by Shealy James
Chapter Fifteen
Maverick’s phone ringing woke me just as the sun was trying to make its appearance. I wasn’t sure what the noise was until the ringing stopped and started again.
“Maverick.” I shook the warm body that was still wrapped around me. “Maverick, your phone.”
“Hmm…” The ringing stopped then started again.
“Adam!”
He sat up quickly. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Your phone. Someone keeps calling over and over.”
Maverick rolled over and grabbed his phone from the nightstand with a frown. “Mom?” he answered. I could hear his mother’s frantic voice coming through the phone until Maverick jumped out of bed and pulled on his jeans. I would have enjoyed the show if it weren’t for the panicked look on his face. “What? When?” He paused as he listened to his mother. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Tell him I’m on my way.” He hung up and threw a t-shirt over his head.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, still sitting in the bed with the sheet pulled over my body, feeling both incredibly awkward and worried.
“My brother. He’s in the hospital.”
“What?” Now I was the one jumping out of the bed frantically dressing while Maverick was sliding his feet into his boots. “He didn’t drink that much,” I told him. “Brock and Ana made him stop.”
“It isn’t that. I gotta go.”
“I’ll come with you.” I threw my clothes on from the night before and ran my fingers through my messy hair, trying to pull it into a ponytail.
“No.” He was still moving quickly, grabbing his phone, wallet, and keys from the various surfaces where he had dropped them a few hours before. “Go back to bed,” he told me almost absently while he patted his pockets.
“Adam! Your brother is in the hospital. I’m coming with you.”
“Yeah. Okay. Okay,” he agreed once he saw how serious I was. We walked quickly to the car, me carrying my shoes and sweater, him clenching his jaw in an effort to keep it together. His normally chiseled jaw looked breakable with how tense he was. I could see the worry and fear take over his face, and I would have done anything to take it away. Unfortunately, I had no idea what was going on and didn’t know what to say. I wanted to ask questions or say the right thing, but I didn’t know what that was. Something told me to keep quiet, so that was what I did.
Once we arrived at the hospital, Maverick pulled into the parking garage. “Just go. I’ll park and come find you.” He agreed and stopped the car at the entrance before running into the hospital, leaving his door wide open. My calm, cool Maverick was not in a good place.
Finally, I made it to the waiting room where the volunteer at the desk sent me. Maverick was huddled next to an older woman with his same dark hair and eyes. Where Maverick had his arms crossed like he was trying to keep his emotions wrapped up inside of him, the woman, who I assumed was his mother, had one hand in her mouth where she nervously chewed her fingernails. I approached cautiously, wishing this wasn’t how I was meeting his mother for the first time.
I handed Maverick his keys and turned to his mother. “Hi, I’m Katherine. Adam’s…” I didn’t know what to call myself in this particular situation. He had never called me his girlfriend, and now wasn’t the time to be labeling what we were. “A friend of Adam’s.”
“Katherine,” she said kindly and took my hand. “Adam and Jack have told me so much about you.”
“Oh.” I was surprised. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Vaughn. I wish it were under better circumstances.”
“Me too, dear. Please, call me Marie. Thank you for being here for Adam. He worries, you know. It’ll be good to have you here this time.”
“This time?” The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“Adam hasn’t told you?” She looked over at Adam with a confused expression that I matched as I turned to face him. I looked up at my Maverick who was silently staring out the window. His head fell forward as he let a deep breath out.
Mrs. Vaughn gently squeezed her son’s shoulder. “I’m going to get some coffee. You two should talk.” She walked away, leaving Maverick and me alone in the quiet waiting room. It was then that I realized the hospital volunteer had sent me to an empty waiting room, not a bustling emergency waiting room. The chairs and loveseats were nicer than the average waiting area. I noticed a glass birdcage with finches tucked in one corner, and an expensive water feature on the opposite wall next to the doors to the hospital. It didn’t make sense until I looked up to see the sign that read “Oncology,” and I suddenly knew this wasn’t Maverick’s first time in this waiting area.
I gently placed my hand on Maverick’s back and tucked myself close to him. “Maverick,” I whispered, “is your brother sick?” His head continued to hang, but his now tightly squeezed eyes told me what I needed to know. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He let out a deep breath and spoke so quietly I had to lean closer to hear. “We don’t know anything. They’re running tests. His last scan came back clear, but he’s been having symptoms again. He had an appointment with his doctor next week. He doesn’t like to admit when he doesn’t feel well, so there’s no telling how long he’s had this going on.”
“Again?”
“Katherine, my brother had brain cancer as a kid.”
“And you think…they think…” I couldn’t even say it. I didn’t want to be the one to say it.
He swallowed hard. “We think it’s relapsed.”
“Oh, Adam.” He turned in my arms and squeezed me tightly. He was seeking comfort from me, another thing I wasn’t sure had ever happened before. “It’ll be okay. Maybe it isn’t what you think.”
He let out a deep breath against my neck where his face was buried. “We’ll see. I don’t think my family could take it. This already took my dad. I don’t know how much more Mom can take.”
I held onto him and kept whispering, “It’ll be okay,” over and over until he loosened his grip on me. He sat on one of the loveseats and pulled me down next to him. His mom came back in the room and sat in one of the cushioned chairs. Then we waited and waited. Maverick gripped my hand and rubbed his thumb methodically across the top. Even when my hand fell asleep, I didn’t let go. I needed to do something, provide some comfort somehow. “Do you want me to call anyone?” I asked Maverick.
“Nah. I texted Brock and Corbin. They’ll come up when we know something. They know the drill.” The idea of going through this once was hard enough, but “knowing the drill” seemed so much worse.
We had been there for a few hours when a nurse came out. “Mrs. Vaughn. The test results are back. Dr. Wexler asked me to come get you and Adam.”
Marie nodded, and she and Maverick both stood to follow her. Maverick looked back at me with fear.
“It’ll be okay,” I told him.
“You’ll wait?”
“Of course. I’ll be right here.” He nodded and followed his mom and the nurse through the double doors.
As soon as the metal slammed, I was pacing the waiting room. Water feature to finches, I made my way back and forth across the room. When I tired of that path, I started reading all the signs in the room. One said to be considerate of others and limit time spent on the courtesy phone. Another said cell phone use was not permitted past the double doors. A third one informed me that smoking was not permitted. When my eyes fell on the sign thanking the donors who paid for the oncology wing of the hospital, I froze. I couldn’t help but read through the names. Fifth from the top it read, “Mr. and Mrs. Richard Peters.” I almost laughed. Of course my parents had donated to this wing of the hospital.
I turned and went back to my pacing. It was emotionally safer than reading the signs. I couldn’t imagine what Maverick was feeling, knowing his brother possibly had a life-threatening illness. How could I? I didn’t have any siblings, and I certainly didn’t have the same connection with my family that he did. Maddox was possibly the closest thing I had to a broth
er. It would slay me if he were the one behind those doors being tested for a cancer.
Just as I made my way back toward the elevators, the left one pinged and opened. My pacing stopped, and I was face-to-face with the worried eyes of Brock, Corbin, and Hailey.
“We couldn’t wait any longer,” Corbin said as he greeted me with a hug. “Heard anything yet?”
“No. They went back to speak with the doctor a little while ago. Where’s Ana?”
“Working a shift in pediatrics. She’s already been up to see him, but they didn’t know anything yet. She said he didn’t look good. The seizure was bad. They’re keeping a close watch on him while running all these tests.”
Brock sunk into a chair and dropped his elbows to his knees. “I knew something was off. I can’t believe we just dropped him off last night.”
“Babe, I told you, this wasn’t because of last night. Ana said he’s been having symptoms for weeks. He didn’t want anyone to know,” Hailey said as she rubbed Brock’s back.
“Yeah, man. If you’re to blame, we all are. We all knew something was off.”
“Adam asked me to watch out for him. Me!” Brock snapped as he pointed at himself.
“Okay, I don’t really know all the details, but I know Adam doesn’t blame anyone for this. If anything, he feels responsible, but I don’t think this is the place or time to talk about this,” I said as calmly as possible, even though we were all feeling anything but calm at this point.
Hailey sat down next to Brock and took his hand. “Katherine’s right. We still don’t know for sure that anything is actually wrong.”
None of us believed what Hailey said. Something was definitely wrong judging by how Adam and his mom reacted. There was nothing we could do, though. We were confined to the lobby that was full of emotional land mines, overstuffed chairs, and finches. Stupid ass finches.
Chapter Sixteen
It was over two hours before Maverick returned to the lobby. His face was pale and his hair was a mess like he had been running his fingers through it. I didn’t know what to do to help, but I wanted to do something to take some of the pain from him. It was at that moment that I realized I felt more than just a crush or lust for Maverick. I might have even felt love, but my brain couldn’t make sense of my emotions right then. I was all over the place with worry and fear and other uncomfortable emotions I was sure I had never felt before.
“You’re still here,” he breathed into my neck once he reached me.
“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” I whispered back.
He nodded, then looked around at his friends who were now standing around us. “Hey, guys. Thanks for coming. You’ll be able to go back in a little while. They’re moving him to a room.”
“What did they say?” Hailey asked cautiously.
“CT scan from this morning showed swelling. He went for a PET scan while we were talking to the doctor. They think the tumor is back, based on his symptoms, but they haven’t identified the actual tumor. He’s been sick and disoriented, but this morning he had a seizure. He said it wasn’t his first this month. I feel like I should have noticed something.”
Corbin grabbed Maverick’s shoulder. “No, man. We were just talking about it. He didn’t want anyone to know.”
“He didn’t want to admit it to himself,” Maverick confirmed. “He’s pretty disoriented, but he was aware enough to tell me he didn’t want to be sick again. As if he needed to say anything,” he added and shook his head.
The metal doors swung open, and Mrs. Vaughn appeared again. She smiled sadly at Brock, Corbin, and Hailey while she greeted them with hugs and kisses on their cheeks. She was such a mom, and her familiarity with Maverick’s friends was endearing.
Once she had greeted each of them, she turned to Maverick who still had one hand on me. “Scan is back.”
I looked up just as Maverick nodded. He turned to me. “You’ll be here, right?”
“Of course.”
He planted a chaste kiss on my lips then turned to Corbin. “Will you go get her something to eat? We’ve been here all day.”
“Adam—” I started to tell him I was fine, but he squeezed my hand and gave me a look that told me not to challenge him.
“Sure thing, man. We’ll get you, Katherine, and your mom some food. You need anything else?”
“No, we’ll be leaving after we know what the doctors know. It could be another couple of hours, though, and Duchess hasn’t eaten all day.”
“Go with your mom. We’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks,” he said. After another quick kiss to my hair, he followed his mom through those metal doors.
Corbin and Brock left shortly after to get food while Hailey and I waited on the news. The boys were back, and we had all eaten, before Adam and Mrs. Vaughn returned. It had felt like forever, and while my appetite had been missing, I ate the salad the boys had brought me to pass the time and distract my mind. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t taste the food; I had to do something. Maverick wanted me to eat, so I ate.
Finally, as the sun was starting to sink, Adam and Mrs. Vaughn came through the doors with Ana in tow. She was dressed in teddy bear scrubs and looked no less worried than Maverick and his mom.
We all stood as they approached. Corbin took Ana in his arms and kissed her temple. Maverick wrapped his arm around his mom who looked like she was about to crumble.
“Well?” Corbin asked, and I was grateful because my voice wouldn’t work once I saw Maverick’s face. If I had any hope that Jack was going to be fine before, it was almost obliterated when I saw Maverick’s red-rimmed eyes come through that door. They had gotten bad news back there.
Mrs. Vaughn spoke first. “His tumor’s back. About a centimeter and growing. They can do surgery, but he’ll likely have to have treatment again. No telling what he’ll go through this time.”
“The good news is he survived it once. We know Jack’s a fighter,” Ana reminded Mrs. Vaughn.
She smiled at Ana. “If only he could always have a nurse like you.”
“We have the best here. Don’t you worry. If you decide to go the Johns Hopkins route for the surgery, we will make sure they take good care of all of you.”
“That’s not even on my radar right now. Tonight I need to figure out how we’ll pay for everything. We can’t get him covered by insurance, and these treatments are beyond my reach, especially if we have to move to Baltimore temporarily.”
Maverick rubbed his hair. “Mom, I told you I have a job coming up and I’d sell the—”
“That isn’t an option, Adam. Don’t bring it up again,” she interjected.
“Okay, Mom. Sorry.” He hugged her gently.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said. “Jack’s asleep. I know you wanted to see him, but his seizure and these tests took it all out of him today.”
“We’ll be back tomorrow,” Brock announced.
“He’d like that.” She smiled back at him.
“Let’s go, Mom. I’ll drive you home.”
“No need. You take that sweet girl home and relax. Katherine’s been here all day for you.”
“It’s fine. I can see him later,” I tried to tell her, but she wasn’t having it.
“No, no. I need to go home and make some phone calls. I could use the drive to get my head on straight. Last time, I had Paul to do all of this.”
“Mom…”
“It’s okay. I’m okay. Just tired. Go home. All of you. It’s been a long day.”
There was no arguing. She had her mind made up, and we all went our separate ways when we made it to the parking deck.
“You eat?” Maverick asked once we were in the car.
“Yeah, but let’s get you something now that you have a minute to eat it.”
He nodded and started driving back to his place. Once he had eaten the pizza he had delivered and walked Hank, we took a shower. He wasn’t talking, and I didn’t want to push him. I just washed him like he washed me. We took care of eac
h other, but it was in no way sexual. He cherished me, and I returned the sentiment, pouring love into every touch I shared with him.
Later that night, we crawled into bed. I was dressed in one of his larger t-shirts, and he wore a pair of loose boxers. He pulled me close and held me against his body then spoke for the first time in hours. “My dad worked himself to death. He had a heart attack near the end of Jack’s treatments. He never even knew he went into remission.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It wasn’t supposed to come back. Late recurrence, they called it. Now Mom is worrying about how to pay for it again, and she won’t let me help. I was going to sell the bar. I can live off my paintings, but she won’t have it. It doesn’t matter if he goes to Baltimore anyway. I’ll be going with them, which would mean giving up the hotel job.”
“She’s your mom. She wants to take care of you too, you know?”
“Yeah. It’s just…I know how hard it was. That’s why I left Brantley. My parents couldn’t afford to pay for an expensive private school once insurance stopped paying for his treatments. We sold our house and moved to a smaller one. I went to public school. Not that I cared where I went, especially when my little brother was sick. It was just so hard on my parents, you know?”
“I can’t imagine any of this is easy. I don’t know what I can do to help, but I will do anything I can, anything you’ll let me.”
He hugged me closer to his chest and kissed the top of my head. “Tell me something good.”
I turned over, so I could look him in the eye. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” His hand went to my hair, and he mindlessly ran his fingers through it.
“Your brother’s going to be okay.”
He smiled sadly. “Tell me something good and true, something I can believe without question. I need the distraction.”
“Distraction, okay…” I thought for a moment. “Your bacon is the best I’ve ever tasted.”
