“Can I use the bathroom?”
“Hallway. First door on the right.”
She disappears, and I change back into my jeans and grab a T-shirt, ready to drive her. She emerges from the bathroom a couple moments later, and she’s texting on her phone. “My sister Winnie. The ambulance is there, and they’re loading him up.”
“Okay. That’s good,” I say and rub her shoulder, trying to be soothing. “Let’s get you there.”
“I called a Lyft,” she replies and shows me the app on her phone. There’s a little black car icon moving toward the marina. “I had a good time. No, wait. I had a great time. But let’s just press the pause button here. Let me go and deal with this, and then maybe we can unpause this—right here in this room—again sometime soon?”
She kisses me on the cheek and starts down the stairs before I can even respond, so I follow. She knows I’m right behind her, so she keeps talking. “I’m really sorry, I just…”
“Don’t apologize,” I reply. “It’s your dad. I get it. I just wish you’d let me drive you.”
“This…” She stops, turns to face me and points to the ceiling. “That…what just happened. Was…well, it was fucking magical for me, and I am definitely hoping to continue that and see how much more magical we can be. But…this…this thing with my family. My life right now. It’s not magical. It’s kind of a nightmare, and I’m not ready for you to walk into the nightmare. I need to keep the unicorn away from the darkness.”
She turns and keeps walking toward the front door. I follow her. “I don’t quite understand all of that, but I think I get it. I guess. It’s just I can totally handle the darkness, Sadie. I am not a stranger to it myself. And did you just call me a unicorn?”
“Yes,” she confirms and pauses on my deck, as she glances at her app again. Apparently her ride is about to enter the marina. “Because up until tonight I didn’t know sexual chemistry like this existed. I thought it was a myth, like the unicorn.”
I laugh at that despite the seriousness of the more pressing situation at hand. She looks embarrassed again. “Sorry. I am being blunt, and you’re probably thinking I’m insane, but if having a dad dying prematurely has taught me anything, it’s say what you mean and don’t sugar-coat shit because you might not get a chance to be honest or say how you really feel later.”
Headlights glare as a Prius enters the marina. She opens the gate, and I help her onto to dock and follow her up the ramp. “Listen, never apologize for being honest. Or giving me compliments like that.”
We reach the car, and I step in front of her to open the door. She gives me a grateful smile, and I take the moment to lean down and kiss her quickly but softly. “For the record, it was fucking magical for me too. And I definitely want to continue this when everything is back on track with your dad.”
She nods and kisses me again. “I’ll text you.”
She slips into the back seat, and the Prius drives away.
14
Sadie
Irush through the doors of the ER and instantly spot Winnie and Dixie. Winnie sees me first and jumps up. Her eyes are bloodshot, and she looks distressed. Dixie jumps up. She’s trying to be braver, like she always tries to be, but I can still tell she’s been crying, and her hand is shaking as she reaches out to hug me. I hug her and then move on to Winnie, who clings to me like I’m the floating door inTitanic.
“Where’s everyone?” I ask. I have this weird reaction to my siblings being upset. The more distraught they are, the calmer I become. I think it’s a side effect from my trauma training. The ER gets a lot of emotional patients and family, and nurses have to keep their cool.
“Mom is in with Dad, but the room is small, so they asked us to wait here,” Dixie explains. “Jude is on his way. Eli is getting us coffee, even though I said I didn’t want any.”
I nod. Winnie sniffs loudly, her face still buried in the front of my shirt. “Let’s sit back down and I’ll see what I can find out.”
I walk Winnie backward toward the row of plastic chairs and deposit her in one. Dixie sits beside her and takes her hand. I head to the desk at the front. Damn, it’s Kina. She’s a pediatric nurse but picks up shifts in the ER sometimes to make extra cash. She doesn’t do more than she has to, and sometimes you even have to push her to do that. I walk over and smile. “Hey, Kina.”
“Oh, hey, Sadie, what are you doing here?”
I blink. “Umm…my dad was admitted.”
She looks confused. “Mr. Chang? The guy with the chest pain?”
“No. The man with the same last name as me. Randy Braddock,” I reply, trying not to sound annoyed. “Possible broken leg. Can you pull up his file and let me know what’s going on?”
“I guess.” She shrugs and leans over to type on the keyboard. She turns the monitor a little so I can read it myself.
“Thanks, Kina.”
“Hey…” she calls as I start to walk back to my sisters. “Does that mean your brother is coming in tonight?”
“Yes,” I reply and frown as I add pointedly, “With his wife and child.”
