“Hadley.” Regina flushed as she looked up at me. “Hi.”
“Hi,” I said, shrugging out of my coat. “Sorry I’m a bit late. The weather really sucks, and . . .”
Something about Regina’s expression made me immediately shut my mouth.
Her gaze was fixed on the counter as she scrubbed with more force than necessary, her shoulders a little hunched over as she worked.
“Is . . . something wrong?” I asked hesitantly.
“No,” she said quickly, looking up. “No, not at all. I probably should have called earlier. You shouldn’t have come in. It’s a bit slow tonight.”
I looked around. A bit slow was an understatement. The place was as empty as a graveyard.
“That’s okay,” I said. “I’ll . . . Just don’t put me on the payroll tonight, then.”
“Hadley, really. You can go home,” Regina said, attempting a smile. “Archer’s out running errands right now, he’ll be back soon. He can help close up then. I won’t hold it against you if you leave.”
The thing was, I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to go home to an empty apartment, where haunting words had been scribbled across the window in black marker, words I still saw after spending hours scrubbing them away. The last thing I wanted was to be alone.
“It’s not a problem at all,” I told Regina sincerely. “Really. I’d like to stay.”
She finally gave in a moment later with a small chuckle, and then gestured a hand toward the kitchen. “Well, if you insist.”
I hung up my jacket and bag on a hook in the back room, slipped on an apron, and joined Regina at the front counter. She now crouched down in front of the pastry case, taking out a few old muffins and scones and placing them in a box.
This was the first time I had seen Regina since Thanksgiving. I hadn’t had a shift since Black Friday. I wanted to ask her if she was all right after what happened Thanksgiving night, but the subject of her PTSD was obviously taboo. I was still having difficulty understanding what it was like for Regina, living with the fear of possibly having a flashback at every wrong turn hanging over her head.
“Look, Hadley.”
I stopped wiping down the register and looked to Regina as she stood up straight, setting the pastry box on the counter. “Yes?” I said.
Regina took a deep breath, brushing back her hair over her shoulder. “Listen, I’m . . . I don’t want you to think that . . . that I’m always like that. What you saw on Thanksgiving. Because I’m not. It’s . . . complicated. I—”
I cut her off before she could get any farther.
“Archer already told me what happened. It’s okay.”
I wanted to say I understood, but who was I kidding? I had no idea what it was like to go through what Regina and her family did. That kind of pain and hurt . . . I never wanted to know what that was like.
“He did?” Regina looked stunned. “Archer told you?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He did.”
It took her a moment to completely rid herself of shock, and when she did, she sighed, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. “I suppose that makes this . . . a little easier, then.”
“Regina, please don’t apologize for anything,” I said before I could stop myself. “There’s nothing you need to be sorry for.”
She attempted a smile that was marred by the fact her eyes were brimming with tears. “I swear we’re not as messed up as we might seem.”
“Not messed up,” I agreed quickly. I was a little hurt that she would even think her family was messed up. Her family was beautiful. “Sometimes unfortunate things just . . . just happen. And we can’t really do anything about them. But it’s not your fault. Please don’t think that.”
“Unfortunate,” Regina repeated with a bitter laugh. “I suppose that’s the right word for it.”
“Regina, you have a beautiful family and you’re the best mother I’ve ever seen. Rosie absolutely adores you, and I know Archer doesn’t show it, but he does too. He needs you. They both need you. And if your husband were here, I know he would think the same thing—that you’re a strong woman who can do anything.”
I believed what I just said, but what right did I even have to say those words?
“I’m sorry,” I murmured after a moment. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s all right, Hadley,” Regina said. “Really. Thank you for saying that.”
“I should be the one thanking you instead,” I said. “You’ve sort of taken me in as your own, offering me a job, letting me come to family dinners, and . . . Well, it’s nice for a change.”
Regina gave my shoulder a comforting squeeze and smiled. Really smiled. I could see why Chris Morales had fallen in love with her. She was beautiful, inside and out.
“You don’t need to thank me, Hadley,” she told me. “You’ve brought my son to life in more ways than one. It’s only natural you would be a part of our family.”
“How . . . What do you mean?” I asked, fixated on my shoes.
Regina thought about her answer for a moment or two before she spoke slowly, thoughtfully.
“After Chris was killed, it was hard on all of us. But Archer . . . it was especially hard on him. To him, Chris was his father. And afterward . . . well, Archer sort of shut down. He stopped doing all the things he enjoyed. Stopped talking, stopped laughing. There were days where he would just lay in bed and not do anything, just stare at the wall in this sort of daze because he didn’t want to face anybody. And then after what he went through at school, getting picked on, beaten up, being told he was going to end up a murderer like his father . . . You have no idea how badly that tore me up, how much it broke my heart, seeing my baby hurting and not being able to do anything about it.”
Regina stopped to take a deep breath, gnawing on her lip.
“That’s why Archer got held back a year in school,” she continued, running her fingers through her hair. It was something I’d seen Archer do before. “He’ll be nineteen when he graduates. He didn’t want to go because of what people said, what they did to him. And how could I let him after all that happened?” Her eyes were full of a pain only a mother could feel for her child, and it made my chest constrict with a pain of my own. “Hadley, you make Archer smile. And after years of not seeing my boy smiling at all? Of course I’m going to want the reason for his smile around as much as possible.”
I couldn’t comprehend just how awful it must have been for Archer over these past few years. How often had he been given a load of crap like what Ty Ritter had confronted him with the other week?
“That’s why you offered me a job, isn’t it?” I said. “Because of Archer. I know it’s not because I’m an extraordinary barista.”
Regina looked slightly embarrassed. “I wasn’t trying to be a matchmaker and set you two up, if that’s what you’re thinking. Archer just needs a friend. And you are his friend, Hadley.”
“A friend,” I repeated. It was difficult to keep back a smile. “That I can do.”
“Good,” Regina said, giving a smile of her own. “I’m glad.”
The atmosphere seemed lighter now. Not so suffocating.
I was thankful I had been able to talk to Regina about this. It had put several things into a new perspective.
A blast of cold air blew through the coffeehouse as the door swung open and some guy who looked frozen to the core wandered in. I took his change while Regina quickly made him a caramel mocha. He left looking considerably happier.
Regina and I fell into a discussion about how our days had gone. Compared to what we had previously been talking about, it was a relief to talk about something considerably lighter.
“No, really, I’m terrible at geometry, I swear,” I said as Regina laughed loudly. “If it weren’t for Archer helping me, I totally would have failed that test!”
“Did he really say that, though?” Regina demanded. “‘You butchering your math is giving me hives’?”
“Yes! I’m not joking!
He—”
The outdated phone beside the cash register started ringing before I could finish speaking.
Regina took a second to collect herself and then answered with a polite, “Mama Rosa’s Coffeehouse, how can I help you?”
There was a beat of silence as the person on the other line spoke.
“Yes, this is she.”
Genuine fear started to grip me like a vice when Regina’s face began to drain of color, turning the color of a sheet. She sucked in air through her teeth, almost like a dying person taking their last breath.
“Well, are they all right? Can I speak to Archer?” Her voice sounded hollow, dead. “Is there— No, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Have you called Karin DiRosario? Well, do it again until you get ahold of someone! Right. Okay. Good-bye.”
She slowly set the phone back on the receiver and grabbed at the counter behind her.
I was afraid to know what happened, because there was no way on this earth it had been something good.
“Regina?” I reached out to squeeze her hand. “Is everything okay?”
She shook her head. It was several moments before she said anything. The silence stretched on with an almost suffocating intensity.
“There’s . . . been an . . . accident,” she said slowly, her voice cracking. “Archer and Carlo . . . There was a . . . They were on a bus, a-and . . . it crashed.”
CHAPTER 23
Accidents
I had misheard Regina. There was no way what she just said could possibly be true.
“You’re . . . no. That’s not . . . that’s not right,” I said.
During my encounter with Havoc, he made it plainly clear something bad was on the horizon. His note of next time you won’t be the only one to lose it all was self-explanatory. If this really was the next time, if he had done this . . .
“Hadley, we have to go.” Regina squeezed my shoulders, bringing me back to painful reality. “Now.”
I yanked off my apron and made a mad dash through the kitchen to grab our jackets from the back room as Regina made a quick phone call to Victoria, who was with Rosie at Karin’s house.
“They’re both at Bellevue,” Regina told me as I passed over her jacket. “It’s not too far from here.”
“Taking the train is going to waste too much time,” I said, heading for the door. “We need to take a cab.”
Regina switched off the open sign and locked up as I stood on the curb, flagging down a cab. I jumped into the first one that pulled over to the sidewalk and was quickly followed by Regina. I watched her carefully as the driver navigated the streets to Bellevue, worried that she might suddenly break down like she had on Thanksgiving. But she didn’t. She stared blankly ahead, her hands twisted together in her lap.
It felt as if a lifetime had passed before the cab finally pulled to a stop outside the emergency room entrance at Bellevue. I paid the fare before Regina could object, and then we were both scrambling onto the sidewalk and sprinting through the doors into the hospital.
“Excuse me?” Regina made a beeline for the information desk, slipping through the clumps of people milling around, with me right on her heels. “Excuse me!”
The woman wearing green scrubs sitting behind the desk looked up from her computer. “Yes?”
“Archer Morales and Carlo DiRosario were just brought in. I need to know what room they’re in,” Regina demanded.
The woman raised her eyebrows. “Are you family?”
I took a step back when an angered expression crossed Regina’s face, so out of place with her soft, pretty features. She slammed her hands down on the counter and leaned closer to the woman, lowering her voice. “Look, lady. This is my son and nephew we’re talking about. You’ve got another thing coming to you if you don’t tell me where they are right now.”
The woman turned visibly pale and leaned back in her chair, then quickly nodded, tapping around on her computer.
I almost cheered. Go, Regina!
“Carlo DiRosario is straight through those doors,” the woman said, pointing her finger to the doors to our right. “Third room on the left. Though I’m not seeing any Archer Morales here.”
“What?” Regina and I gasped in unison.
“I’m sorry, but if he’s not in the system, he hasn’t been brought in,” the woman told us.
We didn’t stick around to hear what else she had to say.
I burst through the swinging doors on our right, Regina at my side, as we sprinted down the hallway, which bustled with nurses and doctors heading every which way. I skidded to a stop outside the room the nurse mentioned and wrenched back the green privacy curtains without warning.
Carlo was propped up on a mountain of pillows. Numerous shallow cuts decorated his face, and nasty bruises were already beginning to form across his forearms and neck, but he was alive and breathing. He seemed quite surprised to see Regina and me standing at the foot of his bed.
“Where’s the party?” he said, grinning.
“Carlo, thank God you’re all right.” Regina rushed over and threw her arms around him, squeezing him tightly. “I was so worried.”
Carlo’s face whitened and he scrunched his eyes closed while awkwardly patting Regina on the back.
“I’m fine, zia, but, um . . . you’re suffocating me.”
“Oh.” Regina pulled away quickly, rubbing at the tears staining her cheeks. “Sorry.”
Carlo glanced around Regina toward me then, and his grin returned, wider than before. “Good to see you again, Hadley.”
“I’m not going to lie, Carlo, it’s great to see you too,” I admitted, coming to the bedside to give his hand a gentle squeeze. “How are you feeling?”
“Well.” He heaved a dramatic sigh, settling back against his pillows. “Other than the fact that it hurts to move, I’m flipping fantastic.”
“Caro, what happened?” Regina took a seat on the edge of the bed, placing her hand over Carlo’s. “I swear I nearly had a heart attack when I got that phone call.”
“I have no idea, zia,” Carlo answered after a moment of thought. A pained expression crossed his face again as he thought back to what just happened. “One minute I was just sitting there in my seat, with my headphones in, and then there was this loud screeching noise, and then the bus started tipping, and . . .”
He couldn’t finish his sentence.
“Your mom will be here soon, sweetheart,” Regina told Carlo, squeezing his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“I know, zia, I just—”
“Where’s Archer?”
I hadn’t meant to cut Carlo off, but the question had been bubbling at my lips since the moment I first walked into the room. I usually wasn’t one for dramatics, but I doubted I would be able to think properly until I saw Archer with my own eyes. Saw for myself that he was alive, and breathing, and that he was going to keep breathing. That I would make sure he kept breathing.
“Dunno,” Carlo said. I didn’t like the way he was smiling at me. Like he knew something I didn’t. “He’s gotta be around here somewhere. He was here when they brought me in. Why don’t you go find him?”
Regina looked like she was about to protest as she opened her mouth, but Carlo winked discreetly at her, and she stopped short. “Go ahead, Hadley,” she said while giving Carlo a curious look. “I’ll stay with Carlo until Karin gets here, and then I’ll be along in a minute. I want to find a doctor and figure out what’s going on.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I turned on my heel and left the room, anxious to find Archer as soon as possible. It was almost impossible to make out any sign of him with the hallway so crowded with nurses and doctors, as well as carts full of medical equipment and beds lining the walls. I maneuvered my way down the hallway as best I could without accidentally bumping into someone, and turned left.
When I saw him standing in the middle of the hallway, cell phone at his ear, talking quickly and quietly, I felt a great wave of relief wash over me. Fear still radiated through m
e straight down to my toes, but he was here, alive, and that suddenly seemed like the only thing that mattered.
“Archer?”
He looked around at the sound of his name, and a confused expression crossed his face. “Hadley? What are you doing here?”
A sob left my lips when he said my name. I leapt at him before I really knew what I was doing. He gave a startled gasp when I threw my arms around him, his cell phone falling to the floor with a clatter as he caught me to keep us from toppling over.
“Hey,” he huffed out as I threaded my fingers through his hair, breathed in his familiar scent. “What are you doing?”
I started babbling. “I thought something terrible happened to you, I thought—”
“Hadley, stop. Stop.”
He gently slid my arms from around his neck and moved me back a step, firmly gripping my shoulders. “I’m fine, all right? Nothing happened to me. I wasn’t even on the bus. I was waiting for Carlo at the next stop.”
My shoulders sagged as I gave another sigh, a hand at my chest. This seemed too good to be true. “Thank God,” I mumbled. “I swear, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to . . .”
“You thought you weren’t going to be able to do . . . what?” Archer said uneasily, clearing his throat.
My fingers loosened their iron grip on his jacket, and I took a step back.
“I thought . . . I thought I wasn’t going to be able to ever . . . fight with you about geometry again,” I finished lamely, even though we both knew I meant so much more.
We had barely spent that much time together in the grand scheme of things. There was still so much we didn’t know about each other. I didn’t want that chance ripped away from us.
Archer looked at me, a conflicted expression on his face, and then moved forward without warning, grabbed my face in his hands, and kissed me.
I was so shocked, I just stood there for several seconds until I managed to respond. My fingers clutched at his jacket, whether to shove him away or pull him closer, I wasn’t sure. I could feel his heart pounding wildly against his chest, and my legs had begun to shake, but neither of us pulled away. We were kissing as if we were both desperate, grappling for something we couldn’t quite reach. It definitely wasn’t perfect, but this was us. I didn’t want it to end.
In 27 Days Page 18