Never With You (The Never Series Book 6)

by Anie Michaels

  “I just went to park the truck.” He stood up then and I was forced to take a step back. He closed the distance I’d just put between us and wrapped his large, warm hand around my neck. “Is everything okay?” His eyes were so full of concern and that made my eyes fill with tears.

  I leaned into him, pressing my cheek to his chest and immediately his arms circled around me, holding me, while I finally cried. He held me and I cried into his shirt, my hands gripping the fabric at his waist.

  Finally, after I’d had a mini-breakdown, I took a deep breath and gave him a watered-down version of the story.

  “My nephew, Beckett, got a hold of a quarter and choked on it. My sister-in-law managed to dislodge it, but not before she experienced something no mother should ever have to experience.”

  His hands moved to my neck, his thumbs right below my jaw, gently forcing me to look up at him. “Is he all right?” His voice was so gentle, softer than I’d ever heard it.

  I nodded as a tear streamed down my cheek. “He’ll be okay. I’m more worried about her at this point. She’s a wreck.” At my words, he pulled me back into him, holding me close. “I’m sorry. I had no idea you were out here.”

  “It’s fine. I just wanted to make sure you were all right. I should probably go.”

  “No, stay,” I said before I had a chance to think about it, pulling back and looking up at him again. The idea of him not being there, not being within arm’s reach, for whatever reason, felt wrong. “I want you to stay.”

  “Then I’ll stay,” he replied simply.

  Twenty minutes later I brought Briggs back with me to the ER room where my family was, saltines acquired.

  “I come with cracker rations,” I said brightly, trying again to lift the dark gloominess as much as I could. All eyes came to us as we entered, but they all stayed on Briggs. And I could have sworn I saw one side of Angela’s mouth turn up, even if just for a moment. “I also brought a friend. Family, this is Briggs. Briggs, this is my mom, dad, brother Brody, and his wife Angela. That precious boy in her arms is Beckett, and this, little angel here,” I said, taking Raina from my mother’s lap, “is my niece, Princess Raina.”

  “Is my sister wearing your clothes?” Brody asked, his voice full of brotherly vibrato.

  “Brody, shut up.” That came from my father, which surprised me, and based on my brother’s face, it surprised him as well. My father stood from his chair and held his hand out to Briggs. “You’re the one who sent my little girl home in a rain storm in your coat and loaned us a flashlight?”

  “Yes, sir,” Briggs answered, shaking his hand.

  I knew my father’s handshakes, and they were notoriously firm, but by the way Briggs’s forearms were bulging, it looked as though he was giving my dad a run for his money.

  “And I take it you’re the one who drove her here today.”

  “Yes, again, sir.”

  “You’ve been waiting out there all this time?” He was still shaking his hand, but his eyes were glued to Briggs’s.

  “I wanted to make sure Talia was all right. I’m not meaning to intrude.”

  My father watched Briggs for a quiet moment, then his other hand clapped him on the back and a smile spread across his face. “Any man who takes care of my girl is okay by me.”

  “Come sit down, George, stop pestering the man.”

  I sent my mother a silent thank you for intervening. It was sweet the way my father and brother were protective of me, but there was nothing threatening about Briggs.

  “Would you like some crackers, Ray Ray?” I asked my niece, placing her in her car seat since we were missing a high chair. Usually she would have fussed at the thought of being strapped in, but she saw the crackers and knew what was up, eyes going wide with excitement and her little pudgy fists opening and closing in rapid succession. A girl’s relationship with carbs started early.

  “Tal?”

  I looked up when I heard Angela’s voice, raspy and weary.

  “Be sure to break the cracker up into tiny pieces, okay?”

  My heart ached at her words and I saw the panic she was trying to tamp down.

  “You got it,” I told her. I broke the cracker into tiny pieces and fed them to Raina one by one. She had a sippy cup with some water and I made sure to give her a sip between bites. She ate those crackers as though she’d never tasted anything so delicious and I was glad I’d grabbed a handful of packages. Soon her cup was empty and she started to whine when no water came out. I went to stand and fill it, but Briggs’s open hand appeared.

  “Let me,” he said gently.

  “Thank you,” I said as I handed the cup to him. His eyes moved to Angela.

  “Is tap water okay, or should I go get a bottle of water from the vending machine?”

  Angela looked just as shocked at his question as I felt, but she managed to answer with a ragged, “Tap water is fine.” She was even able to give him a weak smile.

  “Should it be warm or cold?” Another question from Briggs that made my heart thump hard.

  “Room temperature is great.” Angela was now smiling in earnest, but only for a moment before the darkness took back over her expression.

  “So, Briggs, what do you do?”

  I watched as he held his fingers in the stream of water coming from the faucet at the sink in the room, adjusting the knobs to get the water to the perfect temperature. “I’m a web designer. I create webpages, do graphic design, computer stuff.”

  “That sounds interesting,” my mom said in that obligatory motherly tone.

  “I find it interesting,” he replied, not unkindly. He finally found the water temperature to be just right and filled Raina’s cup, turned the water off, and screwed the lid back on. I told myself it was completely normal for me to watch his forearms ripple as he twisted the cap. He walked back to where I sat on the floor with Raina and held the cup out to me. I took it, giving him a small smile, then tried not to follow him with my eyes as he settled against the wall behind me, leaning back and crossing his ankles. “I work for myself and there’s freedom in that. I get to choose what projects to work on, who to take on as clients, and I get to be creative. I can take on as much as I want or need to, and I can arrange a schedule to meet my needs. There are worse jobs I could have.”

  “This seems like too small of a town for someone like you to make a good living in.”

  I shot my gaze over to my father, silently begging him to end the conversation, to not ask any more ridiculously personal questions thinly veiled as casual conversation.

  “I only started living here full-time recently. I used to live in Portland. And I still travel there for business when I need to, but a large portion of my job can be done remotely.”

  My father nodded knowingly. “Portland seems like it would be a better fit for your vocation.”

  “Dad, stop it,” I whispered sternly.

  Briggs’s hand came to my shoulder, kneading me there, then I heard his voice close to my ear where he whispered, “It’s okay, firecracker.”

  Luckily, the entire conversation came to a halt when the doctor came back in. He did the same song and dance, checking over Beckett with detail and concentration, and finally he let out a sigh and gave Angela a smile.

  “He’s perfect. I don’t think there will be any lasting effects. Continue the baby Tylenol as long as he seems uncomfortable, but if it’s more than a couple days, make an appointment to see his pediatrician.” The doctor placed a hand on Angela’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “You did well, Mom. I know it’s easier said than done, but try to relax. Beckett will feed off your energy, so he needs you to be calm and happy. He’s going to be just fine.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Brody said, reaching out again to shake his hand.

  “The nurse will be by shortly with your paperwork.” He gave one last look at Angela and she gave him a tearful smile, and then he left the room.

  “Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I am looking forward to
getting out of this place. I have all the fixings for a big spaghetti dinner just waiting at the house. I think we should all just try to finish the day on a good note.” My mother’s voice was full of forced cheerfulness, a weak smile spread across her face.

  “Sounds like a good plan,” my dad commented.

  “Briggs,” my mother said, stepping up beside him and placing a hand on his arm. “I hope you’ll join us for dinner.”

  His eyes met mine quickly, but I didn’t say anything. As much as I wanted him there, I didn’t want to pressure him. This was already so far beyond our original arrangement of just spending time together. I kept my face as even as I could, but watched him as he said, “Thank you, but I’ve already overstepped my bounds.”

  My heart sank at his words, crashed into depths of my chest I hadn’t even known were there. And I knew it was the right choice, that he’d made the right decision. If I was feeling this way after spending just a few days with him, clearly I wasn’t handling a casual relationship the way I’d hoped. I couldn’t handle looking in his eyes as I realized he was pulling away. So I turned back to Raina and put all my energy into loving on her.

  Half an hour later we were all walking out of the hospital. Angela was still quiet, my parents were making normal conversation, and I was dreading having to say goodbye to Briggs in front of everyone. We walked through the sliding doors, all of us headed toward the parking lot, and I had no idea what to say or how to act.

  We approached Angela and Brody’s giant van we’d driven to the coast from Portland and I made myself look up at Briggs.

  “Well,” I said on a sigh. “Thank you for sticking around to make sure everything was okay. That was sweet of you.”

  “Let me drive you home,” he said quietly.

  “You don’t have to,” I told him, unable to keep looking at him, my gaze dropping to the ground.

  “I want to,” was his response.

  “Let the man drive you home,” my mother said from the backseat of the van and not too quietly either.

  I didn’t know which choice was worse: driving home with my family asking me a million questions about Briggs, or letting Briggs drive me home knowing it would probably be the last time I saw him. I looked back up at him and he was still watching me, eyes silently pleading with me, and I could no longer tell him no, even if I thought it was a mistake.

  “Okay.”

  He nodded and then turned to the side, making room for me to walk past him, and with a hand at the small of my back, led me toward his truck.

  We were silent as he opened the door for me. Quiet as he climbed into his seat and started the truck. And it continued as we made our way to the highway, heading back toward both our houses.

  “Are you all right?” he finally asked.

  I had no idea what he was referring to. Was I all right with what happened to Beckett? Was I okay with the distance I felt between us at that moment? I wasn’t really okay with any of it, but that wasn’t his problem and I didn’t want to make it his concern.

  “I’m fine,” I said with a smile that I hoped looked genuine. I didn’t want to punish him. Just the opposite, in fact. I wanted it to be easy for him, wanted whatever was going on between us to be something he looked back on with a smile, not with regret. “Listen, I know that was pretty heavy back there. I appreciate that you stayed, but I totally understand that it was a little much. My mom and dad mean well. They just want me to be happy. I’m sorry if they made you uncomfortable.”

  He was quiet for a moment, but then finally spoke.

  “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  I sighed in relief. He was such a good guy.

  “I know, Briggs. And I don’t want you to feel like I’m manipulating you. I promise, I’m not. You don’t have to come to dinner, you don’t have to talk to my family, and you don’t have to take care of me. I appreciate that you stayed, I do. But I’m not expecting anything from you.”

  “I know.” The words sounded sadder than I would have expected, but I tried hard not to focus on that. I had never been in a casual relationship, especially not one that had an expiration date, and I was pretty sure this would be my last. I simply wasn’t cut out for it.

  He pulled up in front of my rental but left the engine running. He shifted to face me and placed his arm up on the back of the bench seat, his fingers brushing the back of my neck.

  “Will you tell your mother I said thank you for the dinner invitation and give her my apology that I couldn’t make it?”

  “Yeah,” I whispered, both loving and hating the way his fingers felt brushing against the skin of my neck, but I focused on it to keep my mind from thinking about what might be happening in that moment. I didn’t want to wonder if whatever we had between us was over.

  “Will you come see me later? After everyone’s asleep?”

  “Yes,” I said, the word falling out on a sigh of relief. His fingers wrapped tightly around my neck and brought me across the bench until his lips were on mine. He kissed me deeply, our bodies pressing together, mouths fused. But it never moved past the kiss, and that was fine with me. My family would be pulling up soon, and we didn’t need to be caught fooling around in his truck.

  The kiss ended and we were both breathing heavily.

  “Are we okay?” he whispered, his mouth still barely touching mine.

  I couldn’t help it. I reached up and slid my hand over his jaw, back into the hair at his nape, and pulled his mouth back to mine.

  “Nothing’s changed for me,” I finally said after I’d kissed him silly. “I’ll be over later, okay?”

  “Yeah.” His hand squeezed the back of my neck, but then he turned me loose.

  The front door of the house was unlocked and I attributed that to the frantic way my family must have left. I was torn between being sorry I wasn’t there for my family, but also glad I hadn’t been there to witness what sounded like a terrifying experience.

  I went upstairs and took a hot shower, trying to wash away all the tension of a crazy and stressful day. When I went back downstairs my mom was at the stove cooking dinner, and Angela and Brody were sitting at the table. Angela still held Beckett in her arms, and Raina was sleeping in her bouncy chair in the living room. The entire family was involved in a conversation that I’d arrived late to.

  “I just can’t be here anymore. I can’t sit in this room without seeing him lying there, choking, and turning blue.” Angela’s words caught me off guard and I stopped as I entered the room, wary of the situation. It was more words than I’d heard her say all day, and they sounded angry.

  “Babe, I hear you, and I understand. Trust me. But if we leave now we’ll be driving in the dark and it will be late. That’s not safe for anyone, especially after the exhausting day we’ve had. Let’s sleep on it, okay? If you still feel like you want to leave tomorrow, then we’ll leave. Promise.”

  My eyes snapped to my parents, who were exchanging glances in the kitchen.

  “We’re leaving?” I asked, my voice sounding anxious.

  “Angela doesn’t want to stay here, understandably,” my mother explained.

  And yeah, it was understandable. I probably wouldn’t have wanted to return to the house if I’d been there that morning either. My heart hurt for her and it occurred to me that even though Beckett would be fine, Angela might not be. Not any time soon, anyway. Her injuries seemed to be a lot worse than little Beckett’s.

  “Of course,” I offered softly.

  “I just can’t,” she said, all anger gone, replaced by despondence.

  “No one expects you to, baby,” my brother said sweetly to her, kneeling at her side. “But it’s not a good idea to drive tonight, all right?”

  She nodded, but said nothing.

  My mother and father whispered something to each other, having a private conversation, and I just stood there, taking everything in.

  “Talia, would you please set the table for dinner?” my mother asked as my father headed up the stairs. />
  “Sure.” I moved around the kitchen and the dining room putting plates, glasses, and silverware on the table. Angela was sitting at the table still, every once in a while a sniffle coming from her. Brody kissed her cheek and went upstairs, leaving us three women and the babies downstairs. I knew my mother’s spaghetti routine by heart and moved around her in the kitchen, helping her prepare the meal.

  “What time is Briggs coming for dinner? It’ll be cold if he doesn’t get here soon.”

  “He wanted me to thank you for inviting him, but he couldn’t come,” I said as I poured the pasta into a strainer in the sink.

  “Well, that’s a shame. I would have liked to talk a little more with him. Gotten to know him a little better.”

  Luckily, I didn’t have to answer because my father came down the stairs already talking.

  “I got a hold of the owner and explained the situation. He and his wife were very understanding and say if we choose to leave tomorrow they could have the place cleaned and try to rent it out for the weekend. If they can, they’ll be happy to reimburse us for time we didn’t use.”

  “That’s very kind of them,” my mother said. “Did you hear, Angela? If you still want to leave tomorrow, we’ll do just that.”

  “I will. I do.” Her words were curt.

  My heart thudded in my chest and my mouth ran dry as I realized we would leave the next day. I immediately felt selfish for even thinking of myself after what Angela and Brody had been through, but I was. That would be my last night with Briggs. I hadn’t been given very many to begin with, so the loss was devastating. I almost couldn’t breathe thinking about losing nearly half my time with him.

  Dinner was horrible. I’m sure it was fine, but it may as well have been cardboard for as much as I actually tasted it. I moved the food around on my plate and took only a few bites as not to draw attention to myself. Afterward, I helped my mom clean up and offered to help Angela with anything she needed, but she barely answered me, let alone asked me for help.

  Finally, I went up to my room and threw on some yoga pants, a tank top, a hoodie, and my flip-flops, and waited for the rest of the house to go to bed. If I only had one more night with Briggs, I wanted as many minutes as I could etch out.