“Good. Now come back over here and let’s see if we can get that monitor to speed up again.”
* * *
The hard partabout choosing Finn? I have to tell Brady. But not yet. Not while he’s in the hospital. Kicking my best friend while he’s down isn’t my idea of a good time.
When the doctor came to Finn’s room, I slipped out. Which means I’m now face to face with Mr. and Mrs. Sterling. Waves of guilt wash over me.I love him too, I want to tell them.Just not the way I should.It feels like I owe them an apology, but I’m not sure exactly what for. They both gaze at me with knowing eyes. My decision was clear to them, too.
They don’t say anything about the hospital room I ran to. Instead, they tell me the good news. Before the doctor went into Finn’s room, she’d been in Brady’s. When she came out, she informed the Sterlings that Brady would be discharged tomorrow. Like Finn, he suffered a break, only his was his leg. Still, she planned to keep both men overnight for observation, because even she couldn’t believe how lucky they’d been.
In a rare moment of friendliness, I pull Mrs. Sterling in for a quick hug. “Thank you for calling me,” I whisper in her ear.
“Brady asked me to,” she says, eyeing me.
If I wasn’t feeling guilty enough, now I’m pretty much choking on the feeling. I nod, my gaze falling to the chipped polish on my toenails.
“Lennon?”
I look up at Mrs. Sterling. “Yes?”
“Please don’t tell him right now.”
“I..I…” The guilt makes me stammer. “I won’t,” I finish lamely.
She steps aside so I can go see him. The door is ajar, so I push it open slowly and walk in. Brady’s bed is in a more reclined position than Finn’s. When he sees it’s me, he presses a button on the side of the bed, and it slowly lifts him.
“Hey,” he croaks.
I walk closer until I’m standing beside him. It’s hard to look him in the eyes, but I force myself. I feel terrible. How can I stand here, knowing that I’ve chosen, and not tell him? I told Mrs. Sterling I wouldn’t say anything, and I won’t, but it’s eating me up.
“Thank God you’re okay.” My throat constricts and I half-sob.
Brady reaches out, his fingers brushing my forearm. “It was scary, Lennon. It only lasted a few seconds, but I lived them in slow-motion. I was driving Finn’s truck, and I could see the eighteen-wheeler in my rearview mirror. The people in front of us were slowing down, and I was slowing down, but he wasn’t. I watched him barrel toward us, then he hit us, pushing us off the road. We went straight into the granite,” Brady winces. “They keep saying how lucky we were, how the trucker’s speed was high enough that we should be a lot worse off than we are.” He breathes out a short laugh. “And there I was, so worried about you driving back.”
My response is a small smile. My insides are shaking, from both his experience and from keeping my choice from him.
“I guess this means you get some more time off work,” I joke, but my voice is weird.
Brady studies me. It’s like he can see into me, as though my skin is translucent. Does he see the way my stomach flips? How my heart races?
“Aside from all of this”—he waves a hand around the room—“are you okay?”
I nod quickly. “I was cleaning my mother’s house when I saw your mom’s missed call and—”
Brady shakes his head. “That's not what I’m talking about. You seem... off. Jumpy and nervous.”
“Oh.” My mind races to come up with a reason for my behavior. “Just worried about you, that’s all. I drove down here in a way you wouldn’t have been happy about.”
Brady chuckles. “Do you know if Finn’s doing alright? He seemed okay when they took us away, but there was so much happening in that moment that it was hard to tell.”
I gulp. Even talking about Finn makes the guilt rise up my throat, and it tastes bitter. “He broke his arm. But otherwise he’s fine. Similar to you, I guess.”
Brady nods slowly, his lips puckering slightly as he thinks. “You’ve already seen him?”
Oh shit.
“Um hmm,” I say, going for nonchalant.
“You went to see him first?”
