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He leaves. Then Mom and Dad come in as soon as the door shuts.
“You’re in so much trouble.” Dad laughs while Mom goes about trying to steal my tacos. “Your mom heard them say that you can’t have anything other than their food.”
She is currently glaring at me like I’ve committed a capital sin. “I can’tbelieveyou’d do this, Avery. What if it causes complications?”
“Mom.” I grab her hand and squeeze her fingers with mine. “If I eat any more of this disgusting-as-fuck hospital food, I’m going to die. Please don’t take my tacos. I’ve been shot.” She sniffles, and I squeeze her fingers harder. “I promise, I’m not going to die. At least not from eating the deliciousness that is these tacos.”
“You gotshot.” She gasps, clutching a taco to her chest, and I try to grab it from her. “No.” She walks away, putting them on the counter. “No more tacos.”
“Dad,” I whine. “Make her give me the tacos. Come on, I’m wounded.”
“She’s fine, Veronica. Look at her. She’s being a pain in the ass, just like always.”
Actually, I feel more than fine. The morphine is definitely doing the job. Drugs mixed with a full taco belly, I decide it is a good time for a nap.
“Bring Lucas in,” I tell them as I close my eyes. “I miss him. He saved me, you know?”
Mom’s sniffles and Dad’s murmurs fill my ears, and I go back to sleep, exhausted and yawning.
When I open them again, it’s to find Lucas lying in my bed. He is doing his best not to touch my injury. I can hear him snoring softly next to me, and I decide enough is enough.
I wrap my arms around him, wincing slightly at the discomfort in my stomach. But I hold him, just like I always did at the house. Just like I need to now to keep from losing him.
“You’re gonna be my mom one day,” he whispers drowsily. “I told Carter he can’t get rid of me now that he cleaned your blood off me. You bleed on me, ya buy me.”
I laugh but don’t say anything. The kid definitely has a point, a damned good one. “One day, maybe. If Carter asks. Yeah. I’ll be your mom.”
Lucas snuggles into my chest. “He’s dumb if he doesn’t.”
“You know, sometimes I look at him and I want to punch him,” I admit. “I’m like… I can’t love him. He’s too perfect. Perfect hair, perfectly stupid smile, and perfectly stupid muscles. He can go suck a potato.”
“I heard that,” the man in question interjects. “You know I can hear every word you two are saying.”
“Good,” Lucas says while yawning. “Maybe you’ll do something about it then.”
“Maybe I will.” Carter laughs in the darkness. When I close my eyes again, I can’t help feeling like everything is perfect.
Finally.
25
AVERY
No one would blame me if I quit my job. In fact, I’m pretty sure that there are some people in my life who think I’m absolutely crazy for not quitting my job.
“Who wants to go back into the building where they almost died?” Casey is sitting with Carter on the couch, his eyes never leaving Bria’s back as she stands in the kitchen.
“Me.” The answer comes out before I can stop it, and I’m not sure why I even bother saying anything.
“I get it.” Bria says from the kitchen, turning to glare at Casey. “You have a calling, not just a job or a career. You change the lives of your students, Avery. Anyone who wonders why you would go back to that is wrong and should probably just leave.” Without taking her eyes off Casey, she walks into the living room with a cheese board. “Here, you need to eat something.”
She sits down next to me, as far away from Casey as she can get, even though the couch is empty on either side of him.
“You two will have to learn to get along.” I can’t take the awkward silence anymore. “Bria, you’re one of my best friends, but Casey is Carter’s brother, so he’s going to be around just as much as you are, if not more.”
“Don’t worry,” Casey mutters with a grunt. “I’m headed back on the campaign trail soon.”
“Senators aren’t born, after all.” Bria adds sarcastically. “They’re made by bad decisions and running away from the scandals at home.”
