“What the hell, Cole?” Drake said once they were in the wide hallway. They wandered past a couple of patient rooms, the wide glass doors keeping patients visible to medical personnel and everyone else. “I said I’d be here.”

“You should’ve answered Mason’s texts or calls this morning.”

“My phone is busted. Shattered it at the gym.”

Cole swore to himself. “If you were better at showing up when you say you will, he wouldn’t assume you’d blow it off.”

“You should talk,” Drake said.

Cole halted as they came to an intersection in the hall. He leaned his upper body against the wall, the doorway to their mom’s room in his line of sight. “If I say I’ll be somewhere, I’ll be there.”

He was smart enough most times to not promise much, but if he did, he followed through. Drake, on the other hand, had a rep for overpromising.

Drake took up a similar position on the opposite wall and shook his head. “This is Mom. I wouldn’t skip out.”

At the sudden rawness that rang through his brother’s voice, Cole backed off. “You know Mason,” he said with a shrug.

“Directing a multimillion-dollar circus isn’t enough. He’s got to micromanage the family as well.”

“Hit the nail on the head,” Cole said. “He was about to flip his shit by the time he called me.”

Drake smirked and shook his head. “It must suck to be him.”

“It must,” Cole said, cracking half a grin himself. Their high-strung oldest brother had always been something they could agree on.

“Mom seems more like herself today,” Drake said.

“She gave me the fighting doesn’t solve anything lecture, so yeah.”

Drake laughed. “Maybe one day you’ll take that one to heart.”

Cole scoffed. “You should talk.” He checked the time on his watch, saw it was crawling toward nine a.m. “You need to go buy a new phone?”

“As soon as I’m done here,” Drake said. “I don’t have my next shift at the gym until this afternoon.”

Cole glanced toward their mom’s room again, where the nurse still hadn’t come back out. “Go ahead. I got this.”

“Don’t you have to get to work?”

“I took the day off. You might as well take advantage of it.” Cole straightened, seeing the nurse emerge from their mom’s room.

Drake’s gaze followed his. “You sure? I could stand to get some food too.”

“Goes without saying,” Cole said. “I’m here. If I didn’t want to stay, I’d say so.”

Drake nodded. “I’ll slip in and tell Mom bye, come back tonight between the gym and my date. Thanks, man,” Drake said as they started back down the hall toward her room. “I owe you one.”