“No.” Ben sucked in a deep breath and folded his arms. “We’ll stand. You can tell us while we’re standing.”
Junie knew exactly what he was saying. They’d done all this before. The doctors had asked them to sit after their father’s final heart attack. And then again after their mother had slipped into a diabetic coma she’d never come out of. Somehow, no matter how illogical it was, maybe if they didn’t sit the news wouldn’t be catastrophic.
“No problem, no problem.” The stutter in the doctor’s voice wasn’t building any confidence. “My name is Dr. Scion. Your brother is awake, though heavily medicated for pain. His left leg is broken as is his left arm and collarbone. He sustained a concussion, but all indications at this point are that he doesn’t have a head injury that we’d classify as a significant problem. We’re going to keep him here at least a few days, and there is a slim chance he might need surgery on his leg. The orthopedic consult should be here in a bit.”
“He’s gonna be fine?” Tommy asked, the skepticism on his face registering as disdain for this perfectly fine doctor. But apparently the man was accustomed to this reaction. He never skipped a beat in his response.
“We have no reason to believe he won’t be fine. Don’t get me wrong, he has a long road of recovery ahead of him. He’s lucky to have a large family to support him. I’ll check back in with you in a few hours. You can visit him but only one at a time. He’s very groggy.”
“I’ll go first.” Junie thanked the doctor and tried to make sure her eyes weren’t too puffy from all the crying. That would be the last thing Loch would want.
She pushed open the hospital room door and felt a swell of nausea. They’d come so close to losing their little brother. She couldn’t imagine life without him. She couldn’t imagine a world where she didn’t have five brothers anymore. The urge to cry was powerful, like a little explosion in her chest she was trying to contain.
“Junie.” Loch was reaching a tethered arm out to her but then thought better of it when the pain seemed to surge. Wires and lines were holding him in place. He was younger than her by three years, but like all her brothers he was almost a foot taller than she was. However, here in this bed, he seemed small. Breakable.
“Don’t move.” Junie rushed over and touched his shoulder gently. “Just lie back. You were in an accident, but we just talked to the doctor and you’re going to be fine.”
“I feel so weird.” He reached a hand up and ran it over his head. “Why do I feel so weird?”
“Because you are very high on medication.” Junie laughed and squeezed his shoulder. “The best thing you can do right now is rest. The doctors will take good care of you.”
“I can’t stay here.” He reached for the cords plugging him into the wall and started tugging. “You know how much this is going to cost?”
“Stop.” Junie pushed both his shoulders down and looked him right in the eyes. “Don’t worry about the cost. I have it all under control. You only have to take your time and get better.”
“Texas? It went good?”
“So good.” Junie felt bad lying to her brother, but she’d feel even worse if he walked out of here before he was ready just because he was worried about bankrupting the family. “Once you’re better I’ll go back and keep it going.”
“I’m a mess.” Loch looked down at his broken body and winced. “You can’t wait. Just go now. Go right back down there. That’s what will help me.”
“Oh yeah, right.” Junie waved off the crazy idea. “And what, Ben is going to help you get up the front stairs of the house? Tommy is going to help you get dressed in the morning? You need me.”
“Stop.” Loch’s voice was harsh and tired. “You can’t keep doing this. You can’t keep trying to bail all of us out when something happens. Go back to Texas. Do your shit. Help us that way. Staying here and making me sandwiches isn’t going to do anything for us.”
“That’s the drugs talking. Once you sober up and the pain sets in, you’re not going to want to be stuck with all those knuckleheads out there.”
“Junie, you need to go. Go straight back there.”
“I can’t go right back.” She was protesting but part of her heart was frantic with the possibilities. If she turned around right now and went back to Texas there was still hope. If this place was quicksand, maybe she could run fast enough not to sink.
“Hey.” Tommy was at the door, sticking his shaggy hair and freckled face in. “You’re hogging all the time.”
“He’s being a pain in the ass,” Junie reported, propping a hand on her hip.
“What else is new?” Tommy eyed them both and like a good big brother he homed in on the trouble. “What’s your problem, Loch?”
“Junie needs to leave. I’m telling her to go back to Texas. I’m not going to be one more reason she gets stuck here.”
“Who said I’m stuck?” Junie’s voice was too high and shaky for her words to be believed. It was one of those truths she might never speak out loud, but everyone already knew it. It didn’t need to be announced; it was as evident as the stars on a cloudless night.
“Get off it.” Loch winced at the pain and put his head back on the pillow in defeat. “Junie, you have a shot. Go take it.”
“He’s high.”
“I am.” Loch didn’t even attempt to dispute it. “But I’m still right. You know it too, Tommy.”
“I know you’re all sorts of screwed up. I know my girl is going to have a baby. The house is falling apart. My apartment is a one bedroom. No place for a nursery. I can’t stay out of work to help you get better. Neither can the other boys.”
“See.” Junie gestured to Tommy as though they all knew what needed to be done and Loch was being crazy.
“She stays here and you know exactly what will happen. She’ll take care of me. Get a couple jobs waitressing or cleaning houses. The money she makes goes into keeping all of us idiots afloat. That’s not what dad wanted. Not for her. And I’m sure as hell not going to be the one to disrespect his wishes. She deserves better than that.”
“You are high.” Tommy shook his head, but Junie could tell by his falling expression that he was cracking. “But I guess it doesn’t make sense to pull the plug on the one thing that might actually help.”
Loch forced a chuckle through the pain. “Let’s not throw around the idea of pulling plugs. Not while I’m actually plugged in.”
Tommy held the door open and gestured for Junie to leave. “Only one of us at a time in here. You better go, sis.”
“Tommy.” Junie dropped her head and sighed. “Let’s take a night to think about it. I’ll go back to the house and get some dinner ready. Loch, do what the doctors tell you, all right?” She pointed a demanding finger at the both of them.
“What about Captain Do-Good down there? Is that guy joining us for dinner?”
Loch squinted his eyes, trying to keep his head straight. “What guy?”
“He’s not coming to dinner. Just forget about that.”
“You like him?” Tommy asked, making her pause as she held the door. “Because if you do you might as well find out what he’s made of.”
“Oh, and dinner with us would do that?”
“You really need an answer to that question?”
Junie knew he was right. Dinner at her house would be trial by fire but also pointless. Hugo wasn’t her love interest. He was her pathway to a better life. Bringing him to dinner would probably send him running for the hills.
“Listen to the doctor.” Junie gave out her orders again as she slipped back into the hallway. The other boys were waiting anxiously for some kind of indication of how Loch was.
“He looks better than I thought,” she reported, knowing that was what they needed to hear. “I’m going to the house. Be home for dinner tonight.”
“Is he coming?” Brian asked, folding his arms over his chest and challenging her. “Fancy Shoes. Is he coming to dinner?”
“That seems to be a popular
question.” Junie didn’t bother answering as she strolled away. Let them all stew in the not-knowing.
Loch was all right. Or he would be. Things here would settle. Maybe she would go back to Texas. Maybe Hugo . . .
She hesitated on the thought. On his name. He was sitting down in some cold smelly hospital cafeteria. Waiting.
* * *
. . . Maybe Hugo.
Chapter 14
Egg salad from a hospital cafeteria might be the scariest thing Hugo had ever considered eating. But he was starving. He’d nearly reached for the soggy, sad-looking sandwich again as Junie came shuffling nervously up to him.
“He’s going to be all right. Loch is awake and banged up, but the doctors are hopeful he’ll be fine.” Her expression didn’t seem to match the good news.
“So then why do you look so worried?”
Like they were grabbing lunch between classes in high school, Junie slid into the hard cafeteria bench seat and put her head in her hands, elbows resting on the table. “They are telling me to leave. Go back to Texas. Tommy and Loch say they’ll be fine without me.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” Hugo couldn’t begin to understand the dynamics of a big family. Dysfunctional he got. But big was a whole different ballgame. He was an only child, or an only known legitimate child of his father. The jury was still out on the idea of the possibility of little half-siblings around the country. His father had only one brother and his mother was an only child. There were no big family reunions to speak of. It was an insulated festering disease of a family that Hugo was glad to be rid of.
But what Junie had—that was something to behold. Loud, protective, funny brothers who probably gave each other a hell of a time but wouldn’t for a second tolerate someone else doing that. It was fascinating.
“It’s not a bad thing that they’re telling me to go. What will be bad is if I actually do. They can’t keep things together with Loch hurt and the bills that will follow. It’s too much. Tommy’s wife is due in a month. I can’t leave them.”
“Oh, you’re one of those.” Hugo tipped his head up and down knowingly. “The fixer. The sponge for all the blame and guilt. The peacekeeper. It’s a big job. I should have pegged you for it though.”
“I’m loyal to my family.” There was a nip in her voice that bordered on anger. “We can’t all run away because we don’t like what Daddy is all about. Sometimes you have to push through and make it work.”
It was a cannonball across his bow but surprisingly it didn’t impact him. Junie wasn’t mean-spirited or unkind. Right now she was wounded and scared. He’d played around enough with words and speech to know when throwing darts was just a way to keep from exploding.
“I’m starving.” He offered this little fact instead of jumping head first into the swamp of gators she’d tried to lure him to. Judging by the astonished look on her face, it was not what she was accustomed to. “You must be hungry too. What do you want to do for dinner?”
“I . . . uh . . .” She ran a hand across her forehead and looked thoroughly confused. He could just imagine what she was thinking: Doesn’t he hear me? Doesn’t he know what I mean?
“What about your brothers? Are they planning to eat here? I’ve taken a good look at the egg salad and I think it might be job security for the doctors. Eat that and you end up a patient real quick.”
“I’m going home to cook.” She said the words as though they were tiny things she could hand to him. Like they needed deep explanation, to be held and understood.
“Oh, that sounds good. Want to swing by the grocery store first and then we can cook at your place? What time will your brothers leave here?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” She leaned away from him as though he had some communicable disease that had made him break out in a gruesome rash. “I’m serious. What is your problem? Do you just want to get laid? There are way easier approaches than this. Go to a bar, flash your fancy watch and perfect smile. You don’t have to jump through all these hoops. Plus I’m not going to sleep with you anyway. I decided that. It would be foolish of me.”
“I’m confused; am I not invited to dinner?” Hugo didn’t fight the smile. He couldn’t. The crimson shade of her cheeks and the look of shock in her eyes were too much. It was painfully adorable to watch her try to figure him out. Good luck girl. I don’t even know why I’m here.
“Did you hear what I said? I’m not sleeping with you.”
“I did hear you, and the good news is we have about forty witnesses if we ever need to recount this conversation.” He gestured around the previously noisy cafeteria and watched as she realized how loud she’d been. Every eye was on them and again he couldn’t keep his smile at bay.
“Maybe I don’t want to sleep with you. Have you ever thought of that?” He leaned in and hushed his voice.
“Of course you want to sleep with me.” Junie huffed and waved him off as though he was being ridiculous.
“Yeah obviously,” he conceded. “But there can be mutually exclusive reasons for doing things. Us men, we’re simple creatures. You needed help. I helped. I’m hungry, so please invite me to dinner. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.”
“If you think dinner with my brothers at the house I grew up in isn’t going to be complicated, you are way dumber than you look. Like they should come back and strip you of your diplomas. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. And for what? My crappy cooking?”
“Do you want me there?” Hugo asked, the smile finally gone.
“What?”
“At dinner tonight, do you want me to be there?”
“Yeah.” It was punctuated by a shrug and a look of pent-up worry. But she hadn’t hesitated. She hadn’t had to think about it at all.
“Then I’d like to be there. Want to stop at the grocery store?”
“Yeah.” It seemed her vocabulary, the fiery quips she’d been throwing his way since they met, had evaporated.
“Lead the way.” He stood from the uncomfortable bench and extended his hand to help her up too. Her tiny cold hand reached for his and he felt this powerful need to hold her. To warm her. To fix everything. Shit. She was dangerous. Like scaling a cliff with no rope. You could do it. You might be all right. But one false move, and it was a free fall to nowhere.
Chapter 15
“Don’t talk about the Red Sox. Don’t bring up the Catholic Church. Avoid basically anything about politics. If they ask you to come look at something on the roof, don’t fall for it. They intend to hold you over the side until you either wet yourself or cry.” Junie felt like an octopus, her arms working overtime at too many things. There was the task of trying to clean this place so Hugo wouldn’t judge it as harshly as he should. Then she was trying to make a meal, something her brothers would love. Something that would calm the ragged edges of their nerves. “Mary is coming too. She’s as big as a house but don’t say that to her. Tommy’s wife was a madwoman before she was pregnant, but now with the hormones she’ll stab you.”
“Why would I say that to her?” Hugo laughed, stepping in her path and placing his hands on her hips. A shock of desire roared through her but she tried to ignore it. “I know how to act like a civilized human being. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t act like a civilized human being,” Junie shrieked. “Hell, that would be awful. They’ll definitely hang you off the side of the house if you do that.”
“All right then, how should I act?” Hugo let her go as a pot on the stove started to steam over.
“Act like you don’t give a shit about anything. But that also you care really deeply about the important stuff, but never say what that stuff is. Act like you’re confident, but not like you’re important. There is a difference. Try to be quiet, but not so quiet that it makes them think you’re hiding something. Laugh at the jokes, but if one of them starts really going after the other, stop laughing and stay out of it.” Junie mixed the stew and turned the heat down.
“I
thought maybe you’d tell me to be myself.”
She shook her head and pointed a wood spoon at him to show how serious she was. “Do not be yourself. They’d hate that.”
“Is it too late for me to sneak out the back?” He delivered the question with a laugh, but she never even cracked a smile.
“Go,” she said, shooing him away. “If they pull in behind you in the driveway you’ll never get out. Go now if you’re going.”
“Junie,” he reached a hand out and touched hers gently, “I’m not going anywhere. Just relax.”
“I’m almost positive wars have been started over men telling women to relax. It’s not too late for me to poison your stew. Remember that.”
“You’re sure I can’t help you with anything? I can make a great salad.” He rounded the small chopping block island that made the already cramped kitchen seem even smaller.
“Not a chance.” Junie pushed him backward, one hand on each of his shoulders. “They come in here and see you cooking, chopping up some lettuce and they’ll never let it go. You’ll get an even worse nickname than the one they already have for you.”
“They have a nickname for me already? I have to hear this.”
“Captain Do-Good. I’m assuming they think you flew the jet up here because they don’t know anything about private jets. And they also likely think you’re a nice guy.”
“Wouldn’t they want their sister hanging around a nice guy?” Hugo was clearly getting way too much enjoyment out of her frantic explanations.
“No!” she said as though he had suddenly gone half deaf or completely dumb. “There are no nice guys. There are only good actors. So they think you’re a player. They don’t want me around good men. They don’t want me around any men. If it were legal to force women into the convent I’d have been there by now.”
“Is there any way at all when I leave here tonight these guys are actually going to like me?”
“That is not the goal, Hugo. Focus. The goal is not getting hung over the side of the house, or your ass kicked in the driveway, or any bodily harm in general. If you can leave here in one piece with your dignity intact, you’ve done better than most.” Her shoulders snapped together with tension as the front door opened and a clamor of voices filled the air.
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