Page 72 of Roll With The Punches

Finally, after one last round of hugs and kisses, they made their way down to Brandon’s car, Brandon keeping an arm draped around Stuart’s shoulders the whole way, the shorter man tightly snuggled against him.

“I wish we could do more to help him,” Stuart said as they walked toward Brandon’s car.

“I know. Me, too.” He hated feeling helpless. He despised it, whether it was over something Emma was going through, or something one of his boys was going through.

Although this was the worst they’d had to go through, the scare with the tree falling on Jeff’s old house notwithstanding.

Emma quietly rode in the back seat, not talking on the way home as Brandon drove.

“He’s going to be okay, honey,” he said to her.

“I hate leaving him there alone.”

“He’s an adult. If he’d wanted one of us to stay with him, he knows all he had to do was say so. Hey, you did good. Thank god you were out there with him and we got him to the hospital fast.”

“Yeah, I guess.” She stared out the window.

“Did you tell Grace?”

“I’ve been texting with her. She wants to come visit him tomorrow, if he’s still in there.”

“See? That’s perfect. You guys can drive there after school.”

Later, he knocked on her door when she’d retreated to her room after dinner. They’d called Jeff and checked in with him, and he’d eaten a little for dinner and was going to go to sleep early, the strong medicines they were pumping into him via IV making him feel woozy.

“You all right, sweetheart?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s going to be okay.”

“I know.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

She let out a snort of aggravation he knew too well. “I feel guilty.”

“Why?”

“For getting airlifted off the boat that time. I’m mad that I feel guilty I worried Mom. And then you, when you found out the way you did.”

He studied her for a moment. “Oookaaay. That’s great personal growth, honey, but not sure I’m tracking.”

Another snort. “I’m feeling that I no longer hold the moral high ground. That even though I was pissed off, I should have just stuck to my original plan to take the meds, hide them from Goober, and knuckle under.”

He leaned against her doorway, arms crossed. “That’s sort of water under the bridge, by the better part of a year. It’s just now hitting your conscience?”

It took her a moment to respond, and when she spoke, her voice sounded quiet, subdued. “I wasreallyscared when I made him smile and saw his face drooping.”

She set her phone aside, focused on him. “I know I’ve said I love him and Stuart, and I meant it. Like I love Grace’s mom and dad. But that was the first time I realized Ilove-love them, like I love you. Never loved Pat like this, that’s for sure. I was…scared.Reallyscared that maybe he was going to die. I was scared that one of mydadswas going to die right there in front of me.”

He walked over and sat next to her. “That’s good though, right? I mean, not the possibly dying part. The how much you love them part.”

She met his gaze. “How sad is it that, right now, I think I love Jeff and Stuart more than I love Mom? Does that make me a horrible person?”

He sighed, finally connecting the dots. Pulling her in for a hug, he rested his chin on top of her head. “No, sweetheart. That doesn’t make you horrible. It makes you human.”