Chapter 25
Gavin
My arm drapes across my mother’s frail shoulders as her body trembles in despair. We’ve just been given the news from Frank’s oncologist that he’s in his final days of life.
Frank was taken by ambulance to the hospital last night. He had severe difficulty breathing and he’d turned a ghostly shade of blue and white, almost an ashy gray.
Mom had called me and Christian around eleven thirty p.m. and we rushed to meet her at St. Vincent’s Mercy Hospital in downtown Phoenix.
We’d been here all night and we weren’t expecting good news, but hoping for a miracle. My mom dealt with this the best she could. She’s always been a strong woman, but seeing her break down over Frank is enough to bring tears to my own eyes. She’d finally found a good man after all her years alone or with the wrong guys. Someone she could count on to love. And now he was going to leave her like this.
“I’m going to go down to the café and grab some coffee,” Christian announces, as he stands from the vinyl covered chair and looks down at us both. “Either of you want one?”
My mom sniffles out a “thank you,” and I look up at him with pleading eyes. The misery in his own has me realizing I’m not the only one who’s uncertain of what to do in this situation. Neither of us know how to comfort or ease the pain for my mom, the woman who has been our source of comfort when we’ve dealt with the shit in life.
Christian nods and turns around, moving only a few feet down the hall when he’s stopped by a pretty raven-haired nurse in blue scrubs.
“Christian? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, hey Ainsley,” he mumbles in surprise, enclosing her in a friendly hug.
When she pulls back, I see a gentle smile light across her face, as she glances furtively from him to my mom and me.
She slides her hands in the front pockets of her scrubs. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Christian clears his throat and speaks low and quiet. “Um, not really. My stepdad was brought in last night. He’s, um, in end-stage liver cancer. The doctor just, uh, gave us some shitty news.”
My mom gives a slight hiccup in my arms and I grip her shoulder a little tighter. Hoping she’ll be consoled by my strength, even though I’m not feeling particularly strong at the moment.
Life is so fucked up right now. I’m twenty-one years old and everything is crashing down around me. Prickles of anger and irritation rise across my skin, burning through me like an iron scorching through a delicate shirt.
I need something to punch. Or someone to fuck. Anything to alleviate the boiling rage simmering low in my belly.
I’ve tuned out for a second when I catch a portion of what Ainsley is saying.
“…does Cade know? I’m sure he’d like to help if he can. I know he’d want to be there for you as a friend, ya know? Why don’t you come over tonight or tomorrow? Just come hang and talk. We’re your friends and we want to be there for you.”
Christian nods and shrugs. My body goes on high alert at the mention of Cade. She must be his fiancée. Which means she knows Kady.
Fuck. I’ve been trying to get her out of my head since I listened to her voicemail yesterday.
Multiple times.
I played her message last night while lying on the couch and was in heaven listening to the sound of her husky, sweet voice as I played it repeatedly. It took up residency in my veins and my bloodstream – warming me with the melodic sound. My hand rolled over my thickening length, as images of the two of us together soaked through my confused brain.
But I shut that all out the minute my mom called with the news and I left all those plans about calling her back lying on the couch I’d just vacated. I can only handle so much pain and discomfort right now. I have no room to consider what it means for Kady to be back in Arizona at the same time I am.
I’m not in a good place right now to start anything up with her.
Plus, she’d made it abundantly clear when she left that I was no big deal to her. She couldn’t return my sentiments and was mute on the topic of seeing where things went with us.
Which is fine by me. I don’t have the time nor the inclination to go chasing after some chick. Not when I have so many other important decisions ahead of me to deal with – like what I’m going to do with my basketball career. And how I’m going to support my mother after Frank’s death.
My gaze returns toward Christian and Ainsley as I see them walking down the hall together, her arm in the crook of his elbow, showing him the support he needs. The same support my mom needs from me.
“Mom, what can we do for you?”
She straightens her slumped spine and I drop my arm from her shoulder. She’s an average-sized woman, maybe five-foot-four, but she’s dwarfed by me and Christian. Except for the few gray hairs that have popped up on her scalp over the last year, she still looks young. And vital. Too young for this kind of pain.
