AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll call you when I get to the hospital.”
“Okay, nice meeting you Kennedy,” his mom chirped.
If he knew his mom, she wasn’t going to let the fact that Kennedy had been on a date with someone else deter her. And he wasn’t mad about that.
“You too, Mrs. Savage.”
Seb disconnected the call and couldn’t believe what he had done. He wasn’t sure what had possessed him to reveal that Kennedy was in the car or to share that she’d been on a date with someone else. Something had just come over him. He was starting to see that was a pattern when Kennedy was around.
“Sorry about that,” he apologized. “She can be a lot.”
“She seems…nice.” Kennedy shifted in her seat toward him. “You have asthma?”
“I did as a kid. I grew out of it.”
“Oh,” she nodded. “Was it bad?”
“Pretty bad when I was little. I had to stay inside a lot and I couldn’t play with my brothers. But I started running and that actually helped a lot.”
“Oh good. I’m glad.”
Unlike his dyslexia, he never talked about his asthmatic childhood. Even though he hadn’t technically been the one to reveal that information, he was still glad that she knew. Just like he was glad that she’d spoken to his mom, and he was glad that she’d left Lanterns with him and not Dan.
* * *
Kennedy and Seb made it to the hospital in just under half an hour. As they walked through the automatic doors Kennedy felt herself tense up. It happened every time she walked into this building. As much as she hated hospitals, particularly this one, she was glad that Seb was with her. He helped take the edge off of her anxiety. The last time she’d been there, she’d had a full-blown panic attack and hyperventilated. With Seb beside her, she was at least able to breathe.
She walked straight to the elevator bay and punched the arrow up. She didn’t have to stop by the information desk because she knew exactly where she was going. Labor and delivery were on the same floor that Nana had been when she was here for her heart attack.
The doors opened and when they stepped inside, she pressed the button to the fifth floor.
“Are you okay?” Seb asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because your hands are in fists and you’re biting the inside of your mouth.”
Kennedy looked down and sure enough, her hands were in balls. She ran her tongue over the inside of her mouth and felt the indentations of her teeth.
She unfurled her fingers and shook out her arms. “I didn’t even know I was doing that. I just… I hate hospitals. Specifically, this one. My mom was sick for years and she was in and out of here before…she died here. And a few months ago, my grandma had a heart attack and a stroke and came here and instead of going home she was transferred straight to Well Brook. And I just…I don’t know I get really bad anxiety being here.”
The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out. Kennedy started toward the nurses’ station to see if they could find out any information, but Seb wrapped his fingers around her wrist, just like he’d done the first day they’d met when she was patting his groin area with a towel.
Her gaze lifted from his hand holding her wrist to his face. As soon as she looked into his deep, brown eyes, all of the anxiousness she’d been feeling drained out of her.
“I’m sorry you have such bad and triggering memories here. I’m here if you need to talk or if you need to go outside for air. Just say the word. Anything I can do, I’m here.”
Kennedy’s heart expanded painfully in her chest. Not just at the things he’d said and the support he’d given her, but also the empathy she felt radiating from him. She wanted to throw herself into his arms and tell him that she loved him, but she thought that might be a little much.
Instead, she smiled and did her best to hold back tears. “Thank you. That means a lot.”
“You’re here!” Laura’s mom and her sisters Leti, Luci, and Lori all descended upon them at once as they stepped off the elevator. “Have you seen her? How is she?”
“No, we haven’t. We just got here,” Kennedy sniffed back the emotion that had almost overwhelmed her.
She watched as all four women noticed Seb holding her wrist and then began to eye him up and down. Lori gave her a not-so-subtle thumbs up.
“Oh no, this is Sebastian.” Kennedy pulled her hand back. “Knox’s little brother.”
