Page 106 of Returning to Everton

“Does this have anything to do with someone shouting penis licker?” Rowen asks with a raised brow.

Meghan clears her throat. “Um yeah… that was Bryce. I don’t know what’s going on with him today. I told him to go home before the boss heard and fired him,” she confides in Rowe, who then gives Ayden and me the look to end all looks. Normally I think she’s cute when she tries to give the evil eye, but I can tell she really means it this time.

“Fix this!” Rowe hisses at us.

Okay, I guess we didn’t think that one through all the way. I look over at Ayden and he groans in response. “Oh fine, I’ll reverse it,” he whines. “But you leave yours,” he points at me and I shrug noncommittedly. He mutters a spell under his breath and nods his head. While we were doing that, Meghan was trying to flirt with Nate, so she’s still standing there.

“Ahem,” Rowen clears her throat to get the girl’s attention. She looks up from where she was staring at Nate’s tattoos and raises her eyebrows in question. “Could you have Bryce stop by before he leaves please?” Rowe asks politely.

“Oh. Yeah, sure,” she stutters then walks away slightly confused by the looks of it.

A few minutes later, Bryce is back. “You, uh... you wanted to see me?” he stumbles over his words while steadily staring at a spot over Ayden’s shoulder.

“Yes, just wanted to make sure you were alright,” Rowen smiles up at him. “We heard you were going home. I hope everything’s okay.” He looks over at Rowe, because who the hell can look away from her when she’s talking so sweetly?

He opens his mouth to answer and we all hold our breaths. Rowe just keeps smiling at him. When nothing happens, he breathes a sigh of relief and finally finds his voice. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I wasn’t feeling well, but I’m feeling better now. I might be able to stay for the rest of my shift now,” he tells her happily.

“Oh, that’s good! I’m glad you’re feeling better,” she tells him.

“Yeah, I bet randomly shouting penis licker made you feel like shit,” Nate mutters under his breath.

“Umm... I’m just gonna go check on your food,” Penis Licker mumbles and rushes off.

We all crack up laughing at Nate’s comment. Well, everyone except for Rowen. “Y’all are bad. I thought you were nicer than that Hudson,” she admonishes me.

I shrug my shoulders. “I normally am Sugar, but not towards strangers that hit on my woman,” I defend.

She rolls her pretty little eyes at me. “Oh, but it’s okay for women to hit on you guys everywhere we go?” she snipes back.

“Absolutely not. And not one of us returned any attention sent our way, now did we? Besides, we love it when you get jealous and possessive of us,” I retort.

“Yeah, well I didn’t return that guy’s attention either. In fact, unlike some people,” she says giving Nate and Ayden the evil eye this time, “I straight up told him I was taken.”

“Hey! I told that hostess I was with my girlfriend thank you very much,” Ayden contends indignantly.

“Yeah, yeah...” Whatever Rowe was about to say, is cut off by the ringing of her phone. She looks around the table with wide eyes before she pulls it out. “He-hello?” she answers with a stutter. “Yes... Okay... Right now?” she sighs. “Yeah, I’ll be there in a little bit, we’re at lunch right now so it’ll take some time to get there...Okay, we’ll come right now. Thanks,” she says then hangs up the phone. She looks up and the look on her face guts me. “That was the doctor’s office. They uh... they have my results. They want me to come in right away.”

Shit. Come in right away is code for ‘it’s not fucking good’. I nod numbly and look at the other guys.

“Go. Take Rowe, we’ll take care of this then head back to her house,” Nate offers.

I just nod again and stand up. I pull out Rowen’s chair and pull her to standing. Her legs can’t hold her up though, so she falls into my arms. I wrap them around her and hold her up. “It’s okay baby. I’ve got you,” I hold her tight and her body starts to shake. I look down to see she’s sobbing silently into my chest.

“It-it’s bad Hud,” she sniffs. “Wh-what’s wrong wi-with me?” she questions me.

“I don’t know Sugar, but we’re going to find out. Then we’re going to fix it,” I declare and I see all the guys nod sharply. It doesn’t matter what’s wrong, we’ll fix it somehow.

I slowly walk Rowen out of the restaurant and to my car. I get her situated in the front seat and buckle her up. She’s just staring off into space. No doubt imagining all the awful things the doctor is about to tell us. I run around the car and get in. It takes no time at all to get to the office, thanks to all of the traffic laws I broke to get here as fast as possible.

I walk Rowen inside and the receptionist tells us to go on back to the room we were in earlier. Great. No waiting means no good news. We make our way to our room, me holding Rowe up the whole time. I sit back in my seat and pull her down in my lap again. I squeeze her tight, trying to give her some small measure of comfort. I know she’s freaking out inside and I wish I could do something to make it better. The door opens and we both snap our heads up. Dr. Johnston walks in carrying a computer.

He sees how I’m holding Rowe, and can tell she’s just barely holding it together. “I’ll get straight to the point. I know you’re freaking out right now and I don’t want to drag this out," he sighs and sets his computer on the table. "Rowen, you have a brain tumor.”

And my heart shatters with those six words.