“This is Tracy, a nurse at St. Edwards hospital. I’m calling on behalf of Bill Taylor. You’re listed as his emergency contact.”
“Is he okay?” I asked, knowing how ridiculous my question was.
When Corbin left for USC years ago, I’d started visiting Bill a lot. I’d been close to him for years prior to that, so it wasn’t a bother at all to stop in and check on him every day. Corbin was the only family he had left, and with Corbin away, he’d made me his emergency contact. Not as a stab against Corbin, but more so because I’d be the one nearest to him if something happened.
“Mr. Taylor has had a heart attack,” she said. “I’m not at liberty to say anything further, but I suggest getting here as soon as you can, hun.”
“I’m on my way.”
I left the school parking lot and headed toward the hospital. It was about a twenty minute drive from my location, and I became impatient as the clock ticked off the seconds. I needed to tell Corbin. He’d given me his number a while back, but I’d never used it to contact him, instead keeping to social media. It felt more impersonal that way.
However, he needed to know and soon. I cast aside my reserves about him and scrolled to his name in my phone before hitting call.
“Hello?” he answered after two rings.
My heart jumped up into my throat. I’d seen him do interviews over the years, but I hadn’t actually directly spoken to him since the day in his dorm. I’d forgotten how much I missed hearing his voice.
“Hey, it’s Hunter.” And then I added, “Walsh.”
Rustling sounded on his end of the phone and he didn’t say anything for a few seconds. I got the impression he was walking somewhere.
“Fuck it’s good to hear your voice,” he said moments later, mirroring my exact thoughts. “How are you? I never thought you’d—”
“I didn’t call to catch up,” I interjected, hating to cut him off. “It’s Grandpa Bill. I just got a call from the hospital and he had a heart attack.”
“What? Shit. Is he okay? Are you with him right now?”
“I’m almost there,” I responded, inwardly cursing the damn stoplight as I got stuck at it. I tapped my free hand on the top of the steering wheel as I waited for the light to turn green. “I don’t know how bad it is, Cor, but you need to get here.”
I didn’t stop to think about what that’d mean for us—him coming back to Willow. All that mattered right then was Bill, and Corbin would hate himself if he didn’t make the effort to see him.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said as more rustling sounded. “Keep me updated until I get there, okay?”
“Of course.” I pulled into the hospital parking lot and hunted for a spot. I didn’t hang up, even though there was nothing more to say. His breathing on the other side told me he felt the same. Tears stung my eyes as it all hit me at once. “I gotta go. I’ll call you when I know more.”
I hung up before he could say anything.
Chapter 6
Corbin
Once Hunter hung up, I ran to my bedroom, pulled out my suitcase, and shoved clothes into it. I didn’t know how long I’d be gone, so I grabbed a lot just in case. I’d just talked to my grandpa the day before and he’d sounded great.
Why the hell is this happening?
“Everything okay?” William asked, walking into the room.
“No,” I answered, not looking at him. I went into the bathroom to grab a few toiletries before going back to the bed and shoving them in the suitcase. “My grandpa is in the hospital. I’m going to see him.”
“What? Seriously?” At his pissed off tone, I looked up at him. He stood with his arms crossed and the expression on his face matched his snappy voice. “We’re supposed to leave for Hawaii in two days. Are you going to be back before then?”
I gaped at him. Someone I loved was in the hospital and all Will cared about was our fucking vacation?
“Not sure,” I said, shaking my head before focusing back on my suitcase. “I doubt it, though.”
“Well that’s just perfect, Corbin. It’s not like you can help by going there, you know.”
“I can be with him. That’s how I can help,” I snapped. “He’s the only family I have, Will.”
“You have me.” William walked over and slid his arm around my waist. “Don’t go.”
“I have to,” I said, pulling out of his hold. After shoving the last bit into the bag, I closed it and turned to him. “If you actually cared, you’d come with me. Or at least be a little more understanding.”
“I am understanding,” he said. “But we’ve already booked everything for our trip and I was looking forward to it.”
“Fuck the trip!” I was losing my temper with him. “It can be postponed. This is more important.”
William rolled his eyes, and it was then I realized he didn’t care about me. I’d suspected he only wanted me for my money, but having the harsh reality of such a thing smack me in the face was overwhelming.
“Get out,” I said.
“What?” His brown eyes pinned me with a glare.
“Get the fuck out of my house, Will,” I repeated, trying to calm down. “And don’t bother coming back.”
“You’re dumping me?” he asked, and his surprise was almost funny. He honestly couldn’t expect me to be okay with him behaving like a total diva, right? “Think hard about what you’re saying, Corbin.”
“I don’t need to think about it,” I said, grabbing my suitcase and laptop bag before leaving the bedroom. “I’m sure it won’t take you long to find some other rich guy to leech off of.”
Once Will gathered his things and got the hell out of my house—and hopefully my life—I booked a flight to Arkansas and called for an Uber to take me to the airport. The fact I didn’t care that our relationship was over said a lot about how I felt about him. He’d been nothing but a brief fling, and it wouldn’t take any effort to move on from him.
Not sure if that made me an awful person or not. But oh well.
Hunter hadn’t called with any news, but he’d sent me a text saying Grandpa was in surgery. On the plane, there wasn’t much else I could do except for try not to stress. Which of course didn’t happen. I couldn’t shut off my brain. Every horrible scenario kept floating through my head.
Breathe. Calm the fuck down, I told myself. Focus on something else.
Hunter. The thought of him alone worked wonders. I’d finally get to see him again. My stomach flipped at the thought. The reason for us seeing each other again was a shitty one, however, the reunion was one I’d wanted for a long time.
There’d been so many times in the past few years where I’d imagined going to Willow and showing up at his doorstep. Not knowing how he’d react to that had stopped me from going through with it.
What if he had a boyfriend? Fuck, or a husband?
There’s my damn anxiety again. Can’t think of Hunter either.
The damn plane needed to hurry up and land, so I could get some answers.
***
Home is where the heart is.
The saying went through my head as the taxi took me from the airport and toward the hospital. I hadn’t understood the reality of the statement until being away from home for so long, and then finally seeing it all again.
The same streets I’d learned to drive on. The woods I’d run through with Hunter. The places we used to hang out at. They all looked the same. Yet, so different. Seven years away might not have changed much that could be seen with the eye, but there was a change in me.
The way I saw it all was altered—met with sadness and longing instead of familiarity.
“Thanks,” I said to the driver before paying them. I grabbed my luggage and got out of the car. In too much of a hurry, I didn’t want to waste time checking into my hotel first, so I’d gone straight to the hospital after landing.
I went to Hunter’s name in my phone and called him.
“Hey,” he answered on the first ring. He sounded t
ired. It’d only taken me a few hours to get there, but I knew the emotional toll this could have on people. Hell, I felt it too. “I’m on the third floor in the lobby. I still haven’t heard anything.”
“I’ll be right up.”
I entered the hospital through the main entrance and went straight to the elevators. A nurse came into the elevator with me and pressed the third floor, so I stood back and waited for the doors to close.
She looked at me and smiled before doing a double take.
“Oh my god. You’re Corbin Taylor.”
“Yeah,” I said, trying to be as friendly as I could even though my nerves were out of control. “Nice to meet you, Candace.”
Her eyes widened before she looked down at her nametag and laughed. “Same. My husband would be fan-girling over you right now if he was here.”
That’s usually when I’d suggest signing something for her or taking a picture, but I wasn’t in the mindset. Luckily, she could tell.
“I hope everything is okay,” she said.
“Thank you. Me too.”
The elevator reached the third floor and the doors opened. I let her go first before walking out behind her into the hall. My luggage was in one hand and my laptop bag was slung over my shoulder, and I’m sure it looked like I was moving into the place or something. Maybe it wasn’t so far off. If my grandpa was going to be staying overnight, I would be too.
Nothing could’ve prepared me for seeing Hunter. Not the hours of obsessing on the plane or the ten minute drive from the airport to the hospital.
He stood up as I entered the waiting area, and it felt like my heart was going to burst from my chest.
“Hey,” he said, looking timid as ever.
Hunter was wearing glasses instead of his contacts, but other than that, he looked just like the guy I’d fallen in love with all those years ago. Same dark hair and eyes. Well, there was one noticeable change. He was more muscled than I last remembered him. In high school, he’d played football with me and he’d worked out a lot, but he’d still been smaller than most of us.
Not anymore.
I was still bigger than him by the looks of it, but his arms were thicker and his broad shoulders caused his fitted T-shirt to hug him just right. His torso went into that sexy V-shape, and his slacks did nothing to hide his fucking amazing bubble butt.
Before I could overthink it, I dropped my luggage and pulled him into my arms. My body involuntarily shuddered at his closeness, as if I’d been in the freezing cold for hours and finally found warmth. He smelled just like I remembered and tears prickled in my eyes.
The joy was fleeting.
Hunter shrugged out of my hold and stepped away, and all of a sudden, the warmth fled and the chill returned.
“You should tell them you’re here,” he said, briefly looking at me before staring at the receptionist’s desk.
I was on my way to do just that when a doctor walked out and asked for the family of Bill Taylor. My gut knotted for some reason. Perhaps it was the grave expression on the man’s face or maybe the tone he’d used when speaking, but I felt it was bad news.
I was right.
“We’re sorry, but there was nothing more we could do,” he said after taking me into a back room. He said something about it being a massive heart attack and they’d tried to act quickly, but then the rest faded to white noise.
I’d been too late.
Regret hit me like a fucking freight train. I should’ve tried harder to see my grandpa instead of putting off my visits because of stupid shit in my life that didn’t even matter now. I’d let too many things come before him, and I hated myself for it. Busy life or not, I should’ve made time for him. He was the only family I had.
And now he’s gone too.
***
Grandpa’s house had never been a sad place. For all the years I’d lived with him after my mom died, he’d always made it a true home. One of warmth, love, and happiness. But as I stepped through the doorway days after his death, all I felt was grief.
Regret. Sorrow. Guilt. And more grief.
It was hard to believe it was the same place—a place that had once been such a safe haven for me. Memories sprang to life: Grandpa cooking something in the kitchen, us watching football on Sundays in the living room and him telling me I’d make it to that field someday, and all the laughs we’d shared within the walls of the two story manor.
I shut the door but didn’t walk farther inside, not ready to face the ghosts of the past just yet.
Hunter had comforted me at the hospital right after I found out Grandpa had passed away. Never having been one to cry in front of other people, I’d composed myself while there and as I’d made the proper burial arrangements.
On the inside, I was a fucking mess, though, and Hunter had sensed it.
He’d kept his hand at my lower back as I talked to the personnel, and he’d occasionally moved his fingers in small circles, as if to remind me he was there. He’d cried at the news, but not the outright sobbing kind. Tears had fallen from his eyes, but his expression had remained composed.
I’d gone to my hotel after that, not in the mood to deal with anyone or anything. Instead of unpacking my suitcase, I had collapsed on the bed and hadn’t moved for the rest of that night. Hunter had texted me a bit more, but I’d only responded with the bare minimum. Yes. No. Ok.
Not because I didn’t want to talk to him—it would’ve probably helped not to be alone—but I didn’t want to face it right then. I didn’t want to see Hunter and face the guilt of leaving him, of leaving my grandpa. I just wanted to forget and drown everything out.
“Sorry, I let you down, Gramps,” I whispered, hanging my head.
The house was quiet. Unsettling.
I finally moved from my spot in the entrance and walked past the winding staircase that went to the second floor. Grandpa had said he’d moved to a room on the first floor a year or so before because the stairs were becoming too hard for him.
More tears sprang to my eyes at the memory. Maybe if I would’ve spent more time with him, I would’ve seen the signs that he wasn’t well. Those tears fell full-force when I entered the living room and saw all the pictures on the mantel above the fireplace. There was a huge photo of me in my uniform framed in the center, and there were others from various games throughout the years beside it, as well as pictures from me in school.
One caught my eye, and I went over to it. It was of me and Grandpa, taken two years ago when I’d flown him out to one of my games. He looked so proud as he stood beside me, smiling ear to ear and wearing a jersey with my number.
I felt like a phony.
He’d been so proud of me, but he’d never known the real truth about me and Hunter. Of what we’d been to each other. Every time he’d asked me over the years of whether I was seeing a pretty little lady, I’d always say maybe. When the rumors started spreading that I was seeing a model from the UK named Veronica, Grandpa had asked me about it, and I’d played along even though it wasn’t true.
I had planned to tell him the truth one day, but now I’d never get the chance.
Once again, I’d been too late. Too preoccupied with my own shit.
His funeral was the next morning, and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. It’d taken me days to work up enough courage to even enter his house—the house I’d grown up in. It was going to be damn hard to see him in a casket, absent of his funny personality and everything that made him who he was. Lifeless.
Grandpa Bill wasn’t a drunk or anything close to one, but he always had a stash of whiskey in a cupboard in the kitchen. When I’d been younger, he had kept it locked up, but as I’d gotten older, he had trusted me enough not to get into it.
I walked that direction, hoping he still had some stashed away. I needed a strong drink to calm my frayed nerves. And to help numb the pain. When I opened the cabinet, I exuded a relieved sigh.
Good old Jack Daniels.
After grabbing the bottle and a small glass, I p
oured some into it and drank it like a shot. Then I had a second. And a third. On my fourth, I sipped it and stared out the French doors in the kitchen that gave a view of the backyard and all the land beyond it.
Grandpa had been pretty well off financially for as long as I could remember, and his house was considered a manor instead of a simple farmhouse. It sat on twenty acres, made up of woods and a small field, and the house itself had been in the family for generations. I’d offered to buy him a brand new one before, but he’d said no, saying this was his home and he didn’t want to be anywhere else.
I could see why. There wasn’t anywhere quite like it.
Chapter 7
Hunter
“Such a shame about Bill,” my mom said as she gave me a hug. “He was such a kindhearted man. The world is a sadder place without him in it. When did Corbin get in town?”
“Wednesday.” I stepped back and fixed my tie. “I was with him when he made the arrangements for today, but I haven’t talked to him much since then.”
Mom watched me with concerned eyes. “Not sure what happened to put you boys so at odds all those years ago, but y’all were always so close. You can—”
“Mom, please not now,” I interrupted, shaking my head. “I told you it’s complicated. And now’s not the time.”
I had come out to my parents during my first year in college, but I had never told them about me and Corbin. It wasn’t my place to out him to anyone. So, I’d come out on my own, and they’d been weird about it at first. It hadn’t taken them long to come to terms with it, though. The reason I gave them for mine and Corbin’s falling out had sort of been the truth, just minus a few details. I’d told them we’d had a huge fight about him going to USC, and we’d agreed it best we not talk anymore.
“Okay,” she said, rubbing my arm. “I’m glad he’s back in town. Even if it’s for a not so good reason.”
Dad got out of the car and approached us. His eyes were puffy, and I patted his back. I definitely got my sensitive side from him. He cried at everything; happy or sad. Over the years, he’d talked to Bill too, so I knew it was more than just an overly sensitive heart.
Tangled Up In You Page 5
