by Anna Paige
So I made the damn coffee and kept my trap shut.
When the pot stopped gurgling, I grabbed two of the small foam cups from the counter—briefly frowning at them and wondering why the hospital wasn’t using paper ones—before turning to speak to Lauren’s back. “How do you take your coffee?”
“Black.” Her voice was shaky, uneven.
I poured the sub-par coffee into the cup and idly wondered if there was a decent coffee shop nearby where I could find something that couldn’t be used to remove rust from a bumper. Given the lack of options and the necessity to stay close, this stuff would have to do for now. Maybe once everyone arrived I would make a run to the nearest Starbucks.
At least that would be helpful, unlike my awkward silence.
After pouring a steaming cup for myself, I returned to the table and placed her cup in front of her as I took the seat Clay had just vacated. “It isn’t gonna be the best cup of coffee you ever had but it’s something.” I offered weakly.
Her hand wrapped around the warm cup and I watched as goosebumps broke out on her arms. She shivered slightly and lifted the coffee to her trembling lips. Her hand shook so much I worried she’d inadvertently pour the scorching beverage on herself.
“Are you cold? You have goosebumps.” The room actually was a little chilly but I was more concerned that she was in shock.
“I don’t know.”
I frowned, watching her. “You don’t know if you’re cold?”
She shook her head, sending deep red strands of hair flying around her pretty face. “Can’t really feel anything. It’s all numb. All of it.”
Shit. I knew that feeling all too well.
She sat the cup back on the table just as her entire body shuddered violently, one of those bone-deep shivers that I recalled more vividly than I cared to admit. She was in shock.
I stood and stepped to the door, peeking into the hallway and breathing a sigh of relief when I saw a nurse scurrying in the other direction. I called out to her and waited in the doorway while she reversed course, a pleasant smile on her face. She was more than a foot shorter than me, with skin the color of mocha and wearing blue Scooby Doo scrubs. Her stethoscope had a stuffed Scooby hanging from it.
“Can I help you, hon?” she asked with a thick southern drawl.
“Yes, ma’am.” I told her, smiling in return. “I was wondering if I could get one of those heated blankets for my friend in here.” I nodded toward the waiting room and she stepped back, peering through the glass. “She’s shivering all over and I think it would really help.”
The nurse—Monique, according to her nametag—reached out and gripped my hand, patting it. “Sure thing, sweetie. You just sit tight and I’ll be right back.” Her hand slipped out of mine and she took off through the secured double doors across the hall.
I stepped back into the waiting room to check on Lauren and found her with her head once again resting on her folded arms, her eyes closed and her shoulders shaking.
I was just about to go to her, the urge to put my arms around her almost overwhelming, when the doors across the hall opened with a whoosh and the friendly nurse appeared, a thick blanket under one arm.
She stepped into the room with Lauren and I, wordlessly handing me the blanket that was so warm steam was pouring off it. Before she turned and left, she handed me a small card with her name and information on it, whispering. “If either of you need anything else, dial that number and ask for Monique.”
With one more flash of her dazzling smile, she was gone.
Feeling somewhat buoyed by my pleasant interactions with the nurse, I stepped over to Lauren and unfolded the blanket a little so that I could drape it over her shoulders. I left it folded over as much as possible so it would hold its heat longer and gently lay it across her back, tucking it over her slumped shoulders.
She breathed out a soft sigh, her eyes remaining closed. “Thank you, Brant.”
Despite the grave situation, the sound of my name on her lips made me smile. I liked the way she said it, the low huskiness of her care-weary voice. I was suddenly consumed by thoughts of her calling my name in pleasure, whispering it against my ear as I used my body to blanket hers…
And that made me the biggest asshole on Earth.
There she was hurting, scared, and vulnerable—and I’d reverted to thinking with my dick.
Ah, self-loathing, how I’ve missed thee. Welcome back, old friend.
Pushing away my unwelcome thoughts, I lowered myself into the chair beside her, angled my body toward her and did the only thing I could.
I reached for her hand.
Her long, dark lashes lay softly against her skin as she threaded her hand into mine, gripping tightly as tears trailed from the corners of her eyes.
I leaned my other elbow, the one closest to her, on the back of her chair and used my fingers to whisk her hair from under the still-warm blanket, smoothing it down and rubbing her upper back, soothing her as best I could and wondering where the hell Clay was. If I’d had any sense at all, I would have asked the nurse about Teach but I’d been so concerned about Lauren that I forgot. Given her attire, I suspected she worked in pediatrics anyway.
The minutes stretched on as I sat awkwardly holding her hand and rubbing her back. My own back protested the angle of my body but I ignored it. Since I’d taken Lauren’s hand, her tears had slowed substantially and she’d stopped shaking, though the occasional tremor still rippled through her.
Clay stepped into the room a few minutes later, mouth open to speak. He caught sight of us and hesitated, watching the slow rise and fall of Lauren’s shoulders. He cast a glance at me and whispered, “Sleeping?”
I looked over at her and shrugged.
“No. I’m awake.” Her voice came out as a croak and she sat up, eyes wide. “What did you find out?”
Her new position forced me to sit back and remove my arm from behind her but she still held tight to my hand, so I scooted my chair closer and spun it so that my back would stop aching. From this position, she and I faced Clay together, each watching him with weary eyes.
He took the seat across from us and blew out a breath. “Well, they aren’t telling anyone anything until Marilee gets here. I raised hell and nearly got thrown out but they still wouldn’t budge. All they’d say was that he was taken into surgery, which we already fucking knew.” His voice grew hard, angry, as he spoke. “I called Marilee but her sister answered and said she wasn’t taking calls. She told me they would be here in under an hour and we’d just have to wait until then. A real gem, that woman.”
Lauren’s eyes narrowed. “That’s Bonnie for you. Hateful old cow.” She glanced over at me and squeezed my hand. “Guess now I know why they won’t tell me anything. Bonnie probably threatened them into keeping quiet.”
I felt the anger boiling up, my face heating. “They can’t shut you out like that. You’re family too, dammit.”
Clay and Lauren exchanged a glance and she looked back at me, sadness pinching her features. “No, technically I’m not.”
“But I thought he was your uncle…” I looked between her and Clay and saw something pass between them.
Clay spoke when Lauren faltered. “He’s family in every sense that matters, no matter what Marilee’s shrew of a sister thinks.” His statement was more for Lauren than me.
What the hell wasn’t he telling me? He clearly knew something I didn’t and it kind of chafed for reasons I couldn’t quite fathom.
Before I could question them further, Ali burst in and Clay jumped to his feet, relief apparent on his face. “Oh, thank fuck! If you’d taken another ten minutes to get here, I was coming to hunt you down.” He picked her up and crushed her against his chest, his back to me and Lauren.
She hugged him back for a minute and watched Lauren over his shoulder, finally wiggling from his grip and approaching her former nemesis. “How is he? Any word?”
Lauren shook her head and blinked rapidly, fighting another wave of tear
s. “No word.” She breathed out a shuddering breath as Ali leaned over and hugged her. Lauren let go of my hand but quickly gripped it again with her other, tightening her grip on it so hard my knuckles cracked and turning toward Clay’s new bride with a sad smile. She embraced Ali with one hand and watched me over her shoulder, just as Ali had watched her over Clay’s a moment before.
I could feel her brilliant blue eyes reaching for me despite our clasped hands, needing more. It was as if she recognized something in me that I hadn’t intended to reveal. Maybe she instinctively knew I empathized with her situation, had basically been there myself. Whatever it was, I found myself unable to look away, even when she let go of Ali and turned to speak to her. I just kept watching her as they softly spoke, voices hushed with concern.
The conversation went unnoticed until Ali’s head whipped in Clay’s direction and I saw a flash of anger in her eyes. Lauren must have relayed the information Clay had gathered.
“You mean to tell me Bonnie has put a fucking gag order on the staff to shut Lauren out? Who does something like that?” Her tone was disbelieving and enraged.
Pissed-off Ali was a scary thing.
She let go of Lauren’s other hand and stood, seething. “I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to let this go on. There is no excuse for doing something like that to her, not ever.” With that, she marched past Clay and out the door.
He blew out a big breath and watched his wife stalk down the hall. “Shit.”
“Yeah, I feel sorry for whoever she finds.” Lauren chimed in, looking nervous. “I hope she doesn’t get herself in trouble. I know Teach will want to see her when he wakes up from the anesthesia.” Her face went pale and her eyes dropped to the table. “If he wakes up.”
“Stop it. Don’t do that to yourself. We don’t know anything yet.” Clay told her, though his voice was a bit hollow, as if he didn’t quite believe the words that were coming out of his mouth.
Her eyes were on me again, quiet desperation on her face as she spoke so softly I had to lean in to hear. “He can’t die. He’s all I have, all I’ve ever had. I can’t be here without him, I wouldn’t know how...” Her voice trailed off but her lips still moved as she played out the horrible possibilities in her mind.
I glanced over my shoulder at Clay, who was making his way closer, intending to comfort her. I knew he would start spewing those worn-out platitudes so I stopped him with a quick shake of my head. He paused in his approach and nodded to me. “Okay, you two stay here, I’m going to find my wife before she throttles some innocent nurse and gets tossed in jail.”
Lauren glanced over at him, breaking our connection. “Tell her to save the throttling for Bonnie. This is her doing.” Her shoulders slumped. “Or maybe it’s my fault. It wouldn’t be like this if Bonnie didn’t hate me so much.”
Clay halted by the door and lifted a hand, pointing at Lauren and addressing her in a firm tone. “Bullshit. This isn’t your fault. Don’t let her make you feel like you don’t belong here. You belong here more than any of us. Even Marilee. Claim your spot at his side and tell Bonnie to fuck off if she doesn’t like it. You are his family. Understand?”
Whoa. Clay was just as pissed as Ali. I almost felt sorry for this Bonnie person. Almost.
Lauren’s eyes shined with unshed tears and she nodded. “You’re right. Thanks, Clay.”
He turned to address me. “If Marilee and that old crow get here before I get back, text me or Ali and let us know.”
“You’ve got it.” I assured him. “And I won’t be letting anyone mistreat Lauren, so once you get my text, you better get your ass back here to play referee.”
He agreed and walked out, hurrying down the hall in the direction where Ali disappeared.
I looked back at Lauren and found her watching me, a strange expression on her face. “Why are you acting like that?”
“Like what?” I frowned.
“Like you care about what happens to me, like you’re my friend or something. I’m nothing to you. We never even met before today, so why are you acting like that?” She glanced at our joined hands and then back at my face, suddenly suspicious.
My voice was softer than I intended, more uneven than before when I said, “Because I understand what this feels like. And it’s ten times harder when you have to feel like you’re dealing with it alone.” For her sake, I hoped it turned out better for her than it had for me.
She looked at me a while longer, probably searching for deception somewhere in my features. Eventually, she gave my hand a squeeze and said, “Thank you. I guess I should be more trusting. After all, if Clay and Ali like you, you can’t be a monster or anything. They should be able to spot one from a mile away by now.” There was shame in her eyes.
“They like you, too, you know.” I told her, smiling.
“No. They feel sorry for me; that’s all. Not the same thing.” She was matter of fact, resigned.
“Ali invited you to their wedding, didn’t she? That was before all this, so your theory is officially blown.” She hadn’t gone, of course, but that didn’t matter.
“Wrong. They felt sorry for me long before that.” She corrected sadly. “And having pity friends is worse than having none at all.”
My reply was cut short by the sound of raised voices in the hall. Several voices warred for conversational dominance as they grew closer and closer.
“No, we don’t know anything because you told the staff not to tell us.”
“Why would they lie, Bonnie?”
“…don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Which way did they take him? Is there a nurse’s desk down here?”
Lauren closed her eyes and took a deep breath, steeling herself for the impending drama.
Clay and Ali hurried into the room, both agitated as they spun and spoke to the two women in their wake.
Ali held up a hand to silence everyone as she glared at the short-haired woman next to Teach’s distraught wife. “That’s exactly what they told us. They said the family requested to be the only ones appraised of the situation, they even reminded us that Lauren wasn’t blood-related and therefore wasn’t entitled to an update. How would they know that unless you told them, Bonnie? I know Mar wouldn’t have said that.”
Marilee, who I’d met on several occasions, looked deflated, older than her years, and defeated. She just stood there with a blank expression that mirrored the one Lauren had when we first arrived.
I stood, needing to stop this before it got out of hand. “Hey, let’s focus on Teach. Marilee is here now, so we can finally get some answers. Everything else can be dealt with later, okay?” I met each of their eyes in succession.
Bonnie, with her near-black dye job, too-tight perm, and gaudy costume jewelry snorted, looking me up and down as if I were a speck of shit she’d had the misfortune of stepping in. “And who exactly are you?” She eyed me and flicked a distasteful glance at Lauren before smirking. “Let me guess, you’re the most recent knight in shining armor, right? Figures Lauren would have a new one lined up in case Teach doesn’t pull through.”
Lauren, who had been hanging her head and avoiding everyone’s gaze, shot out of her seat and leapt across the room so fast all I saw was a blood-red blur as her hair fanned out behind her. In the blink of an eye, she was on Bonnie, backing her across the room with just the enraged expression on her face. “My uncle is in there fighting for his life, you old bitch!”
Ali jumped in and grabbed Lauren by the shoulders, pulling her back as Bonnie sneered. “He’s not your uncle, you little tramp. He’s just a fool-hearted sucker who fell for your poor little victim act. Your own mother turned her back on you, and he should have too. You’re nothing but trash.”
My feet were moving before I realized it and soon I was face-to-face with the hateful old woman, who showed no signs of being intimidated by my size as I towered over her.
“You’re Satan in a shawl, you know that? How about you tend to your sister and keep your mouth
shut when it comes to everyone else. If not, I’ll have you tossed out of here on your ass.”
She sniffed, unmoved. “You don’t have the clout to make that happen, kid.”
I returned her condescending sneer. “Then I guess I’ll have to do it my damn self, won’t I?”
We stood glaring at one another for a long moment before Marilee cleared her throat and moved past us toward the door.
I caught movement from the corner of my eye and realized she wasn’t the only one headed in that direction. I turned just as Lauren passed me and saw the figure standing in the doorway. The doctor wore pale gray surgical scrubs, his facemask untied and lying against his chest as he stood looking down at a shaking Marilee with a sympathetic expression on his face.
He started speaking, simultaneously shaking his head as Marilee wailed deep in her throat.
Clay pulled Ali into his arms as she began to cry.
Standing a few feet in front of me, Lauren’s breath whooshed out in a strangled sob and she suddenly seemed to fold in on herself as she started to collapse.
I reached her just in time to keep her limp body from hitting the floor.
Teach was gone.
Two
Three days later
The early afternoon sky was overcast, gray and somber like the occasion. The air felt heavy and thick as I looked over the sea of stone markers, tucked back off the main road with a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As final resting places went, I supposed it would be considered a good one. The scent of flowers wafted on the breeze, coming from the multitude of arrangements that flanked the open grave. Lilies and roses were the only ones I could readily identify, but damn there were a lot of others. Wreaths, arrangements, bouquets, even some exotic-looking plants in heavy pots.
Teach had obviously been well-loved.
I stood back from the crowd, looking on with a heavy heart as my friends grieved, all of them with their backs to me. Talia and Spencer huddled close together, a few feet away from the closed coffin that sat poised above the empty ground, waiting to be lowered. Ali stood to Marilee’s right, an arm draped protectively around her heaving shoulders while Bonnie stood to Marilee’s left, back ramrod straight and unmoved. For the most part, Clay seemed to be giving Ali the space she needed to attend her mentor’s widow, but he remained within arm’s length and was poised to move should Ali need his support.