Seb put his hand over the receiver. “It’s my brother.”
Martin’s eyes widened. “You have a brother?”
Seb smirked and rolled his eyes, trying to tell Martin it was a long story. One he’d like to share, if Martin was interested.
“Seb? Are you there?”
Seb growled and put the phone back to his ear. “Why didn’t you call my phone?”
“I did. I have been. It always goes straight to voicemail.”
Fair enough. As he’d gotten farther into theAliceproject, Seb had set his phone to Do Not Disturb. He pulled it from his pocket to find over a dozen missed calls from the past few days, mostly from Oliver.
“What do you want?”
“It’s Nana. She’s sick.”
Seb’s heart lifted into his throat. He hesitated, glancing at Martin, still watching him with raised eyebrows. If this was serious, Seb shouldn’t be having this conversation standing in the public space of the bookstore.
“I’ll call you back,” he said.
“Seb! No, don’t hang up.”
“I’ll call you right back, I promise.” He handed the phone to Martin.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Seb rubbed his eyes. He didn’t want to have this conversation now. He didn’t want to have it ever, but especially not right now, when he was running on no sleep. His brain was stretched and fried, but he’d promised Ollie he’d call him right back, and his brother had proven he wouldn’t be put off anymore.
“It’ll be fine. I’ll see you later, okay?” Seb waved as he hurried out of the bookstore.
Seb sat down on a bench on the corner at the end of the next block and pulled his phone out again. His hands shook as he tried to flip to Oliver’s most recent missed call, but was saved the trouble of dialing when the phone started to ring.
“Ollie?” The name trembled in his mouth.
“Seb, I’m sorry. I thought you should know.”
“Of course I should know!”
“Listen, it’s some kind of respiratory infection. She’s stable, but—”
“Is she in the hospital?”
“She should be home later today or tomorrow morning.”
Seb closed his eyes and exhaled. He didn’t want to think about his grandmother, frail and alone, in a hospital bed. She’d always been immaculate, coiffed, and fashionable for every occasion. He didn’t want to picture her unmade and sick.
“Will she—Will she be okay?”
“She wants to see you.”
This time, Seb didn’t hesitate. “I can come.” He’d have to rent a car. He couldn’t leave now—he needed to sleep—but tomorrow.
“She’s pretty tired. She’ll need a few more days to recover. Listen, I know you’re not going to like this, but I want you to think about it, okay?”
Seb had a pretty good feeling he knew what his brother was going to ask. “I’m listening.”
“They still want to throw the birthday party. I think you should be there.”
