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I nod, now choked up for a whole other reason. I hug my mom, then give a final look to Gramps. He still looks frail, and small, but I don’t feel as anxious as I was before. I feel more hopeful now, despite the fact that nothing about his condition changed in the last five minutes.
Walking out of the room, I shut the door behind me softly. Josie is leaning against the nurses station, talking with the other nurses there. I come up behind her, resting my hand on the small of her back. “Home?” I ask. I need a bed, and fast. The fact that we have a near forty minute drive before we get there is painful.
Josie nods. “See you later,” she says to the nurses. They all smile and wave, offering us goodbyes. My arm lands around her shoulder, pulling her into my side as we walk. Taking a deep breath, I lean down, kissing the top of her head.
“Thank you,” I say.
“For what?” she asks.
“Being here, not being mad at me for forgetting you, just… thank you.”
“Thank you for allowing me to be here,” Josie responds. “You could have told me to leave. I’m not family. But I’m grateful you didn’t.”
“I’d never. You’re family. Whether it’s legal or not, you’re my family.” I stop, turning so that we are facing each other, I need to see her reactions.
Josie peers into my eyes, those blue-gray eyes that I love so much shining with tears. “I’m not going to lie, I totally was mad at you for like two minutes when I thought you ditched me, or were mad at me for not hiring the other girl. But then I thought to myself and knew that you would never do something like that. Something had to have happened.”
I nod, letting her say her piece. “I was so worried you were hurt. That you’d been in an accident of some kind.” She drops her head to rest on my chest.
“No, baby, I’m okay.” I run my hand over her hair, now taking my turn to soothe her.
“I know, and I’m so glad Gramps is going to be okay. I went from panicking about you, to panicking about him. I owe Marley big time for coming to get me.”
“You and me both,” I whisper. I kiss the top of her head again. “Come on, let’s go wake Beau, then get home.”
37
JOSIE
The two car caravan pulls into Andrew’s driveway, just after three in the morning. Andrew, Beau, and I rode in Marley’s car, while Thomas and Jason followed in his truck. The boys still have their vehicles here, as they were all in Jason’s truck heading to get lunch or something when they got the call.
It was pretty lucky that they were all in the same place at the same time.
We slowly climb out of the vehicles, and when I notice everyone following us inside, I pause. “Are you guys coming in?”
Thomas is the first to speak. “Yep. I don’t care if I sleep on the floor, but there’s no way I could drive home right now.”
Marley and Beau both agree. Jason, too. Andrew opens his front door, flicking on the light to the living room. The room glows with warm light, I head into the kitchen to grab water for everyone. We’ve all been crying for hours, so we definitely need to rehydrate. Come to think of it, I don’t think any of us ate.
I’m not hungry in the slightest, but offer anyway. “Does anyone need anything to eat?”
A chorus of no’s comes from the living room, so I head back in with the water bottles. Everyone takes one, chugging until their bottle is empty. Andrew reappears from down the hall, blankets in tow.
“Guest bedroom is open, and I have an air mattress. Someone is either going to have to share a bed, or sleep on the couch.” I toss Andrew a water as he drops the pile of blankets to the floor.
He drinks his bottle as fast as everyone else. “Marley can have the guest room,” Beau offers. “Is there still a trundle bed in there? We could share the room like old times.”
Andrew rubs his forehead. “No idea, man. I don’t even know what the fuck that is.”
Beau chuckles softly. “I’ll check. Come on, Mar.” He offers her a hand, helping her to stand, and leads her down the hall.
“Marley, I’ll grab you some clothes,” I call to her back. She offers me a thumbs up. “Andrew, do you have clothes for your brothers?”
“Yeah I think so. You guys can fight over who sleeps where,” Andrew says, looking at his other two brothers.
Jason is already laying flat on the couch, his arm over his eyes. “Yep,” he groans.
Thomas rolls out the full size air mattress, plugging it in to inflate it. Andrew heads down the hall to his bedroom, and I follow, grabbing an extra pair of sweats and tshirt I have tucked in a bag of clothes I keep here for Marley. Andrew tosses me a pair of shorts and a shirt for Beau. I head back down the hall to the guest bedroom, knocking on the door.
