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“Mr. Anderson, I’ll be back in a little,” the nurse says as she picks up her clipboard and moves out of the room and part of me wishes I could leave with her to avoid this awkward tension.
“And since Whitney isfinallyhere, I’ll go look for your father. I don’t want him filling up on junk from the vending machine.” She presses a kiss to his forehead. “Sweetheart, I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Thank you, Mom.” He nods.
She brushes past me before giving me a look like she can see everything I’ve done in the past twenty hours and I try my best not to appear guilty or nervous but I worry I fail miserably.
“Parker, I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. I… was asleep early. I was angry at you for how you’d been treating me and—”
“Asleep where?”
“What?”
“I didn’t stutter,” he snaps. “Asleep, where? Because you weren’t at our house. There’s been no one there since you left at like nine a.m.?”
“I went to my parents’ house, where I told you I’d be when I left yesterday morning,” I tell him.
“You said you were going for breakfast, not to stay the whole damn day.”
“What difference does it make? I’m policed on when I can go to my parent’s house and for how long? Are you out of your mind?” I hadn’t meant to come off that harshly but give me a break.
“So that’s where you slept? Your parents?” His tone bites and I’m equal parts relieved and annoyed that he hasn’t said anything along the lines of “I’m happy to see you.” No “I just got in a car accident and thought I’d never see you again and now you’re here and everything is better.”
I am relieved because dealing with an angry and aggressive Parker will make this easier but I just don’t fully understand the scope of his hostility.
“No. I slept at Chloe’s.” I’m grateful that Chloe had already laid this groundwork and I hate that I needed her to construct this lie for me.That I have to lie at all.
“Hmm. Convenient,” he says, raising an eyebrow at me before he lets his head fall back into the pillows and he lets out a sigh. “My leg is broken in two places, I have a concussion, some broken ribs and bruising all down my right sidenot that you asked.”His words sting.
“You didn’t give me a chance to. You jumped all over me as soon as I walked in. But I’m happy that it wasn’t more serious.” I move toward his bed and reach for his hand. He flinches but lets me hold it and I squeeze it gently. “Why are you so angry with me? I understand that I should have heard the calls but…”
“You were drunk,” he interjects. “That’s the only time you sleep like the dead. The only time you sleep through phone calls and texts. When you and Chloe go out and drink and pass out.” I blink my eyes. “Normally it’s fine, whatever. But I needed you, Whitney. I needed you and you weren’t there.”
“I got here as soon as I could. You were across the country. I had to cross two time zones to get here and you’re angry because I got the call at eight a.m. versus midnight? Mind you, you weren’t even answering my calls last night. Why? Because you were getting drunk with Nick and Owen? Out of character for you by the way.” I wasn’t trying to point fingers, because I wish he would let loose more but he can’t fault me for doing the same thing he was doing.
You kinda weren’t though. You weren’t answering because you were getting fucked within an inch of your life.
“Because you were driving me crazy.”
“What?”
“The reason I was out with Nick and Owen? Because my fiancée wouldn’t come to New York and be with me like I asked.”
“I told you, I couldn’t—”
“Bullshit. Because then you went to day drink at your parents’ house. What the fuck is that about, Whitney?”
“Oh my God, what is it with you and my family? It’s either my parents and if it’s not them it’s Chloe or it’s Mason. Am I supposed to apologize for actually having a relationship with the people in my family?” I snap because although Laura was clingy and overbearing, Parker typically kept her and his father both at arm’s length and on a need-to-know basis. I know it was fucked up to say but he did judge my family at times and it got old when they’ve been nothing but accepting of him.
“The guy outside my house? He’sfamilytoo?”
Something about the way he saysfamilyhas me on alert.Don’t jump to conclusions.“Excuse me?”
“The guy you were talking to the other night when I called. Outsidemyhouse.”Not lost on me that he continues to saymyhouse. “You left with him. That’s family too, right?”
I try my best to appear unaffected by his question. “My godfather? He’s my parents’ best friend.”
“Yeah, so you said.” He narrows his eyes at me and the anger is written all over his face. But there’s no way he knows, I’ve been so careful. Mason and Chloe know not to bring it up or mention that I even had a serious boyfriend before Parker. At first, it wasn’t for any reason other than I didn’t want to talk about it, but as things got serious, I didn’t want him to know anything to avoid him slipping up and saying something in front of my parents.
