Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72990 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72990 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“That could be days,” I say.
Dornan shrugs. “We’ll take shifts.”
I touch his big arm, grateful that Kain has such good friends and relieved that he has so many people praying for his recovery.
“We should go back,” Dalton says, and Dornan nods, turning to return to the rest of the team.
As we reenter the ICU, I hear my name and turn to find my mom dashing down the hallway on heels too high to make running easy. “Oh my God. Tell me Kain’s okay.” she gasps.
“He’s okay.” On hearing the news, she pulls me into a fierce hug. “Were you watching the game? Did you see what happened?”
“I saw it,” I say. “It was awful.”
“Oh, Gabby.” She smooths my hair and pats my back, reverting to all the mom techniques she used to make me feel better in the past. Her perfume alone comforts me, and I sink against her, so grateful that she’s here to support me.
But why is she here to support me? I didn’t call her. Maybe Ellie did.
I draw back, resting my hands on her blouse-covered shoulders. “How did you find out what happened?”
“Lukas messaged me.”
“Lukas?” My eyes immediately flick to Dalton’s, finding my surprise reflected. I guess neither of us knew my mom and his dad were so close that he’d turn to her in a time of crisis.
“Okay…” I guess she notices my surprise and begins to stumble over more questions about Kain in a weirdly high-pitched voice.
“We need to go back in,” I interrupt, wondering what she’s going to do next. Will she take a seat with the team, or want to come through?
“I’ll come in and see Lukas,” she says, biting her lip the way she does when she’s nervous.
Dalton holds the door open for us, and we make our way inside the unit. As if he’s expecting our arrival, Lukas appears, and as soon as he sees my mom, he seems to sag. She immediately rushes forward, wrapping her arms around him, stroking his head like she did to me only minutes earlier. And once again, Dalton and I stare at each other in shock. The way they’re touching each other isn’t neighborly. It’s intimate. Her fingers thread through his thick black hair. His arms are wrapped so tightly around her that their bodies are pressed together from knees to cheeks.
I look down at the floor, embarrassed and confused because it looks like my mom and Mr. Nowak are lovers. Lovers who have been having a relationship and keeping it secret from their children.
“What the fuck?” Dalton whispers. “What the fuck is going on?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “But it looks like…”
Dalton puts his hand up as though the idea of what I am about to say is too much for him to comprehend.
I get it. While we’ve been skulking around living out our sexual fantasies, it looks like our parents have been doing the same thing. I want to throw up. This is so wrong on so many levels.
Lukas weeps in a way that I’ve never seen a man weep before, as though his heart is going to fall out of his mouth. “He died, Darly. He nearly died.”
Darly?
Oh god, he has a pet name for her. Dalton reaches for my hand, and we stand like lost school children, waiting for our parents to return to help us make sense of the world. I feel like the rug has been ripped out from under my feet. I feel like I’ve been committing some kind of incest with Kain, Blake, and Dalton. It’s ridiculous because of course that isn’t the case, but no one wants to be fucking the kids of someone their momma is in a relationship with.
That’s what Ellie did, isn’t it?
I’m supportive of her relationship, so why am I feeling so judgmental of my own actions? Or is it that I’m judgmental of my mom? A few weeks ago, I was worried that she was lonely and all the time she was hiding a clandestine relationship from me.
“I want to go home,” I tell Dalton. I need to get out of here before I say things that are hurtful and not thought through.
“I’ll take you.” Dalton says it without any pause, and relief washes over me. He understands. He always seems to understand me and find a way to give me what I need.
Without waiting to say goodbye, I turn and press the button to exit the unit. I don’t know how Mom realizes I’m leaving but her voice calls out my name again.
I burst through the door and power walk down the hallway. Dalton doesn’t follow immediately. Maybe he’s talking to his dad. A hand grasps my arm, and tugs me to a standstill, and I whip around to face Mom, whose face is flushed.
“Where are you going?”
“You’re fucking him?” I bark. “You’re seriously fucking Mr. Nowak?”