She looks at me, almost desperate, as she runs a hand through her hair and sighs so heavily it’s more of a shudder.
“Talk to me, love,” I whisper. “How are things with your dad?”
“He came home this morning,” she says and walks away from me, over to the chairs, but she doesn’t sit down.
“That’s good, right?” I prod gently. “Everyone will calm down.”
She nods and for a second, I swear I think I see her shudder again. “Everyone in my family is on better emotional ground…except me. I barely slept all night. My heart feels like it’s beating erratically. There’s a constant pressure in my chest and my stress headache I’ve had for two days is turning into a migraine. But I don’t have time for that because I have to work. It’s the only thing that will keep my mind occupied. And I have to get home before I go in for my twelve-hour shift so I can make sure my mom is doing okay and remind Winnie not to cry in front of my dad or fight with Ty in front of my mom.”
“I think you need to sit down. Right now. And that’s all you need to do,” I tell her firmly but with a gentle tone. She looks confused by that command, so I reach out and hold her shoulders and guide her down into the chair. She’s resisting me a little at first, but once her butt touches the leather she sags, like a deflating balloon.
“He’s not going to get a feeding tube,” she whispers so softly I almost don’t hear it. “The doctors say it’s time, and he said no.”
“Is that why Jude was playing like a rabid animal last night?” He spent more time in the penalty box than he had all season. She nods and starts to pull her phone out of her purse. “That reminds me, I have to call Jude. He told me to let him know when Dad got home this morning and if he settled in okay. I forgot. He won’t go over there himself because he knows Dad watched him be an idiot on the ice last night, and he wants to avoid the lecture.”
I take her phone out of her hand and squat down in front of her. “Sadie…It’s time to concentrate on you, not them.”
“I can’t. We’re losing him. The countdown clock just jumped forward. I have to keep them together for his sake. I won’t let his last few months with us be filled with Jude’s penalty minutes and Winnie’s drunken outbursts and Dixie’s uncontrollable sobs. He’s always strong for us. I’m going to be strong for him.”
I don’t even think she knows she’s crying until I reach out and wipe away the tears with the pads of my thumbs. Her big cornflower blue eyes get bigger, like she’s terrified at the realization she’s breaking. I do the only thing I can, the thing it feels like I was born to do: I pull her to me and I hold her. She fights it at first, her body rigid and her breath held, but then, all at once, she lets go.
As she sobs in my arms, I rub her back and hold her tight. Over her shoulder I see Hunter walk back in with a latte and immediately turn and walk back out. She doesn’t notice, and I don’t move. I just let her continue because she needs it desperately, and I know if I don’t hold her and comfort her, no one will.
“I’m sorry,” she says after about fifteen minutes of crying so hard that the shoulder of my shirt is soaked and stained with her mascara. “I’m here to help you, not weep all over you.”
She starts to pull away, and I reluctantly let her. As she wipes at her wet cheeks, embarrassed, I run a hand over her hair, smoothing it down. “It’s okay. Everyone in your life needs you to be strong, but I don’t. You hold up everyone else. Let me hold you up.”
Her eyes are on mine, filled with a pain and sadness that crushes me. “You can’t do that. Not now.”
She’s right. I know she’s right. But I don’t care about logic. I just care about her.
This time Hunter knocks as he enters. Sadie stands quickly, wiping at her eyes again. I stand too and grab a box of tissue off the bookcase beside Hunter’s desk and hold it out to her. Sadie grabs a couple and dabs at her eyes again. “Sorry,” my brother says. “I just have to be in court in an hour, so we need to start this.”
“Of course.” The broken girl is gone and Sadie’s back to being the reliable, confident, calm woman way too many people rely on. And here I am relying on her too. Fuck, this sucks.
For the next half hour Hunter takes detailed testimony about what went on the night I brought Charlie into the ER. Sadie praises everything about how I handled the situation and how good I was with Charlie.
“Griffin was kind and gentle but firm with Charlie for her mistake, and he was loving and empathetic to her when she got embarrassed about why it happened,” Sadie explains to my brother as the little red light on his tape recorder blinks rhythmically as it records her. “He reminded me of my dad. And my dad is the best.”
Hunter asks a few more technical questions about how Charlie was treated and gets her to explain, on the record, that we followed all policy and procedure, and the hospital was not legally required to tell Lauren. By the time the interview is done, she’s composed again. There’s no sign she was just broken, sobbing in my arms, except for the slightly puffy look to her eyes and the slightly red tinge to her cheeks and nose.
“Thanks for doing this, Sadie,” Hunter says when he shuts off the recorder.
“I hope it helps Griffin,” she says, but she won’t look at me. It’s like she’s talking about someone who isn’t in the room.
“Thanks. I hope we run into each other again sometime, for a better reason,”
Hunter smiles at her as she stands up and grabs her purse off the floor. I stand with her. “Let me walk you out.”
“You shouldn’t,” she replies quietly but firmly.
“But I’m going to,” I counter, and as she starts for the door, I follow.
We pass Debra, and I hold open the door for her to Hunter’s small office and we walk down the hall, past other offices, toward the elevator. I stand so close to her that our hands keep brushing. It’s on purpose. I can see the struggle on her beautiful face. She wants to step away, so we don’t touch, but she doesn’t. She knows we’re just making things harder on each other, but she can’t help but let it happen either.
I hit the call button for the elevator for her. “Thank you. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, so the fact that you made time for me—to do this—is incredible.” I turn and look at her. “You are incredible.”
“You’re my unicorn,” she says softly with that playful smile that instantly makes my dick start to get hard. “I can’t say no to a unicorn. It’s worse than looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
