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“You lied to me,” she said sternly. “You told me you saw Claire last night and this morning and that she was fine. She says she never saw you. That you never came home.”
“I didn’t want you to worry about her. I wanted you to go out and do your own thing. It’s not right the way you’re meddling in our business all the time. I’m around for Claire. We don’t need…”
“Yes. You do,” she barked. “You do need me and whatever other kind of help Claire needs, because you’re not around for Claire. You never are, and now just look at what’s happened! You do realize she was supposed to start walking around at home next week!? There’s no telling how far this set her back on that. She hates those stupid pain meds, and now she has to go back on those. Not to mention what could have happened if…”
Her voice cracked, and she buried her face in her hands.
“Fine. If you insist on being in the middle of everything, then why don’t you stick around more often!?” he fired back. “This is just as much your fault as it is mine.”
“How could you say that!? You’re the one who told me…”
“This isn’t Lana’s fault,” I butted in. “She was worried about Claire the whole time. She was counting on what you told her. You said you were home with her and that everything was fine.”
“Stay out of this,” Chris hissed. “I don’t know why you’re here either. This is none of your business.”
“I’m here because I care about Claire, too. Everyone in this town does.”
“There are more people who want to help her,” Lana reminded him. “But she refuses everyone. Do you know why? Because she’s embarrassed. She hates other people seeing what we all see. You should be by her side through all of this, Chris, and instead…we never know where you are half the time. Why don’t you just admit that you don’t care about her and get out of my way so she’ll let me and the rest of the people who love her be there for her!?”
“Is that what you want? You want me out of the way?” he scoffed. “Fine. My pleasure. But when Claire asks where I am, you tell her this is your fault, not mine. You’re running me off just like I knew you would from the moment you decided to stay in Silver Point.”
“I’m not running you off,” she seethed. “I gave you two options, Chris. It’s your choice to leave. Just because you’re not man enough to do what’s right.”
Chris lunged forward, grumbling as he got up in Lana’s face. I immediately got between them and shoved him back. My veins were coursing with so much rage and hatred for that guy that I thought I might clock him anyway, even though he was quickly backing down.
“You lay a finger on her, and I swear to god, Claire won’t be the only one in a hospital bed. Only I’ll make sure you’re in far worse condition than her,” I warned.
Chris stood there for a moment, scowling at both of us. When he accepted that he obviously wasn’t going to square up to me since we both knew I’d have him laid out flat in two seconds. There was no way I was going to let him do so much as say another word to Lana…he turned and stormed off towards the elevators.
“Unbelievable,” Lana squeaked, flailing her arms in the air in disbelief. “Of course, he’s just leaving again. He’s worthless. Completely good for nothing.”
I placed my hand on her back and gently rubbed up and down, trying to calm her down. “Come on. I’ll help you get Claire home, okay?”
She nodded and turned to walk back into Claire’s room. Just before going in, she stopped and squeezed my hand. “Keith?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks for being here.” A smile fluttered across her face.
My heart broke that she thought she needed to thank me at all. I was only doing what any decent man would have. Too bad Chris wouldn’t know what it meant to be a decent man, even if his life depended on it.
23
LANA
I was filled with so much anger and disappointment, and not even just with Chris. I couldn’t be too surprised at how he was acting. I didn’t expect anything less from him. I was the one who was supposed to know better than to count on him. I should have been there for Claire, and I wasn’t.
But I had to suck it up and put on a smile and be there for Claire. This wasn’t about me and how I was feeling.
We went back into the room and tried to keep things as light and happy as we could as the nurses talked us through Claire being discharged to go home. It wasn’t until we got to the lobby that I remembered my van was still at the house.
“I can drive you,” Keith insisted without a second thought. “How about we do something fun tonight? Dinner?”
“And board games!” Claire beamed.
I was hesitant about Keith hanging around the house with us, but if that’s what Claire wanted…I couldn’t object. As far as I was concerned, she got whatever she wanted for at least a week, or however long it took for me to make it up to her for not being there.
Some of my reservations faded as I watched Keith carefully load Claire’s wheelchair into the back of his truck and then carefully helped her into the passenger’s seat. I rode in the back, in the truck bed, so I didn’t crowd her since her body was sore from the fall. It was weird being in the back of a truck, riding around town. I hadn’t done that since high school. The nostalgia of it offered a brief distraction from all of my guilt, at least.
