“Not as soon as we want,” Mason said.

“They’ll talk to us as soon as they know something,” Gabe said.

“Is Drake coming?” Cole asked.

“I texted him multiple times. Called him twice but can’t get ahold of him,” Gabe said, his frown deepening.

Cole scowled as he glanced around the waiting room. He nodded toward the other side. There were two available chairs in a corner, adjacent to each other. “We’re going to sit. Sierra’s been on her feet all night.” Without another word to his brothers, he put his hand on the small of her back and guided her away.

This time, Sierra didn’t give any thought to all the lines they were blurring. Cole needed someone, and it was crystal clear he didn’t want that person to be one of his brothers. After what he’d done for her tonight, she was more than willing to step up.

Chapter Seven

Cole had gone emotionally numb a good twenty minutes ago. He was aware, at some level, that was probably his brain’s way of coping with news he couldn’t otherwise handle.

He wished he could go deaf to the chaos and noise around them. The corner he and Sierra were sitting in was anything but private, and his head throbbed in time with the toddler two seats away who was pounding an old-fashioned toy hammer on a mini workbench that had eight plastic pegs sticking up at varying heights. The tyke’s father was bent over his own knees looking like death warmed over, and Cole couldn’t help but wonder if he was ill or if he had a loved one behind those looming automatic ER doors.

Easier to think about other people’s problems right now.

“Want me to grab some coffee?” Sierra asked, leaning close to him to be heard over the racket of three or four dozen people stuffed into a too-small room.

“You should go home,” he said, a little surprised she was still here. He appreciated the ride, barely remembered the drive, in fact, so it was good that he hadn’t been behind the wheel, but she didn’t have a horse in this race, didn’t know his family, and sure didn’t need to endure the nightmare of this Saturday-night ER waiting room.

Sierra glanced over at his brothers, who were still leaning against the same wall across the way, not talking much, checking their phones periodically as they waited for more info on their mom. “I’m fine.”

“It’s your sister’s big day,” he said. “Everyone’s waiting for you.”

“I’m staying. Kennedy’s not even there,” she said, and he didn’t miss the thread of don’t argue with me laced in her tone. He knew it well from work.