Page 57

Xander

The day passes by quickly. I’m still a little ticked that Colton married Haven without even telling me and Luc, but it’s not like one of us would’ve married her. The only person I’ll ever marry is Luc, and if he ever tries to marry someone else, things will get pretty damn bloody.

By the time evening comes around, we’ve all had a decent day together. Finals are coming up, and we’re all feeling the pressure. We decide to try to wind down our usual way: a movie and ice cream before bed.

“Can I have chocolate chip cookie dough?” Haven asks.

“Of course.” Colton scoops it into her bowl. “That good?”

“Just a little bit more?”

He smiles. “Got it. Here you go.”

Taking her bowl, Haven kisses his cheek and heads up to the loft. The two of them have grown closer since the new year. We all have.

We’re not entirely back to who we used to be, and maybe that’s an unrealistic thing to expect. We’ve all grown up. The best we can hope for is healing and forgiveness, and I’m pretty sure we all want it.

Colton hands me the scoop, and I dish out the ice cream for me and Lucas. I’m just handing him the bowls when my phone starts going off.

“Shit. Worst timing ever, huh?” I pull out my phone and stare at it for a second.

What the hell?

“You gonna answer?” Lucas asks, amused.

“Shit.” I take the call. “Hey, Aunt Josie, what’s up?”

“Xander? Oh, Xander.” A sob bursts through my phone’s speaker.

A chill runs through me, and my eyes lock on Lucas as he douses his ice cream in chocolate syrup. He’s humming to himself, the perfect picture of relaxed and happy, and I think it’s about to shatter into a million pieces.

“Aunt Josie?”

At the alarm in my voice, Lucas’s head snaps in my direction. He watches in silence, shoulders stiff, as my aunt tries to string together a sentence.

“It’s y-your father. And…” She sobs again, and I hear someone in the background say something about tissues. “And Rachel.”

Dread takes hold of me, clutching at my throat, my heart, everywhere. With the way she sounds, this is bad. Really, really bad.

“Just tell me they’re alive,” I whisper.

Lucas drops the syrup bottle onto the counter and rushes over to me.

Please, please, please.

“They are. Barely, but they’re alive.”

“What happened?” It’s all I’m able to get out before the kitchen blurs. I feel myself swaying, but then two muscular, thick arms are banding around my torso and pulling me toward the counter.

Lucas pushes me onto a stool and holds me steady while Aunt Josie pulls herself together enough to keep going.

“There was an accident. A horrible accident. Xander, you… I think you need to come home.”

My heart seizes, and Lucas swears quietly. He’s close enough that he must be able to hear what she’s saying.

“I will. I can be there in a few hours. Are… are you saying they’re not going to make it?”

“Rachel broke her arm and had some internal bleeding, but the doctors said she’ll pull through. She’s in surgery right now.”

“And Dad?”

Lucas finds my free hand and squeezes, and I lean into him.

“He… things aren’t looking good, honey.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, wishing for any answer other than what I know my aunt is about to say.

“We don’t know if your father will wake up. I’m sorry, Xander. I’m so, so sorry.”

. . .

Lucas and I get to the hospital just after midnight. He sped the entire drive while I sat numbly in the passenger seat. At some point, he put on the playlist we made together when we were teens. It helped—music always does—but not enough.

Security has to escort us up to the ICU since it’s after visiting hours. Apparently, my aunt begged the nursing staff to let me see my family when I got in, just in case Dad passes in the middle of the night. They took pity on me, I guess, because I find myself in Dad’s room a few minutes after entering the hospital.

“Hey, Dad,” I say quietly. I take one of his hands, making sure I keep my touch gentle.

He’s a fucking wreck. Cuts and bruises litter his skin, and he’s got god knows how many things going through his IV. They even have him on oxygen.

“Hi,” a young woman in pink scrubs says softly as she comes in. “I’m Kara, and I’m Phil’s nurse for tonight. Are you Xander?”

“Yeah, and this is my boyfriend Lucas.”

Kara checks over Dad’s monitors and adjusts one of the meds on the IV. “The doctor will be making his rounds around eight. That’s when visiting hours are, so you can come back and get his opinion on how Phil’s surgeries went. Rachel’s, too.”

I shake my head. “I’m not leaving.”

Her features fill with sympathy. “You can’t stay in here, honey. I’m sorry.”

“I know. We’ll be out in the waiting room.”

“If you can get some rest in an actual bed, you should. We’ve got him here, I promise.”

“No. I’m not leaving him, and I’m not leaving my little sister.”

She sighs. “I can’t really stop you, just… do your best to get some solid sleep, all right?”

“Yeah, we—”

“Xan? Xander!”

My knees almost give out from the relief of hearing Rachel’s voice. A split second later, the grimace on Kara’s face hits me, and I rush past her. “Shit, I’m sorry. She has the hearing of a bat.”

I dart into her room next door. Rachel is trying to sit up, and she has tears streaming down her face.

“Hey, hey.” I wrap my arms around her so she’s not straining her muscles. “You should be asleep.”

“Xander,” she sobs.

“Shh, shh, I’m here now. I’ve got you, you’ve just gotta be quiet for me, okay?” I run my hand over her hair. I’m sure Aunt Josie brushed it before she left, but it’s already a rat’s nest again. Typical.

“Where’s Daddy?” Rachel whispers. She’s clutching at my jacket, and when Lucas hugs her from the other side of the bed, she rests her head against him. “Luc, I’m scared.”

“We’ve got you, kiddo.”

“Dad’s in the room right next to you,” I tell her. “He’s just sleeping, that’s all.”

“Oh,” she says with a wavering voice. “W-what happened?”

I glance up to find Kara hovering in the doorway.

“Concussion,” she explains softly. “The doc said she’ll most likely regain her memory within a week. We haven’t been able to explain much to her. By the time she came off the anesthesia, she was already falling asleep from sheer exhaustion.”

“Thank you.” I turn back to Rachel. “You and dad were in a car accident. You broke your arm—that’s why it’s in a cast—and you had to have surgery. You’ve gotta be careful moving, okay? You don’t want to disrupt the healing process.”

“I wanna see Daddy. Please, Xan?”

“In the morning. For now, I have to go, and you’ve gotta go to sleep.”

“No!”

“Shh, shh. I’m not going far, okay? I’ll be in the waiting room.”

“Please don’t leave me,” she begs, and the tears in her big brown eyes just about kill me.

“I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep, how’s that?”

“Lucas, too?” she asks, looking up at him.

He smiles. “I’m not going anywhere, Rach. Don’t worry.”

Gently, I lower Rachel back down on the bed. She grabs my hand, and we both stand over her until she falls asleep again. Once her fingers go lax around mine, I slowly pull away.

Kara is in the hallway typing away at a computer. She nods to some pillows and blankets on a nearby table. “Those are for you two.”

“Thank you,” Lucas says with a smile. “We appreciate it.”

I couldn’t care less about comfort right now. The only thing running through my veins right now is fury. It burns, but right now, pain is better than worry.

“Where’s the guy who did this?”

“He’s at another hospital,” Kara says. “I’m not sure which one, or if he’s even still alive.”

I clench my fists. “If he is—”

“Xan.” Lucas places a hand on my shoulder.

My mouth clamps shut. Whoever did this to my family is a dead man walking, but I know better than give anyone reason to suspect that of me.

“Sorry. I… I just need to get some sleep.”

Kara gives me an understanding smile. “Goodnight, you two.”

Lucas collects the pillows and blankets and leads me out into the waiting room. He gets us set up on a couple chairs and then pulls me close so I’m leaning against him.

“You can’t be comfortable like this,” I say tiredly, even as I breathe in the comforting woodsy scent that follows Lucas everywhere.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

I try to sit up, and I grunt in annoyance when he doesn’t let me. “Don’t pull this shit. You can’t—”

“Xander, shut the fuck up.”

My protest dies on my tongue. Normally, I’m the commanding one in our relationship. Lucas only gets like this when he knows I’m self-sabotaging. And when he does, there’s not much I can do to change his mind.

“All right,” I say quietly. “Thank you.”

He kisses the top of my head. “You and me, Xan. You and me.”