Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“Yes. Yeah, of course,” she agreed, but something seemed off as she pulled away from me. “I, ah, I have to get dressed. Can we get a car on this short of notice?”
“Yeah. I’ll handle it,” I assured her, still confused by her behavior as I texted Aurelio, and he said he would get the company to send someone right over.
Forty minutes later, Traveler was dressed in jeans and a black tee, her hair pulled back, her face bare, and her gaze far away as we all sat in the car and rode to the hospital.
Aurelio sensed the shift too, catching my gaze over the top of Traveler’s head and pinching his brows.
I shrugged.
Because I had no answers to give.
“I should have brought something,” she said, stopping mid-stride across the parking lot. “Right? That’s what you do. You bring people things in the hospital.”
“Yes,” Aurelio said, tone calm, patient. “But he’s in the ICU. The rules are different about what you can or can’t bring in. So until they move him to a lower floor, it’s better to play on the safe side and not bring anything in that you shouldn’t.”
“Right. Okay. Good. I… okay.”
We waited for Traveler in our usual spot as she took off toward the stairs.
“She’s off,” Aurelio said.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“Did you guys fight?”
“What? No. She was completely fine until she called the hospital back. I missed the beginning of the conversation. I walked back into the room when she was about to hang up, so I don’t know what might have set her off.”
“Her relationship with her dad is strained, right?” he asked.
“Yeah. But still. She’s never hesitated about him before. Even when he was full of tubes, and that shit usually freaks people out.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, sighing. “Maybe she’s just worried about telling her dad what happened to her,” he said. “Especially if he’s as protective of her as it seems.”
“That could be it,” I agreed.
I mean, how did you explain to a man you were mostly on the outs with, but who worked hard to keep you safe, that he’d failed? That you were nearly beaten, raped, and murdered? That you’d been in a drive-by shooting meant for you?
That was a lot to load on a man who just woke up from a coma, who was probably still trying to process his own attack.
“There’s time, though,” Aurelio said. “We should have reminded her of that. We don’t have to be anywhere. She can take her time explaining things to him. Maybe when he’s getting closer to being discharged, so… hey,” he said, jumping up.
I followed when I noticed Traveler walking toward us.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“They’re ah, they moved him. The nurse said it could happen at any time now that he was fully awake. And, I guess, they got tired of him being ‘difficult,’ so they decided to move him to a lower floor. They gave me a floor and number,” she said, wiggling a sticky note.
She still seemed really strange.
Aurelio took the note.
“Down three floors,” he said. “You want to go now, or grab some coffee first?” he asked, clearly better at this sort of thing than I was.
“I guess we should give them a few minutes,” she said, clearly glad for the brief reprieve.
So we went to the machine and got shitty coffee, then drank it mostly in silence for an exaggerated length of time before she sighed and slapped her knees before standing.
“I guess we should make our way down,” she said.
I reached outward, but she must not have noticed because she rushed ahead of me toward the stairs.
There was another small sitting area on this floor, and I was about to follow Aurelio toward it when she called out.
“August?” Her voice was tight, a little choked sounding.
“Yeah?” I asked, turning back.
“Can you come with me?” she asked. “I just… can you?” she asked.
“Of course,” I agreed, feeling weird as fuck about it. I looked toward Aurelio who gave me a nod as he reached for a magazine. Then I followed Traveler toward her father’s room.
We weren’t two feet into the room before we heard some grumbling sounds.
“This fucking thing,” his deep voice hissed.
Traveler paused, taking a deep breath, then moving fully in.
“Hey, Dad,” she said in that same choked voice she spoke to me in.
“Travy,” her father said, most of the tension leaving his body as his gaze landed on her. “Thank God,” he said, exhaling hard, like he’d been holding a breath. “You’re okay.”
“You look better,” she said, moving toward the side of his bed while I stayed back. Her dad hadn’t noticed me yet, and I was okay with that.
I didn’t know what I expected of her old man. But he was a big, solid guy. He clearly hit the gym a lot to be that fit still. He had a wide, strong jaw and stern brows.