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Their lips held before he briefly pressed his brow to hers. Then, they both pulled apart and looked at me together, JB still appearing regretful and Teagan scowling in reprimand.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I love you too,” I grumbled obediently. “No matter what.”
He nodded and whispered, “I’m sorry.” Then he turned and hurried away.
I huffed out a breath, held up a hand to block Teagan who was still glaring at me, and I returned to Chloe.
But even as I sank down beside her, she was already asking, “What’s going on?”
I flinched and glanced toward Teagan, who was scooping Harper from her mother’s arms and talking to both her parents, probably about what JB was about to do.
The gossip would reach this side of the room fast enough, so I leaned toward Chloe and admitted, “JB has to operate on Freston.”
She exhaled but didn’t really respond to that. Instead, she glanced up at me with worried eyes. “You didn’t give him a hard time for it, did you?”
I frowned at her for even knowing that I had, but then I rolled my eyes and grumbled, “I mean, maybe for a second. But we worked it out.”
“Lucian,” she scolded softly. “It’s his job; it’s what he does, who he is. You can’t be mad at him for being him.”
“The fuck if I can’t,” I muttered moodily. “But like I said. We made up. It’s all good.” A second later, I sighed. “I should be more like him, shouldn’t I? One of thosegoodfuckers who gives you hope that the world isn’t headed for complete ruin.”
Chloe’s lips spread into a grin as she looked up at me. “No. You should keep being you. You’re one of those entertaining fuckers who helps us enjoy the ride no matterwherewe’re going.”
When I sniffed, she smiled and leaned against me, whispering, “Don’t worry. I’d choose you over him any day.”
Mollified, I tipped my head toward her but then sighed. “I have a feeling today isn’t going to end pleasantly, no matterwhatI say or do to entertain you.”
“You merely being here is enough,” she assured, squeezing my arm.
I smiled gratefully at her just as I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. When I looked up and saw my dad approaching, I swallowed.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“What?” Chloe turned and looked.
“That’s not hisgood newsface,” I warned into her ear.
“How can you tell?” she asked, squinting slightly.
I sighed. “I just can.”
My dad was a pretty quiet, mellow guy that didn’t show a lot of great emotions, but if you’d grown up in the same house as him, you’d be able to recognize the subtle differences that most people couldn’t.
Chloe tightened her hand around mine and took a deep breath as my dad stopped before us and glanced around, pausing on me, my mother, Pick, and a few others. We all rose to our feet to take the news standing up.
“When Nia had her accident,” he started, his low voice a deep rumble. “She struck a tree, where a limb came through the front windshield and impaled her through the chest.”
Wincing, I turned my face in toward Chloe, while she gasped and covered her mouth with both hands. A couple of the others cried out in horror. Eva covered her face and had to sit back down.
Dad paused and nodded before continuing. “Emergency response was able to cut most of the branch away but there’s still a portion inside her, and it’s helping to stop a major artery from bleeding out. If we remove it, she’ll die immediately.”
Some people started to cry right then, and Pick shook his head before speaking up, “So…what? You’re just going to leave it in there?”
My father’s eyes filled with infinite sympathy. “The obstruction can’t stay. It’s blocking a pathway to vital organs, which is killing her slowly. No matter what we do from this point, she’s going to die.”
35CHLOE
After Luke’s dad said Nia wasn’t going to make it, my ears started to ring, buzzing loudly through my head, and I lost track of what he was saying from that point on.
