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“I don’t know.” She’s shaking her head, hard, like she wants to shake the thoughts away. “I just couldn’t stand hurting you! I knew it would kill you. I didn’t know what to do.”
Everything around me seems to collapse.
The past, the present… everything I thought I knew about what happened all those years ago. Rory — my Aurora — was raped. Got pregnant from that rape. Didn’t think she could tell me. And then, when I found out…
“I didn’t know what I was going to do about the baby,” she continues miserably. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell you, and I couldn’t imagine telling Thorpe. I couldn’t stand the thought of trying to parent with him. But then I lost it…”
She breaks down again.
“Jesus, Rory,” I croak, my throat so tight it’s like I’m being strangled. “Jesus Christ, what have I done?”
“Nothing!” she cries. She looks at me desperately. “You didn’t do anything, Brody! I’m sorry!”
“Stop!” Fuck, now I’m crying. In a second I’m next to her, gathering her into my arms. “Sshhh. Stop it. It’s okay, you’re okay. Sshhh.”
We sit there, alone in the deserted cafeteria, me stroking her hair. Her face buried against my chest. I get ahold of myself, and eventually, she quiets down and stops crying. I grab her some more napkins so she can wipe her face.
“I should get back to Dad,” she murmurs.
We stand, and silently I walk her back to her father’s room.
He’s awake when we get there. And alert enough to do a double-take when he sees me.
“Hello, Mr. Wilkins,” I nod to him. “It’s been a while.”
He glances at Rory, his eyes demanding an answer
“Brody found out you were in the hospital, Dad, and came over to help me out,” Rory tells him.
A familiar expression settles on his face. The one I used to see back when we were teenagers:This one isn’t good enough.
But to his credit, all he says is, “I see.”
Laney comes into the room. “Hey, everyone. Mr. Wilkins, I spoke to the attending doctor. Looks like you get to go home this afternoon.”
“Well. That’s good news,” Rory’s dad replies in a frail voice. “As it turns out, I’m not such a big fan of hospitals.”
“I’m going to have to go back to the house and get your car, Dad,” Rory says, wrinkling her brow. “I uh, don’t have transportation here at the hospital.”
“I can grab a car and come back to pick you up,” I say. “Don’t worry about that.”
Rory looks at me gratefully.
Laney continues, “I understand your nurse will be by with some discharge paperwork in a bit. Just sit tight, sir.” She turns to Rory. “Can you come with me to my office for a few minutes? I’d like to talk to you about some options for follow-up care at home for your dad.”
The two of them leave together. I tell Rory’s dad I’ll be back in a little while to take them home. As I’m turning toward the door, he calls to me.
“Brody.” His voice is weak, but stern. “I’d like to know what exactly it is you’re doing.”
“Not sure what you mean, sir.”
“Oh, I think you do know exactly what I mean,” he shoots back. “You were never my favorite person back when you started dating my daughter. Even less so when the two of you ran off and eloped. And least of all when you broke my Aurora’s heart.”
He struggles to sit up in bed. I take a step forward to help him, but he shakes his head. “No. Leave me be.” When he’s finally arranged himself, he looks back up at me, eyes piercing through me. “Now, I have my finger on the pulse of this town well enough to know what you are, and who you are.” He points at my cut. “You can’t expect me to be happy that you’ve shown back up in Aurora’s life.”
“Yeah. I can understand that,” I reply. “I ain’t exactly every parent’s dream.”
“That’s an understatement,” he barks. “So I’ll ask you again. Why in thehellare you here?”
