Page 125 of Choosing Us

Without question and without hesitation. I will always pick Harlow.

Liam

We wouldn’t expect anything less, brother.

Finn

For sure. But I’ll be taking my cookies with me if you kick me out.

Me

Consider me fully warned.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

“You have got to be kidding me, Walker. No, absolutely not. This is ridiculous.” I cross my arms and glare at my supervising agent—he is not my friend or brother-in-law right now. He is being a hard-ass about protocol.

He slightly tilts his head at me as his eyes narrow. “Were you or were you not injured in the process of us apprehending our suspect this evening?”

I can feel my face reddening with embarrassment. “Technically, yes. But⁠—”

He raises his hand to stop me. “And did you or did you not need assistance in standing and are still limping twenty minutes later?”

“I just fell down. I’m fine. I’m a doctor!” I hiss at him.

“And they make the worst patients. Listen, I’m not messing around when it comes to the health and safety of my team members.” He takes a step closer and lowers his voice, totally channeling his dad-voice that I’ve heard him use around his kids. “And if you think that Ryan won’t kick my ass for not getting you checked out after you fell down a damn flight of stairs, then you must have hit your head, too.”

“It wasn’t an entire flight, it was like … four steps. And the stairs didn’t hurt as much as the concrete wall that caught my hip when I landed off the four steps that were not a full flight,” I grumble at him, but I know I’m losing this fight. “I fell on my ass, Walker. I don’t need a damn ambulance.”

He just stares at me, and I know I’m not getting my way.

I swallow my pride and climb into the back of the ambulance, but not before pleading with the EMTs to not run their sirens during transport.

I lost that battle, too.

“I knew I should have tried harder to convince you to take a longer honeymoon after our wedding,” Ryan grumbles into the phone as I lie back in the hospital bed. The unforgiving fluorescent lights are way too bright for ten o’clock at night, and I let my eyes close.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, I promise, I’m okay. And if we had taken a longer honeymoon, I still doubt it would have been a five weeklong one. Besides, don’t sell our honeymoon in Iceland short—the Northern Lights were amazing.”

He grunts at me. Who is this adorable, disgruntled caveman?

“Ryan, I would tell you if I thought this was urgent or serious. I literally got knocked on my ass, and Walker is being a stickler for protocol. I think it’s just a deep muscle bruise on my hip, but nothing is broken.”

“You said someone can’t always feel a hairline fracture.”

“Okay, true, but I think if I had a hairline fracture in my hip, it would hurt like hell if I was walking around.”

“They’re going to check that, right?” I can hear him pacing around and just imagine him running his hands through his hair.

“Yes, I am going to get imaging here soon, and then I will call you back and tell you I was right and it was nothing to worry about, okay? So long as they clear me to get out of here soon, we should be able to catch a flight back to Nashville tonight, or we will drive. The team is all still here.”

He huffs at me again. “I can come to Birmingham. I could be there in less than three hours.”

“I know you could, but I wouldn’t be here, and then I’d be sad at home without my husband.” He barks a rough laugh at that. “Seriously, Ryan, I’m okay.”

“Tell me again what happened.”