Page 70 of Playing With Forever

“I’m sorry, Daddy.”

“She’s gonna be okay,” he said in a horrendous voice that was hued in grief and saturated in agony.

I nodded.

“Lindy, girl, Josie’s not gonna leave us. She’s gonna pull through.”

If she leaves us, we can’t be a family.

I nodded again.

My dad turned his head and stood, taking me with him. Kane was up, and he grabbed my other hand.

“Josie Lark’s family.”

Family.

Would we still be that?

My dad stepped forward, pulling me along. Kane came with, and DJ and Carrie completed our huddle.

We were Josie Lark’s family.

For now.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“You need to go out and talk to her,” Josie demanded. “Right now, Evan, or I’m doing it.”

I adjusted her legs that were resting over my thighs and shook my head.

“You try to get up off this couch, woman, I’m taking you into the bedroom and cuffing you to our bed.”

“It’s been six days,” she told me, something I hadn’t forgotten.

Three of those six days had been utter hell. Four of those hours had been the worst four of my life.

Four hours not knowing if we were going to lose Josie.

Four hours watching my daughter struggle and feeling helpless to do anything.

Four hours of being lost in my pain, not knowing what to do or say to help anyone else.

Fucking torture.

“We’ll talk to her when she comes back in.”

“The boys will be here.”

All the better to wait.

What Lindy needed right now was her family around her.

“Evan—”

“Since when did you turn so bossy?”

Josie squinted her eyes and tilted her head to the side, giving me an unobstructed view of a four-inch slice on the side of her neck that had been glued closed. The clear piece of SecondSkin did nothing to hide the wound, but even if it was covered, I knew the exact location of that cut.