“That’s a good idea. Maybe I’ll join you for one of those holidays.”
He raised a brow. “You’d come to Michigan in December? You told me you’re allergic to snow.”
Paige laughed. “I am. But I’d rock a pair of snow pants for you.”
Chuckling, he said, “Now, I’d pay to see that.”
“Who knows? Maybe I’ll do a clothing line with a variety of sexy snow pants. Think I could pull it off?”
Andrew stared at Paige. “I think you make everything sexy.”
She groaned. “When you say stuff like that, I just want to do you.”
“Well . . .” He unbuckled his pants. “There’s magic in video chats. Take your clothes off.”
Chapter Seventeen
Andrew stared at his mother, lying on the hospital bed. She was finally asleep now, but it hadn’t been easy to get her to rest. They’d rushed her back to the hospital that morning. He’d never seen his mother so emotional, and it tore him up to hear her cry out in pain.
Connor approached him, squeezing his shoulder. “She’s going to be okay.”
Nodding, he swallowed. Tears burned the back of his throat as he recalled her piercing scream. His mother had tried to get up and walk herself to the bathroom and hurt herself—again.
“She’s too stubborn, man,” Andrew said. “What if we weren’t there?”
In fact,healmost wasn’t there. He’d decided to take an earlier flight back to Cali, so that he could see Paige. Andrew was getting ready to leave for the airport when his mother injured herself.
“But we were there, bruh.” Connor brushed a hand over their mother’s arm. “Can’t think about what-ifs.”
That what-if nearly took him out. He couldn’t imagine his life without his mother. The thought of something happening to her while he was gone . . . Closing his eyes, he drew in a slow breath. He cut a glance at his older brother. “She’s alone here. None of us are close enough to get to her if she needs us.”
Since the first surgery, they’d been alternating weeks, flying in to stay with her. Connor had stayed the bulk of the time since he could basically do his job remotely. But Andrew didn’t know how long they could sustain the arrangement.
“How long can we do this?” he whispered.
“As long as it takes. She’s strong, bruh. You know that.”
Despite knowing that she’d survived worse, he couldn’t help the overwhelming worry that he felt when he thought about her alone in that house, depending on Mrs. Fulton to hear her if she cried out.
“I know that,” Andrew said. “But you didn’t hear her. You didn’t hear her beg me not to leave her.” Connor had run out of the room to get towels for the blood, leaving Andrew alone with his mom. “The fear in her voice . . .” He shuddered as the sound of her loud wails replayed in his mind. “She was so scared.”
Connor peered at him, tears in his eyes. “I know. I’ve seen it. I saw it when Dad left, and she would cry at night from the heartbreak. I saw it when she worked so long and so hard that she could barely walk in the door. I saw it when Damon graduated from high school and she knew she would be alone. So, yes, I get it.”
Averting his gaze, Andrew wiped a tear that had fallen from his eyes. He knew Connor had experienced more than his childhood brain could comprehend. His brother had never really talked much about those years, though.
“The thing about Mom, though?” Connor said. “She survived. Yes, she cried. Yes, she hurt. But she still got out there and did the best she could for us. Even when she was in pain, she got up and went to work. Even when she saw Dad out in the streets with that woman, she held her head high and kept it moving. That’s what she raised us to do. I know you’re worried. I am, too. But Connie Weathers is not going to let an ankle fracture take her out. She’s ready to enjoy her life, after working all those years.”
“I hear you.” Andrew traced his mother’s brow with his thumb. “I just love her, man.”
Connor chuckled. “Don’t we all.”
His mom’s eyes fluttered open. “Hey, my babies,” she said, her voice scratchy.
Andrew bent down and kissed her cheek. “You gave us a scare.”
“I don’t know how many times we have to tell you to sit yo ass down somewhere,” Connor said.
Mom cracked a smile. “I don’t know how many times I have to tellyouthat you are not my daddy.”
