Lola rushed to my side, happy to have her hands busy. I appreciated how difficult it was for her to be still. She always had to be working. Even when she wasn’t working. “Hey, Eliza,” she said calmly, pulling me into a side hug. “I’m so glad you guys are here.”
It was easy to read between the lines. Will would settle down now that I was here. Not that she couldn’t handle Will at his most neurotic. But... who wanted to, honestly?
“Let me help you with all that,” she insisted. “Go ahead and check on Charlie.”
“Thanks.” And that was as sincere as I could be. I didn’t want to deal with sorting through the random crap I’d stress-bought. I just wanted to see my brother. He was on the couch, all miserable and pathetic. I walked over to him and perched on the edge of the coffee table. “Hey, Charlie.”
He opened his eyes and turned his head my way. “Sis.”
“How’re you feeling?”
He shrugged and then seemed to think better of it. “Honestly, better in a lot of ways. And worse in others. My back hurts like a motherfu—”
“Charlie,” my mom warned from the kitchen. I swore she had ears like a bat.
“Trucker,” Charlie finished smoothly. His small smile was enough to ease some of the pain in my chest. “It was a hell of a night, though.”
“Sorry to just abandon you.”
He closed his eyes and moved his hand like he was gently swatting at something. “Whatever. What’s a little appendicitis? Hardly nothing. I think I really freaked Miles out, though. So I don’t know, you might want to call him and see if he’s okay.”
I filed that in my mental to-do list. “What about Ada?” This question was a little more personal, although I wasn’t entirely sure if Charlie realized it.
He tried to shrug again and then winced through his teeth. “Who knows? She was the worst last night. She was basically mad at me the whole time and then tricked me into going to the hospital. She can fuck off for all I care.”
“Charlie,” my mom hissed again. “Watch your mouth.”
Ada was another one of her favorites. She was all our favorites, actually. And even if she didn’t stay at the top of Charlie’s list as regularly as she starred on ours, he wasn’t usually this grouchy.
“It was probably my fault she was in a mood last night,” I explained to him. “I kind of left you guys hanging.”
“We were fine,” Charlie insisted, eyes still closed. “She just... she wanted me to go to the doctor or whatever. She said she could tell something was wrong even though I was acting totally normal. And she was being super pushy about it. So we were fighting the whole night. And then I lost my car keys, which now I’m realizing she stole, so she told me she would give me a ride home. She then drove me to the emergency room. Do you know how much that ER visit is going to cost me, Eliza? I say we take it out of Ada’s check. I did not agree to go anywhere with that woman. She kidnapped me.”
My mouth was unhinged. “Charlie, she probably saved your life. You’re so lucky she didn’t listen to you.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “She literally never listens to me. She is purposely difficult, and I’m tired of it. But this time, it cost me financially.”
“Are you listening to yourself? You could have died.”
He shrugged for the third time and grimaced once again. “It was just appendicitis. No big deal.”
Oh, my gosh, there were too many big deals for me to know where to start. I couldn’t believe he was pushing back on this. Did he really think he could just walk appendicitis off? What happened when his appendix burst, and he went septic?
Jesus, take the wheel. Brothers were inconveniently pigheaded all the time.
“Okay, clearly, you’re on a lot of pain meds, so I’m going to let you rest. Do you need anything? Can I do anything for you?”
“Can you help me get a drink?” he asked meekly. The ire had left his voice, and he sounded like my poor, pathetic brother once again. I picked up the hospital cup with the handle and the crinkle straw they gave to all patients and helped him take a small sip without moving.
His eyes were already heavily closed by the time I set the cup back on the coffee table. Snoring shortly followed.
It was so weird to see him sleep. Of course, I grew up regularly seeing my brothers sleep. But we’d been living separately for long enough for that to feel nostalgic. He looked so peaceful like that. So... unlike his awake self.
I brushed his hair off his forehead and then stood, steeling my nerves to face Will.
Except when I turned around, and he was standing with his back against the far wall and his arms crossed over his chest—and looking as pissed off as ever—something broke inside me. The hard emotions I’d built up to protect myself until I could make sure Charlie was okay, the defenses I needed to keep the panic and heartache at bay long enough for me to get what I needed to do... just gave way.
I’d held it together on the drive here. I’d survived the early morning panicked phone call and the unknown. Now I was here with my family, and Charlie was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine. And that hard, thick, protective barrier inside me split right down the middle. The crack was so loud and so forceful that I swore the rest of the room heard it.
