Page 95 of Break Me (Brayshaw High 5)

“And candy for Uncle Bro?” She lights up.

He laughs, grabs her hand and off they go.

Maybell, Captain, and Victoria follow them down the short hall to the small snack station.

Brielle grabs her bag off the seat and hands me my keys. “Thanks for today. I had fun. Your family’s amazing, and Zoey, she’s too cute.”

“Wait.” Victoria comes out of nowhere. “You’re leaving?”

Brielle’s lips tip up slightly and she nods. “I think I should, yeah.”

“You should stay. I could use your help.”

She steps closer, a low laugh leaving her.

“Who knows what will happen here when Raven gets farther into this and the unkillable pain kicks in. I’ll need all hands on deck. Zoey likes you. Royce trusts you.” She nods. “Stay.”

Royce trusts you.

Brielle’s eyes meet mine but quickly return to Victoria.

“I need to be in there as long as Raven will let me, but Zoey could use someone to play with out here, that way if Rolland wants to pop in sometimes while we wait, he can? And Maybell, she might have to run and check on the girls at the house and back. Something.”

My dad slips in then, sticking a hand out to Brielle. “Brielle Bishop, it’s very nice to meet you after all these years.”

“You as well, sir.” She shakes his hand, but quickly turns to me, unsure. She comes closer. “Should I go or...”

“She asked you to help.” My eyes move between hers, a heavy sense of expectation stirring in my chest. “You tell me, you want to help? Play with my niece? Make today easier for me?”

For me?

“For us.”

Her lips twitch, a knowing look in those metallic eyes. “I mean, you might need someone to bring one of you back to life again the next time someone passes out.” She teases with a shrug.

Victoria and I laugh, but my dad raises a dark brow.

“We should go back in.” Captain grabs Victoria’s hand, his other landing on my shoulder. “Brielle, give her whatever she wants to keep her happy. If she tries to force candy on you, you don’t have to eat it.”

Victoria laughs, but little does he know, my girl loves her some sweets.

Brielle smiles, her eyes popping up to mine, cheeks growing a perfect shade of unexpected pink when I step so close, her chest rests on my shirt.

I push her hair over her shoulder and she inhales.

“You’ll be here when I come out.”

“That didn’t sound like a question,” she says quietly.

“Yeah. I know.” I trace her features, meeting her eyes. “Be here when I come out.”

Her laugh is low and airy, Victoria’s the same at my back, and then I’m steered away.We rejoin the others in the hospital room, waiting for the newest Brayshaw to meet the world.It’s near one in the morning when the doctors deliver nightmare news.

The baby’s heart rate is dropping, and Raven needs an emergency C-section, one that Maddoc can’t be in for because there was no time to prep.

To say I was surprised when he didn’t scream and yell and get his way is an understatement, but he let her go like a man, forced to trust the doctors to do right by his entire fucking world.

The nurse realized we planned to stand right outside the doors she was wheeled through the entire time, so it didn’t take long for her to have three chairs moved in front of it.

So here we sit, together, silently screaming as fear begins to tug at our hearts and minds.

Maddoc’s knees bounce, but the rest of him is unmoving, his chin tucked to his chest, eyes frozen open and unblinking.

Captain hasn’t moved, not his hands or his feet, not his frown, which is locked on the double doors not three feet from us.

And me?

I’m wigging out, but already pulled at every bit of patience I have, which ain’t much, and have been holding back the urge to joke it off or run from it, to punch shit or pick a fight, to take a dozen shots to numb my emotions, like I do when they peak too high for me to handle.

I simply sit here beside my brothers and wait for our family to grow bigger.

Twenty-five torturous minutes go by, and finally, the nurse pokes her head out.

“Mr. Brayshaw.”

Maddoc darts up and we’re right there with him.

She smiles brightly. “Everything went beautifully,” she says, and our hands dart out to steady our brother when his knees give.

“It did?” he asks, standing on his own now and taking slow, subconscious steps toward his missing pieces.

She nods. “We’re sewing her up now.”

“Sewing?” he rasps.

The nurse pins him with a gentle stare. “She didn’t feel a thing, honey, I promise. She’s beginning to wake now, but the baby is ready for you, if you’re ready.”

Maddoc’s hands shoot out, gripping on to the sleeves of our hoodies. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She laughs through a smile.