.”

“Looks can be deceiving. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it.”

There was a slight pause. “What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’ve already had an argument.”

It was much worse than an argument, which was why Tobias preferred not to talk about it. Also, he couldn’t imagine Harper would want anyone else to know, even his brother. “No argument. We’re just friends, anyway.”

“You’re saying you didn’t sleep with her?”

“Maddox, stop.”

“So you did sleep with her.”

“I’ve got to go…”

“Something’s happening between you two—”

“I’m hanging up now,” he said and disconnected.

10