But I don’t get to revel in my achievements, because despite the hot, red flush on her cheeks, the wobbliness of her limbs, she’s pulling herself off the bed. I sit back on my knees and watch her, amused and satisfied that the way she’s moving, like a baby deer on ice, is because of me. She finally makes it to her own knees, facing me, and starts to pull off my sweater.
“Too many clothes,” she repeats her complaint from earlier. I help her on her quest to get me naked, pulling the sweater over my head, but as I reach for the first button on my shirt she’s already got three undone, and before I know it, she’s shoving it off my body.
“I’ve got a lot of payback headed your way,” Sadie warns, kissing her way down my chest. I’ve never been happy to be targeted for revenge until now. I’d make a snarky comment about that, but I’m too busy enjoying the feel of her lips as they make their way across my torso. I’m so engrossed in the feel of that, I barely realize that she’s gotten my pants down until her lips brush my tip. Oh. My. God. It’s like a jolt of electricity through my entire body.
And then she’s suddenly got all of me in her warm, soft mouth and I’ve died and gone to heaven. I know it’s been a while since my sexual contact has been anything other than my hand, but this is incredible. And because of that I’m having a hard time holding back…I want to buck my hips, pushing myself deeper into her mouth, and I want to explode—soon. I find myself twisting her hair in my hands, and I worry it’s hurting her, so I start to let go, but that just makes her stop moving. Her big blue eyes look up at me from under her thick lashes and her mouth pulls back just long enough for her to whisper, “Don’t let go. I like it.”
So as she takes me in again, her tongue swirling over my shaft, I grab her hair again. She moves faster and deeper until…yeah, I’m going to come. I pull my hips back, but she grabs my ass with the hand not wrapped around my dick and holds me in place. Then she sucks harder and…I lose it completely. My knees shaking, my cock twitching, and my hips bucking. And I swear, I hear bells.
She pulls back and stands up way quicker than I would like. I force my eyes to focus and my head to clear. Her eyes are darting around the room. She gives me a quick but victorious smile, clearly pleased with herself. “Where are my pants?” she asks, and I’m confused. Is she leaving? “That’s my phone.”
Oh. Right. The bells I thought were caused in my brain by the earth-shattering orgasm are actually her phone ringing. I turn around and point. She darts over to the foot of the bed and picks up her pants, digging the phone out of the back pocket.
She turns her back to me as she answers, which is fine because she’s still naked and I can admire her beautiful body, including that incredible ass, which looks as tight and fine in the moonlight coming in through the open wall of windows as it felt in my hands.
“What?” she says into the phone. Her tone isn’t annoyed but definitely terse, like the person on the other end knows they’re interrupting something, which makes me think it must be one of her sisters. Probably Dixie, since I know that I picked her up at Dixie’s apartment. She doesn’t know I know that—she didn’t say it outright to me, but I dropped Eli off there after practice once when his car was at the mechanic’s.
“Whoa! Slow down!” Sadie says into her phone.
I reach down and grab a pair of shorts on the laundry pile and pull them on. She is listening to a high-pitched voice on the other end of the line. I can hear it, but can’t make out the words. “What part of the leg? Compound or stable fracture? Is there a bone protruding? Okay. That’s good. Are you sure it’s broken? How the hell did this happen? Where was his nurse?”
It’s her dad. Shit.
“Okay. I’m on my way. I’ll meet you there. Jen is head nurse tonight, and she’s a little abrupt,” Sadie says as she walks toward the door to my room. I trail behind her. “Drop my name. It will make her nicer. She likes me. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She hangs up and I grab her arm just as she’s about to walk into the hall. “What’s wrong? Is it your dad?”
She nods and swallows a moment, clearly struggling to be calm. “He tried to walk without help for some reason. He was in the den, and the nurse had left him for a second, and I don’t know. I don’t know what he was thinking, but he fell and they think he broke his leg. They called an ambulance. I have to meet them at the hospital.”
“Okay. I can drive you.”
“No I’ll call a Lyft.” She shakes her head and then tucks some hair behind her ear and turns to my hall again. I refuse to let go of her arm, and when she turns back, her expression is annoyed.
“Sadie. I will drive you,” I repeat, and then my eyes drop quickly and lift to hers again. “After you put on clothes.”
She glances down, and hot pink color explodes on her apple cheeks. “Shit. Right. Oh, my God, I was actually going to walk out of here.”
“You would have felt a draft on the deck and figured it out,” I tell her as she walks back toward the bed and grabs her underwear. She dresses at lightning speed.
“Can I use the bathroom?”
“Hallway. First door on the right.”
She disappears, and I change back into my jeans and grab a T-shirt, ready to drive her. She emerges from the bathroom a couple moments later, and she’s texting on her phone. “My sister Winnie. The ambulance is there, and they’re loading him up.”
“Okay. That’s good,” I say and rub her shoulder, trying to be soothing. “Let’s get you there.”
“I called a Lyft,” she replies and shows me the app on her phone. There’s a little black car icon moving toward the marina. “I had a good time. No, wait. I had a great time. But let’s just press the pause button here. Let me go and deal with this, and then maybe we can unpause this—right here in this room—again sometime soon?”
She kisses me on the cheek and starts down the stairs before I can even respond, so I follow. She knows I’m right behind her, so she keeps talking. “I’m really sorry, I just…”
“Don’t apologize,” I reply. “It’s your dad. I get it. I just wish you’d let me drive you.”
“This…” She stops, turns to face me and points to the ceiling. “That…what just happened. Was…well, it was fucking magical for me, and I am definitely hoping to continue that and see how much more magical we can be. But…this…this thing with my family. My life right now. It’s not magical. It’s kind of a nightmare, and I’m not ready for you to walk into the nightmare. I need to keep the unicorn away from the darkness.”
She turns and keeps walking toward the front door. I follow her. “I don’t quite understand all of that, but I think I get it. I guess. It’s just I can totally handle the darkness, Sadie. I am not a stranger to it myself. And did you just call me a unicorn?”
“Yes,” she confirms and pauses on my deck, as she glances at her app again. Apparently her ride is about to enter the marina. “Because up until tonight I didn’t know sexual chemistry like this existed. I thought it was a myth, like the unicorn.”
I laugh at that despite the seriousness of the more pressing situation at hand. She looks embarrassed again. “Sorry. I am being blunt, and you’re probably thinking I’m insane, but if having a dad dying prematurely has taught me anything, it’s say what you mean and don’t sugar-coat shit because you might not get a chance to be honest or say how you really feel later.”
Headlights glare as a Prius enters the marina. She opens the gate, and I help her onto to dock and follow her up the ramp. “Listen, never apologize for being honest. Or giving me compliments like that.”
We reach the car, and I step in front of her to open the door. She gives me a grateful smile, and I take the moment to lean down and kiss her quickly but softly. “For the record, it was fucking magical for me too. And I definitely want to continue this when everything is back on track with your dad.”
She nods and kisses me again. “I’ll text you.”
She slips into the back seat, and the Prius drives away.
14
I rush through the doors of the ER and instantly spot Winnie and Dixie. Winnie sees me first and jumps up. Her eyes are bloodshot, and she looks distressed. Dixie jumps up. She’s trying to be braver, like she always tries to be, but I can still tell she’s been crying, and her hand is shaking as she reaches out to hug me. I hug her and then move on to Winnie, who clings to me like I’m the floating door in Titanic.
“Where’s everyone?” I ask. I have this weird reaction to my siblings being upset. The more distraught they are, the calmer I become. I think it’s a side effect from my trauma training. The ER gets a lot of emotional patients and family, and nurses have to keep their cool.
“Mom is in with Dad, but the room is small, so they asked us to wait here,” Dixie explains. “Jude is on his way. Eli is getting us coffee, even though I said I didn’t want any.”
I nod. Winnie sniffs loudly, her face still buried in the front of my shirt. “Let’s sit back down and I’ll see what I can find out.”
I walk Winnie backward toward the row of plastic chairs and deposit her in one. Dixie sits beside her and takes her hand. I head to the desk at the front. Damn, it’s Kina. She’s a pediatric nurse but picks up shifts in the ER sometimes to make extra cash. She doesn’t do more than she has to, and sometimes you even have to push her to do that. I walk over and smile. “Hey, Kina.”
“Oh, hey, Sadie, what are you doing here?”
I blink. “Umm…my dad was admitted.”
She looks confused. “Mr. Chang? The guy with the chest pain?”
“No. The man with the same last name as me. Randy Braddock,” I reply, trying not to sound annoyed. “Possible broken leg. Can you pull up his file and let me know what’s going on?”
“I guess.” She shrugs and leans over to type on the keyboard. She turns the monitor a little so I can read it myself.
“Thanks, Kina.”
“Hey…” she calls as I start to walk back to my sisters. “Does that mean your brother is coming in tonight?”
“Yes,” I reply and frown as I add pointedly, “With his wife and child.”
“Oh. Bummer.”
I ignore her and rejoin Winnie and Dixie. “They think it’s a dislocated hip, not a broken leg. They’re going to bring him down for X-rays. Mom should be back out here soon.”
Dixie nods. Winnie sniffs. I sigh. Fuck. This isn’t good. More times than not what they first think is a dislocated hip, they discover is broken once they do the X-ray. Broken hips are filled with complications for people like my dad who already have compromised health. At the very least it means a prolonged hospital stay. But I’m not going to share that info with my sisters until we know more.
Eli rounds the corner at the other end of the waiting room carrying a tray of coffees. When no one takes them from him, he puts the tray down on the empty seat next to me and drops into the chair across from us. Our eyes meet, and he looks confused. “Where were you?”
“Out for dinner,” I reply vaguely.
“In a tornado?” he asks and waves a finger around in front of my face. “Your hair is like…a disaster. And your shirt is on inside out and backward.”
I glance down, and I see the little white tag that should be inside my shirt is between my shoulders, staring back at me. Damn. I shrug. “I went to the gym and was rushing to get here.”
“Really?” Eli questions, and then he motions to my sisters beside me. “Because judging by the look on Winnie and Dixie’s faces you’re feeding me bullshit and they know the truth.”
I turn and look at my sisters. They’re both grinning wildly. I glare at them.
“Where is he?” Jude’s deep voice cuts through the room.
Zoey is right beside him with Declan strapped to her chest in a Baby Bjorn. I stand up as he and Zoey walk toward us, and I give him the recap of what I know. He runs a hand roughly through his blond hair, and Zoey lays a hand on his shoulder and squeezes. He reaches up and takes it in his own as I reach for Declan and rub his head. His hair is like peach fuzz, and the feel of it is comforting. God, I want him to know my dad…I want my kids to know…
“Hey,” Jude says to me. I look over at him to find his face panicked. “Is this serious? Like more than I think? Because you look like you might cry.”
“Is she crying?” Winnie asks, her voice cracking. “Because if Sadie is crying, then someone isn’t telling us something. This is a big deal, isn’t it? Oh, God…”
I force myself to look relaxed. “I’m not crying. Calm down, Win. I don’t know anything more than you told me on the phone. Let’s not freak out yet.”
“Do you want to call Ty?” Zoey asks.
“No. Things are bad enough,” Winnie replies and walks away.
“You know your shirt is on inside out and backward?” Jude asks me. His eyes narrow, and that devious little brain of his starts spinning at a lightning-fast pace. I can virtually see it happen behind his eyes, which are almost identical to mine. “Where were you tonight?”
Thankfully, my mom walks out to join us, and the focus turns to her. Somehow she looks older than she did when I left the house this afternoon. And more frail. We all walk toward her, but Jude and I pull ahead of the pack.
“He’s in X-ray,” my mom explains. “The first doctor thought his hip was dislocated but the second is thinking it’s broken.”
“Which doctors?” I ask.
“Dr. Murray thinks dislocated, but he called Dr. Staal for a consult, and he thinks broken,” Mom says. I feel my heart drop from my chest into the soles of my shoes. Murray is just a resident. She’s bright but still new, and Dr. Staal is one of our best orthopedic doctors. Chances are he’s right. Fuck.
“Okay, well, there’s nothing that can be done or decided until he’s out of X-ray and we know what we’re dealing with, so let’s just sit,” I say and wrap an arm around my mom’s shoulders, guiding her to the chairs.
“I got you a chai tea. I know it’s your favorite,” Eli says and plucks one of the cups from the cardboard holder. I smile at him approvingly.
“Sweetie,” my mom says as she sips the tea. “Your shirt is on wrong.”
“Yeah.” I nod and grit my teeth. Why does my family have to pick this moment to notice everything about me? I’m a middle child. I’m supposed to be ignored, for crying out loud.
“She’s trying a new look,” Jude informs her. “I’m calling it ‘Hot Mess.’ It actually really suits her personality when you think about it.”
“You’re lucky your child is here or else I would be calling you lots of colorful, accurate names right now,” I warn him, and Zoey smiles.
“I can do earmuffs if you’d like,” she tells me and covers little Declan’s ears with the palms of her hands. Even my mom laughs at that.
Dixie and Jude picked perfect mates. They aren’t additions to our family; they’re both like members we didn’t realize we had. They’re perfect. Unlike Ty, Winnie’s boyfrenemy. I wonder how Griffin would fit into this crazy family tree. I feel like he’d be the same, just fit right in like a branch that was already a part of our tree. I mean after all, I feel abnormally close and comfortable with him after just one date. I give my head a shake. It’s crazy. Thinking about him with my family…how he’d fit in…is getting ahead of myself. It’s inappropriate and borderline insane. But so was kissing him in the parking lot and having our first date at his house and ending it with oral sex, but yet…it still feels right.
“Oh, my gosh!” My mom gasps, and it startles me back to reality. Everyone turns toward her, on edge, panicked. She’s looking only at me. “You were on your date tonight! Your shirt is on inside out because you were on your date.”
Dixie breaks down into giggles. Eli’s jaw drops, his mouth a gaping O. Jude’s eyes bug out of his head, Zoey looks excited, and Winnie looks confused. I want the floor to open up and swallow me.
“Oh, honey, I’m not judging,” my mom whispers. “I know you’re a smart woman and you’ll always make smart choices…
and use protection.”
Everyone starts to laugh, and Dixie, who was already laughing, takes it to a new level and snorts. Jude is the only one not laughing. “Who the hell are you dating?”
“Not dating. One date. And it’s none of your business,” I counter.
“One date and your shirt is on backward,” Jude retorts.
“Really? You of all people are going down that road?” Zoey warns him. “Remember how when we met you were on the verge of moving apartments to avoid your hookups?”
“I’m not judging…” he replies with his hands in the air like he’s got a gun pointed at him. He directs his stare at me again. “But Sadie is smarter than me, and I know she doesn’t wear backward shirts for just anyone. So we should meet him. I get final approval on all their serious boyfriends.”
“Glad I made the cut,” Eli pipes up.
“Barely,” Jude kids with a grin.
“You’ll be lucky if you get an invite to my wedding,” I tell my brother.
“We’re talking marriage?” Winnie looks horrified. “Already?”
“No. It was just a random statement.” I sigh. “You people are exhausting.”
“I’m sure it’s not us,” Dixie mutters. “It’s whatever caused you to put your shirt on inside out and backward.”
“I hate you,” I reply.
“I hate you—because that’s my shirt, and now I have to dry-clean it,” she retorts.
I am about to dare her to hold it up under a black light first, but then I see Dr. Staal walking toward us. Mom sees him too, and we both stand. The family follows our lead. I can tell by the expression on his face that it’s the worst possible outcome.
I’m right. He explains Dad has fractured his hip and will need to surgery. He’ll have to stay in the hospital for a while.
“The surgery is fairly routine, but Mr. Braddock’s condition does make it a bit more complicated for both the surgery and the recovery,” Dr. Staal warns. I reach out and take my mom’s hand.
“But he’ll recover, right?” Winnie ask, her voice trembling.
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