I had a sinking feeling that I knew exactly what was about to be said here.
“You think they were cheating?” I guessed.
She sat down on her mother’s bed and looked down at her hands.
“I don’t think it’s cheating if the other spouse does it, too,” she said softly. “I think they had an open relationship.”
Now that knocked the wind right out of me.
“You don’t know that for—” She interrupted me by gesturing toward a computer.
“I already found her on Facebook,” she said softly. “I saw her at the funeral. I had to go look in the book that I kept of all the names of people that went. I typed in a hundred and ten women’s names until she came up.”
I walked up to the computer and stared at the woman and the newborn baby.
I looked at the next picture. And the next. And the next.
“Holy fuck,” I said softly.
Because the vast majority of all the photos of the baby were themed.
The thin blue line.
The death of a police officer.
The death of a child’s police officer father who died in the line of duty.
“Holy fuck,” I said again.
“I have a brother or sister, don’t I, Derek?” she questioned.
I wanted to say no.
But with all the evidence in play here…
“Did you do any more research?” I wondered.
“No,” she whispered. “That’s all that I did.”
That was really all that she needed to do.
“What are you going to do?” I asked softly.
“I don’t know,” she said again. “I think that I’m just going to leave it alone. For now. I’m going to pack this stuff up. I’m going to put it all into a box and tape it closed until such time that I can revisit this without freaking the hell out.”
I turned to look at her.
“You’re going to revisit it, though?” I asked.
She nodded once.
“I’m going to have to look into this. It’s too important,” she promised. “I have graduation coming up in a month and a half. I’ve got photoshoots galore this weekend. And I need to move. I just can’t… I can’t do it right now.”
I didn’t blame her one bit.
“Let’s pack all this shit up and put it into a box for later,” I agreed. “I’ll do in here if you want?”
She looked at all the papers sprawled across the room and nodded once.
“If you find anything interesting…” she said softly. “I don’t want to know about it just yet, okay?”
“Not even if it’s really interesting?” I asked.
She shook her head. “After graduation, I want to know. Right now? I don’t.”
“Okay,” I said. “That works for me.”
She turned and left the room then, leaving me to pack stuff up that didn’t belong to me.
Things that looked important I put into a box labeled ‘important shit.’ Things that looked like trash, I threw into a trash bag that was quickly filling to the point of needing another.
After filling three such trash bags and spending over an hour going through two peoples’ lives, I needed a break.
Finding Avery in her bedroom, I knocked softly on her doorjamb.
“You want to go grab lunch?” I asked.
She looked up from stuffing clothing into a trash bag and frowned.
“What kind of food?” she asked.
I grinned.
“I was thinking of the new place where you eat out back on the hillside that allows you to look over the lake,” I said. “I haven’t been there yet, and they’re only open for afternoon hours. If we hurry, we can still make it.”
She got up stiffly, her shorts had ridden up to the point where they were in her ass crack and about three inches shorter than they normally were.
After pulling them back down to where they belonged—and still indecent if you asked me—she slipped her feet into Birkenstocks and gestured at me.
“Lead the way,” she said.
“We’re going in my truck,” I ordered. “I can’t do your car again.”
She snorted and followed dutifully behind me.
Everything was great when we arrived.
“This place is gorgeous,” she said, her hands squeezing tight. “Next time I’m bringing my camera.”
Grinning that I’d gotten a positive reaction out of her, seeing as I hated seeing her cry, I gestured for her to walk in front of me.
When we got close, she reached for the door to open it, but I leaned over her and got it for her.
She smiled. “Thanks.”
I didn’t say you’re welcome.
I couldn’t.
Because the woman was doing things to me that I couldn’t quite figure out how to deal with.
I didn’t like seeing her cry.
I liked even less seeing her struggle with life.
Logically, I knew that I couldn’t fix all the woes that ailed her.
But I could help.
I could make life easier for her.
Yet, somehow, I couldn’t make myself do that.
Instead, I stayed in her life, but only on the periphery. Like a goddamn scared rabbit who knew that he couldn’t handle the repercussions that came with dating a teenager.
“Oh,” she breathed, her eyes taking in the interior of the restaurant. “This is beautiful.”
It was pretty cool.
The entire back wall was open and looked out over the cliff that eventually led to the lake. There wasn’t much on the walls, but it was decorated with a vintage vibe that made you think ‘old country’ and not ‘modern’ at all.
The tables and chairs were all fifties-style diner and sparkled with reds and bright blues.
“I like it,” I muttered in agreement.
The hostess grinned at the both of us and waved. “Hello.”
Avery grinned back. “Hi! Table for two.”
The hostess gave me a curious look when I didn’t say anything.
“Would you like outside or inside?” she asked.
I looked outside to see that there wasn’t a single person eating out there and answered before Avery could.
“Outside,” I told her.
Avery looked over at me with a frown. “But it’s chilly, and I didn’t bring a jacket.”
I looked down at her and realized she was right. It was on the chillier side and being outside would definitely make it uncomfortable for her. Unless…
“I have a sweatshirt in the truck,” I said. “Would that be enough?”
Avery immediately nodded her head. “Yes. That’ll be perfect.”
Just as I was walking out, a girl and her boyfriend walked in.
“Excuse me,” I muttered, pushing past them and heading outside.
I watched through the front window as the hostess led Avery outside, and another hostess spoke with the young teens who’d walked in behind us.
Making it to my truck, I pulled out the sweatshirt and decided to walk around the back of the building to the side stairs that led to the back porch.
I made it around the back of the building just in time to hear raised voices.
“I am not leaving!” a girl—the same girl that’d followed us in—yelled. “I am on a date!”
Avery didn’t say anything, just crossed her arms over her chest. Saying without words that she wasn’t leaving, either.
“Rachel,” the boy with her urged. “Let’s just go. This is getting out of hand.”
His girlfriend who was definitely not fifty yards away from Avery, if this was the girl that Avery had a restraining order against.
“I’m. Not. Leaving,” Rachel snarled, her hands going out in front of her to push Avery. “You are!”
I watched it happen as if in slow motion.
The guy pulled his girlfriend—or tried to. But he was too l
ate. The girlfriend was already in Avery’s face, pushing her. Avery wobbled at first on her heels, her loose top catching in the wind.
When Avery tried to step back, the short wall at her back tripped her up.
Seconds later, she was tipping over it, head over heels.
The boy finally got ahold of Rachel, but it was too late. Avery had fallen.
When I got to the ledge and hopped over it, it was to find her laying haphazardly halfway down, staring straight up at the sky, head bent awkwardly.
The boy was at my side just as I was making it to my knees next to Avery.
“Don’t touch her!” I ordered the kid who was trying to apologize.
Seeing her neck bent so awkwardly had my breath stalling in my lungs.
She blinked up at me. Then opened her mouth, only for a sob to escape.
“I think God hates me.”
I bent down to look at her, my mouth only inches from her and did what I could.
“God doesn’t hate you,” I told her. “Does your neck hurt?”
She closed her eyes, and I saw a tear slip out from beneath her eyes. “I can’t feel my legs.”
***
It was almost four hours later that I was allowed to see her.
I walked into the room and my heart literally skipped a beat at the sight of her.
She was lying stiffly in the bed, her hands down by her sides, her eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
Around her head was a metal-like contraption.
“It’s called a halo,” the nurse, one of my good friends, Sierra, said. “It’s traction to allow her neck and spine to heal. It keeps them both moving as one. She had some trauma to her neck and spine where they meet when she fell. When her head hit the bottom, it caused the two to scrunch together when they most definitely shouldn’t. We want her to try to get up and walk in about an hour. Once the last bit of anesthesia wears off in her body.”
I swallowed hard and nodded once, circling around the bed and moving until I could stare down into Avery’s eyes.
“I have the worst luck,” she admitted. “First my mom dies. Then my dad. I get bullied at school for losing my parents. Have to get a restraining order against said girl. I lose my house and am forced to move into a duplex. Then, after finding out I could possibly have a baby brother or sister, and my parents had an open relationship, my bully and her boyfriend show up and I fall down a hill, hit my head, and nearly break my neck. Now I’m stuck in this contraption for six weeks… and I’m a side sleeper, Derek. A side sleeper. How the hell am I supposed to get any sleep, Derek?” She paused. “What are you doing here? I thought you had to work tonight.”
I shook my head. “I told them that I wasn’t going to come in when you got hurt.”
Honestly, it should’ve never gotten to the point where she not expected me to be here for her. But I’d been being bullheaded and sure of myself. Sure that staying away from her was the completely right thing to do.
But after seeing her nearly die right in front of me? Yeah, I wouldn’t be denying the obvious anymore. Avery Flynn was mine.
“Are you thirsty?” I asked.
She pointed at the cup.
“I can’t even reach it,” she said. “It’s too far away.”
It was at that.
I picked it up and moved the straw until it was where she needed it, then brought the straw to her face.
My thumb where I was holding the straw in place brushed against her lips, and Avery’s eyes widened. But she drank anyway.
Once she was done drinking—heavily, I might add—I placed the empty cup back onto the rolling tray and then moved until my hands were planted on either side of her head.
Leaning down, muscles bulging, I said, “Watching you nearly die today? That made my heart stop.”
Avery blinked, her eyes wide and scared.
I could see her pulse thumping away in her neck. Beating so rapidly that I knew if the monitors were being read at this point, they would be coming in soon to check and make sure that everything was okay with her.
“I’m done,” I rasped. “I’m not doing it anymore.”
Her eyes instantly shone with unshed tears.
But I didn’t stop long enough to let them fall over for what she was overthinking in her head.
“I’m done with trying to stay away from you,” I continued. “I’m done pretending that you’re too young. Hell, if we’re going by maturity levels, you’ve got years on me.” I paused when her eyes started to fill for an altogether different reason. “Avery Flynn, what I’m trying to tell you is that I’m not going to stay away from you any longer. You’re mine. I don’t care what kind of shit you catch at school for dating a mature man. I don’t care if I get teased about cradle robbing. I don’t care if fifty adult male officers will kick my ass the moment they find out that we’re together. I don’t care. Not about anything but you. Not anymore.”
Her breath caught.
“I have my head in a halo right now. I’m fairly sure that I can feel mascara crusting my eyelashes, and you just said words to me I’ve been dreaming you’d say. I think it’s ‘cause I have to pee so bad.” She swallowed hard. “Pinch me.”
I didn’t get the chance to pinch her because Sierra, her nurse, did it for her.
“All right, you two lovebirds,” she said as she pinched Avery on the arm. “Time to get her up. The doctor wants her up and moving. So stop crying and let’s get this done. I don’t want you to hate me, I’m just the messenger.” She paused. “You have a catheter in. Just pee.”
Avery swallowed hard, her eyes wide.
“I have no earthly idea how to get out of this bed,” she admitted. “And I can’t just pee. The hottest guy I’ve ever laid eyes on is in the room. What if he can hear me go?”
Sierra started to giggle.
Then pointed at me.
“Go while I take her catheter out. There’s a door to the left of the nurses’ station that has ‘lounge’ written on it. Go get her some more ice and water. Also, a small snack of Jell-O or fruit if you think she might like it. Come back in ten minutes,” Sierra ordered.
I did as instructed, and when I came back, it was to find Avery sitting on the edge of the bed looking nauseous.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, holding out the Jell-O to her.
She took it with a weary sigh and closed her eyes.
If she could have, I was sure that her head would be hanging.
“I just got a look at myself in the mirror,” she muttered.
My lips twitched. “I don’t know. I think it’s kind of cute.”
I touched the metal tip of the thing that was surrounding her head.
“Are you hurting?” I asked.
She grimaced. “A bit. But not enough that I can’t handle it.” She paused. “How the hell am I supposed to get dressed?”
“Oh, honey.” Sierra sighed. “You’re not going to be doing shit for a while by yourself.”
Avery froze, as did I.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re going to need your parents or a friend to help,” she said. “You won’t be able to wash yourself in the shower. You’ll have to do this all by sponge bath until then.” She tilted her head. “Your clothes are going to be tough. Some patients just cut the arms of their shirts and attach them with pins underneath the vest.”
She rattled on, and I saw the moment that Avery just about gave up.
“Sierra,” I said. “What are you even doing here? I thought you worked in NICU.”
“Today I don’t,” she mumbled darkly. “They were overstaffed today, so they floated me down here. I’m not happy. Can you tell?”
I didn’t say anything to that, instead looking at Avery.
“Would you mind giving us a minute alone?” I asked.
Sierra looked from me to Avery and back, then winced. “Yeah. All the time you need. If you need anything, let me know, okay?”
/> With that parting comment, she was gone, leaving me with a defeated looking Avery.
“You’ll move in with me,” I said. “I have two weeks of vacation I can take.”
She looked at me with eyes so dead that I felt a chill run down my spine.
“No,” she muttered.
“Avery…” I started.
“I’m not burdening you,” she said again. “I’m sorry, Derek, but this is my decision. I’m a grown adult, and if I don’t want you to take care of me like an invalid, then I won’t.”
I tried to argue, but she shut down.
Completely.
Fucking great.
“Avery…”
She looked at me again, eyes once again devoid of emotion, and said, “Please leave.”
After attempting to get her to talk to me for another five minutes, I chose to give her the space that she wanted.
For now.
I’d be back.
***
I arrived at the police station with anger burning through my veins.
One of the first people I saw was Ford.
He looked at me with surprise and tilted his head sideways.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, noticing that I wasn’t happy.
Obviously.
I walked up to my dad’s office and slammed inside.
I didn’t care that he was in a meeting with whoever the fuck it was.
What I cared about was that I was tired of seeing Avery get kicked when she was down.
It was time for her luck to change.
My father’s eyes showed annoyance as he watched me walk in.
“Do you mind giving us a minute?” I asked crisply.
The man in front of my dad’s desk raised an eyebrow at me.
“Now?” I ordered.
The man’s lips twitched, and he looked at my dad with a grin tugging at his lips. “I can see he takes after you.”
Dad rolled his eyes.
I wasn’t finding anything as amusing as these two were, though.
After the man left, he turned to me with exasperation. “You realize that was the mayor, right?”
I didn’t bother closing the door as I crossed my arms over my chest and said, “I don’t give a fuck if he was the mayor. I wouldn’t care if he was the goddamn Pope. What I care about is that I just watched the girl that I have some intense feelings for kick me out of her room when she needs me the most.”
Fries Before Guys Page 8
