That’s a new revelation to me. Then again, she’s high now—who’s to say she isn’t just twisting things with the past and present.
“He’s good. Happy. He’s a firefighter.”
A smile pulls at her thin lips, and I realize how gaunt and sickly she looks. Sunken cheekbones, dull skin, eyes that sink into her face with dark rings around them. This isn’t the woman I remember. The one that I knew. The one that tucked me into bed every night and told me she loved me.
“Married?” she asks, her eyebrows raising in hope. “Kids?”
My eyes slide quickly to Jordan before my attention is back on the woman. “Neither. But he does have a girlfriend. One that’s really good for him. One he’s very much in love with. Pretty sure she’s it for him.”
Behind me I hear two distinct gasps and realize that Quinn and Hailey are still there. In front of me, Jordan has stopped breathing as she stares at me with wide eyes. Was this the best way to tell her I love her? No, definitely not. This isn’t the way Ienvisioned it at all. But I’ve watched one friend lose the love of his life, and another nearly lose his, and I know one thing. They both wished that they’d said it before it was too late. I’m not making that same mistake. In case anything bad happens, Jordan needs to know how I feel.
“Oh, my boy. In love. I never stopped loving him, Eddie. You know I could never, right?”
My jaw grinds together, and I fight to keep my attention focused on her. No, I didn’t know she didn’t stop loving me. I thought that’s why she fucking left in the first place. But I have a role to play, and that role has nothing to do with being a son that’s wounded and scarred from things that happened a lifetime ago.
“I know, Sandy,” I tell her, but the words are shaky at best. Clearing my throat, an idea strikes, and I take another half step forward, closing the distance in case I get the chance to leap. “Can I ask you something?”
Her eyes are still mostly clear when she nods, but there’s no telling how long it’ll be before another wave of the high hits her and pulls her deeper into the clutches of the drug.
“You would never hurt Liam, right? Never want to see him hurt?”
“No,” she breathes, shaking her head vehemently. The motion pulls Jordan back and forth, and she sucks in a gasp of air. “No, never. Eddie, you know it’s why I left. I didn’t want to hurt him.”
“Right. Yes, exactly. You’d do anything to protect him, right?”
She nods, her body jerking some more. It makes me wince because with each movement, that needle comes closer to hitting Jordan in the neck, but by some miracle it hasn’t touched her yet. At least I don’t think it has.
“Okay, good. That’s really good,” I say gently, closing thedistance with another measured step. Sandy doesn’t seem jumpy by my close proximity, but I’m not sure how close she’ll actually let me get. “I know you’d do anything in your power to keep him from getting hurt and making him happy. You see the nurse you’re holding onto?”
For the first time since she grabbed onto Jordan to begin with, Sandy’s head turns to look at her. I watch as Jordan’s eyes slide to the side, her head staying firmly in place while Sandy studies her.
“That’s Jordan,” I continue. “This is Liam’s girlfriend. She’s a nurse here at the hospital.”
Any faster and I’m sure Sandy’s neck would be broken with the way she cranks it back in my direction. There’s a squeak of horror that comes from her as her mouth falls open, eyes wide.
“No,” she gasps.
“Yeah,” I confirm, gaining more ground between us. I’m within reaching distance of Jordan, but I don’t make a move for her, or the needle. Instead I hold my hand out, palm up. “Why don’t you give me the syringe, Sandy? Then we can talk this all out. I can tell you more about Liam. Maybe show you some pictures. Would you like that?”
She blinks rapidly, her eyes darting from me to Jordan and back again. The moments stretch into eternity while she debates her next move, but then I see the grip she has around Jordan’s neck with her free arm start to loosen, and I know she’s giving in to me.
The next thirty seconds are a whirlwind. The needle falls to the ground with a small clatter, and I immediately kick it away. Jordan is launching herself at me before the thing stops spinning, and then I’m pulling her away from Sandy.
I have no idea where they come from, or when they got there, but police converge on Sandy, coming from behind us and then in front of us as I turn Jordan and me around. An officer’s arm isaround me then, and we’re being ushered towards the ambulance bay doors, pushing through them to the inside of the big garage bays where patients are offloaded.
The last thing I hear as we go through the doors is my mother screaming my father’s name. A sound I know will haunt me for a long time.
Safety. Somehow we’ve made it. Adrenaline is screaming through me, my heart beating a mile a minute as I half carry, half drag Jordan towards the one lone ambulance. It’s Quinn and Hailey’s rig, and the one thing here that makes me feel any semblance of security.
We’re five steps away from it when I hear Nate’s voice shouting, “Liam!”
He’s outside at the entrance of the bay, an officer holding him back from crossing into the building. Nate is calm, cool, and collected ninety-nine percent of the time. Barring the flip out he had on Jordan and me, the only other time I’ve seen him freaking out was when Savanna was in a collision that could have killed her. I was the first one on scene that day, and I understand why he looked the way he did. It was bad. Really bad.
That’s the Nate pacing the length of the garage door, trying his best to get past the cop. The one that looks like he’s about to lose his mind.
“We’re good!” I yell at him to alleviate some of his stress until we’re allowed to get to each other.
Then I realize I don’t actually know if we are good. I’ve yet to even look at Jordan. I’ve yet to assess any part of her. Physically or mentally. My heart seizes in my chest, aching so hard with panic and worry of my own that it hurts more than it’s hurt since the last time I saw her.
