Read Online Demanded by Him (Wanted Series #3) by Hazel Kelly - Free Book Online Page A

bullshit cliché?”
    She just smiled at me. “When you’re done visiting, please see
yourself back to the waiting room.”
    “How long-” My throat closed up, but I managed to keep my voice
from cracking.
    “Keep it to a half hour,” she said. “Sophie needs her rest.”
    Resting?! Is that what was going on here?
    I stared at her little wrist with the plastic tag on it. Last
time I saw one of those tags was when she went low as a kid. The time before
that was when I had to get my stomach pumped after our last show in Chicago. And
even though I overdid it, the people in the hospital got me rehydrated so fast
I went back out later that night and almost died all over again. Fucking youth.
    A noticed a chart and a red pen dangling on a clip at the end of
the bed. Part of me wanted to look at it, but I turned back towards Sophie
instead.
    “How’s my girl?” I asked, looking at her still eyelids and
willing her baby fine lashes to flicker. “I heard you were bossy at camp.
Ashley told me. Do you remember her coming with you in the ambulance? That’s
how you got here? Do you remember? So don’t wake up and be scared of where you
are, okay? This is a hospital. You know what that is. You could spell it by the
time you were four. Remember?”
    I took a big breath, my chest expanding as I gulped for air like
a drowning man. Then I blew the air out slowly, trying to think of what to say
next and praying she would fill the gap in my blabbering with a smile. Or a
nose scratch. Something to prove she was still fighting to feel good.
    “Guess what I did while you were at camp?” I reached towards the
head of her bed and pulled a flimsy, wire-framed chair up beside her without
letting go of her hand. “I hung out with a pretty lady who has the same hair as
Ariel from The Little Mermaid.”
    I swallowed. “If you wake up, you can meet her. There’s a
Snickers for you and everything.” I sighed. “I know you’d rather have Reese’s
Cups, but we can get those on the way home. Or on the way back to camp.
Whatever you want if you’ll just wake up.”
    I shook my head. “Anything at all. Breakfast for dinner. A big
pizza all to yourself. I promise I won’t even eat your leftover cold ones
behind your back.” I remembered to breathe again. “Or we can go to the zoo. We
could even go at night. I bet my friend that works there would let us in after
hours. You can bring your friends from camp. As many as you want. And Ashley,
too.”
    I dropped my head for a second and clenched my jaw.
    “She said you were bragging about my band. You don’t need to do
that, ya know.” I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling. There was a dentist style
light above us on a low setting that blinded me for a moment. “You need to
focus on launching your own music career. Yeah, that’s right. I said it.” I
leaned an elbow on the bed so my forearm was lying next to hers. “You want to
know a secret?”
    I smiled. I could hear her voice in my head. Having just
discovered sarcasm, she’d probably answer me by asking if the pope was
Catholic.
    “I was going to get you a Karaoke Machine for Christmas, one of
the ones that you can hook up to the TV and play all the vintage Britney Spears
videos you want as long as your friends promise not to tell their parents. But
maybe Christmas is too far off. Maybe I should get it for you right away. No
waiting. Christmas come early. What do you say? All you have to do is-”
    I raised my eyebrows and waited for her to finish my sentence.
    But she didn’t wake up.
    And something about the sight of the little oxygen mask over her
face made me feel like I wasn’t taking enough air in my lungs either. Maybe the
doctors would give me a mask, too? I let my eyes look for a call button for a
split second before training them back on Sophie.
    Sophie Hannah Jones.
    I took the liberty of making Hannah her middle name as soon as I
got custody. It was partly a tribute to her mom, which was only appropriate
because even