AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nibbled on my chicken strips, kind of in and out of the conversation when my friends and I sat at our table. Everyone wanted to sit with us since we were popular, but this was just our time. No one else got to sit with us during lunch.
“Yeah, I heard Coach is marrying her mom,” Dorian said, and the chicken got weird in my mouth, tasted weird. Dorian shrugged. “Maybe he’ll lay off working us so hard this summer if he’s getting some.”
Dorian nudged Ares, who smirked, but Ares was more focused on his sketchbook. Ares’s lunch tray was full, but he barely ate when he was really getting into his sketching. He was an artist. Wells was howling, though, after what Dorian said, but I wasn’t. I looked at the girl again, focused.
“Her mom’s getting married to Coach?” I asked, casual, and Dorian nodded. I frowned. “You sure? How’d you hear about that?”
“I overhead some of the assistant coaches talking,” Dorian stated, then glanced over at the girl and the woman who I now assumed was her mom. They were still with Coach. Dorian dropped an arm on his chair. “She is cute. Maybe I’ll talk to her.”
“I think this one may be Thatch’s,” Wells stated, and when Dorian asked why, Wells shoved me. Wells threw an arm around me before directing a finger at the girl. “I mean, look how he’s looking at her.”
I was looking at her, but I was thinking harder. I couldn’t taste the chicken in my mouth at this point, and rather than try, I pushed my tray away.
“I’m going to go do some suicides,” I said to my friends, and they were used to me just leaving sometimes. At camp, I was always moving, always training.
It was the only thing I could do to curb the nightmares.
Tiring myself out, exhausting myself let me sleep, but I didn’t that night. I couldn’t. I tossed and turned thinking about a cute girl and the fact that this summer hadn’t been like the last two so far. There hadn’t been any late nights in Coach’s cabin, music… There hadn’t been any of that, and I saw that pretty girl’s face when I woke up in a cold sweat. I ended up in the bathroom half the night, and after I was done vomiting up the little bit of chicken I’d eaten, I sat by the lake. I thought there. I thought there for hours, and when I was done, I had a plan.
I just hoped I could actually do it.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
Knight
The call came from my wife. Our son was a hero. He’d gone into that hospital and done something I hadn’t even had a chance to do, nor the authorities. He’d done that.
He’d done that.
He’d been holding Aspen Davis when his mother and I finally got to him. Greer, my wife, had been in tears and our daughter, Bow, the same. I hadn’t wanted Bow anywhere near the hospital yet, but she fought us. She was a Reed, and she got her way. I didn’t regret her coming when I saw my family together, my wife holding on to our son and our daughter crying in between them. Aspen Davis was nearby with her own mother, who was crying and holding her. I’d seen the two in a similar state years ago. I had no idea what had compelled Thatcher to take her back then, but he had and the mother’s and daughter’s tears had been from that day. They’d been because of my son.
Now, Aspen’s mother’s tears were for her daughter and my son. At one point, she held on to Thatcher too. She squeezed his hand, saying, “Thank you.”
Thank you.
Greer, Bow, and even Aspen gazed on while Aspen’s mom shared a moment with my son. The nightmare today was over. The gunman had turned himself in to the authorities.
I had no thoughts about him at the present. If I did, I’d wrap myself up in that. I’d want to kill something and not be present with my family. I needed to be here. I needed to be strong here.
“Dad?”
My son’s voice brought me over to where he stood by Aspen’s hospital bed. I’d waited, wanting his mom and his sister to have their time with him. It was hard for me to express emotion outwardly. It came from years of Reed men and their tough edges. I’d lost my dad too young, and he’d never had problems with emotion from what I remembered. He hadn’t despite having been raised by my stern grandfather. I loved my grandpa despite all his sins, but he hadn’t been the best caretaker after my dad had passed.
I folded a hand behind Thatcher’s neck. “You’re okay?”
“I am, sir,” he said, nodding, and I did too. I should have hugged him in that moment. The fact that he was okay and the heavy possibility that today could have gone the opposite of how it had made me want to pull my son to my chest and never let go.
But then… the moment passed. I waited too long, too goddamn long, and others sought my son’s attention. His sister did when she hugged him again, and their mother did when she embraced them both.
Thatcher gazed over their shoulders as they did, his hand leaving mine. Apparently, I’d taken his hand or maybe he’d taken mine. Regardless, we both let go at the same time, and I stepped back again.
I always stepped back.
The evening was long, and I spent much of it caring for my family. I received calls from everyone, my brothers and their families. Royal Prinze, Lance Johnson, and Jaxen Ambrose may have started as friends, but they were my brothers, my family. Ramses Mallick was a part of that too. We’d all gone to high school together and, later, raised our children together. They all wanted to stop by the house and visit with Thatcher, them and their kids. My friends’ sons and daughters had created their own family unit with my own kids, but I kept everyone at bay for the evening. The Reeds ended up spending that first night as a family along with the Davises. I invited Aspen and her mother over, and our household staff made everyone dinner. I’d been told Aspen had a pain disorder, but she was doing well, so she and her mom were both able to get her out of that hospital that was swarming with media and onlookers. That was the last thing any of us needed tonight. Tomorrow it’d be there.
Tonight, I made sure it was a safe night for the Reeds and the Davises. It was a calm night and keeping myself busy with that allowed me to feel like I had some semblance of control. Like I was doing something for my son and my family. We’d had so much chaos in our home lately. So much pain.
