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“Xander, honey, do you want a soda?”
I looked up at the round-faced nurse who’d introduced herself as Sarah-Anne. “Where’s my dad?” I asked.
Her gentle smile faded and she glanced down the busy corridor. It had been two hours since I’d followed Mr. Crawford into the bustling ER. Even now, we were surrounded by people doing everything from coughing to crying to laughing, and ranting, but I barely noticed them.
“They’re just finishing up with him,” she said.
Finishing up? What did you have to finish up when it came to a dead man?
Part of me didn’t want to know. “Can I see him?”
The woman straightened and then began looking around the room. “Um, why don’t I look into that for you?” she said awkwardly and I knew my question hadn’t been the right one. I didn’t bother saying anything else as she made a comment about coming right back. I knew she wouldn’t.
I winced. I didn’t always say the right thing.
Except to Bennett. Bennett always got what I was saying… or what I wasn’t.
I debated calling him, but I didn’t remember his new cell phone number. I looked around the crowded waiting room and then got to my feet. I needed to see my dad.
Because I still didn’t believe it.
Dad had been talking to me. Even as he’d been holding onto his arm and telling me to call for help, he’d been talking. He’d been warm. He’d told me how much he loved me and that everything was going to be okay.
Someone had just messed up. They’d gotten it wrong.
I began walking towards the electronic doors all the doctors and nurses kept disappearing through. I saw Mr. Crawford in a corner of the waiting room, still on his phone. Even though he was facing me, he didn’t notice me. But that was nothing new.
Bennett’s parents were pretty good at not seeing the help.
No one stopped me when I walked through the doors. The smell of blood and some kind of strong chemical hit me at the same time, threatening to send my already rolling stomach into overdrive. As I made my way down the hallway, I began peeking through the edges of the curtains that blocked off the different treatment rooms. I numbed myself to the sight of people covered in blood and bandages. I didn’t hear the sobs or cries of pain. I didn’t wonder about what was wrong with them. In truth, I didn’t care. I couldn’t… not while my dad was lying in a room somewhere worried about me.
That’s what he would be, too. Worried about me. No matter how much pain he was in or how concerned he was about how we were going to pay for however much all this hospital shit cost, he’d be thinking of me first and foremost. And the sooner he saw I was okay, he’d get better and then we’d go home.
But when I finally found him in the last room at the end of the hallway, I knew that weird-smelling doctor guy hadn’t messed up. Neither had Mr. Crawford when he’d called my Aunt Lolly and told her that her brother was dead. I placed my fingers on my father’s too-cold skin and all I could think was this was wrong, this was wrong, this was wrong. And my last coherent thought was that only Bennett could fix it.
The sound of Bear barking ripped me from my thoughts and I realized I’d reached the top of the small rock face and had just been hanging there, lost in the memory. The pain was as raw now as it had been then, as I’d waited for Bennett to show up at the hospital that day.
He never did.
Chapter 10
Bennett
After spending the entire afternoon watching Xander’s arm muscles flex as he worked the climbing ropes, I was about ready to come out of my skin. He’d avoided me like the plague on the morning’s hike, which was nothing new, but then he’d seemed even weirder after the afternoon’s climbing lesson.
Every time he spoke to me, he spat the words. And god forbid Xander needed to speak to Aiden. Then he’d just ignore the guy like Aiden didn’t even exist. For some reason, it just made Aiden laugh. It had taken me a while to realize what was happening between Xander and Aiden, but it had finally dawned on me that Aiden was deliberately baiting Xander, and as soon as Aiden reached camp after leaving Xander to clean up the remnants of the rock climbing, I pulled him aside.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” Aiden asked with mock innocence.
“You’re egging him on. Every time Xander says anything, you’ve got some smartass response that’s meant to get a rise out of him. I want to know what the hell you’re up to.”
