“Can you look after Tiny tonight? You can stay at my place if you want.”
“You’re coming back to our house tonight, angel,” Grams says with a rasp. “Doctor’s orders that you need to be with someone for the first few weeks while you get used to your crutches. We can help you look after Tiny, as well.”
Great.I stressed my family out, and now I need to impose on my grandparents.
There’s a knock on the door, and Doctor Miller pops his head in. “Time to get your cast fitted, Gage. We’ll probably need about half an hour, and then he’ll be ready to leave. You can have one person stay, but everyone else will need to head into the waiting room.”
“I’ll go make sure all your paperwork is sorted,” Dad says, coming over to kiss my head. Lingering longer than he normally would. “Love you.”
“Love you, Dad.”
“I’m going to see if Lex found anything about Izzy,” says Caleb.
“Oh shit, I forgot to call her!” Beth springs off the bed, walking over to Cale and threading her arm through his.
“Let me know!” I shout before they get out of earshot. Caleb looks back at me, still with an unreadable expression. I don’t know if he’s mad at me, worried about Isabelle, or just confused about the whole situation. He gives me a single nod before disappearing out the door.
“Glad you’re okay, brother,” Mason says, standing at the foot of the bed, hands in his pockets.
“Me too.”
“I’ll stay with Beth tonight at your place. I can bring Tiny to work with me tomorrow, and then I’ll drop him to you in the arvo.”
“Thanks, man.”
Mason nods, hesitating for a moment. “I love you.” He shrugs. “Just in case I don’t tell you enough.”
“I love you too, Mase.”
Grams and Grandpa follow behind him, their arms linked, and smiling with sympathy. “We’ll be back when the doctor’s done, angel.”
“Thanks, Grams.”
When it’s just Mum and me left, she comes around the other side of the bed so she can take a chair beside my good leg, and drags it closer to me.
She picks my hand up, cradling it between her small, warm ones, and chuckles. “I don’t know how one person can have such bad luck with car accidents.”
Her words take me back to the night I lost August, sparking the memory from the ambulance earlier, when I could have sworn I saw him.
“I think I imagined August before.”
“What do you mean?”
“In the ambulance, I could hear his voice, telling me I’m needed here, then I thought I saw him standing over me.”
Mum eyes well, and she purses her lips, fighting the emotions.
“Not a day goes by that I’m not thankful you weren’t taken from us, too. But, my darling, I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you say his name since the funeral.”
My brows pinch together. That can’t be true. Can it? I think about August every damn day. I miss him like crazy, desperately wishing I could go back in time and change something.Anything.
“That can’t be right,” I whisper.
“I’ve never heard you say it.”
Now I feel even more like shit. I know I’ve been haunted by my grief, but I did my best to keep living my life, living with the pain, but hearing Mum say she’s never heard me even speakAugust’s name feels like I’ve forgotten him. Stopped caring about him. And that’s not the case at all.
“You’ve been different,” Mum says. “Something about you feels less mad at the world. A little more open. Welcoming. Is that perhaps related to why you were with your brother and sister’s friend?”
