“Maybefour seconds,” Logan answers.
“I’ve known Stone as long as I’ve known Hanlon, which is a long time, and I honestly never saw this coming,” Chase whispers. The corners of my mouth pull into a faint smile.
“I didn’t even know Hanlon existed until he showed up here,” Logan counters. “And I didn’t find out they were stepbrothers until a couple of weeks after that.” Logan exhales, and I feel the heavinessin it. “Would have been nice to know I was fighting a losing battle before I got so invested, though.”
“What do you mean?” Chase asks. I hear him shift in the pleather chair, but I keep my eyes closed, interested in where this conversation is going.
“It doesn’t really matter anymore. I’m leaving at the end of the season. Took a job in Boston.”
“Boston?” Chase’s surprised tone matches the one in my head. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but there are no ski slopes in Boston.”
Logan huffs a laugh. “You’re not wrong. At first, I was bummed about that part of the new position, but after pulling those two off that mountain, I’m actually grateful for the change.”
“So, what will you be doing instead?” Chase asks.
“I’ll be flying the Life Flight helicopter for Boston General Hospital.”
“No way!” Chase says loudly, causing my eyes to open. He looks over at me and clamps a hand over his mouth. “My bad. Sorry,” he whispers before turning his attention back to Logan. “I’m starting med school at Harvard in the fall. I’ll be spending a lot of time at Boston General.”
Logan looks at Chase and opens his mouth to speak, but before he can get a word out, Lana rushes into the room, followed by my dad.
Chase looks at where I’m clasping Hanlon’s hand and stands immediately, ready to intervene if needed, solidifying our friendship for life.
Lana stands between our beds and leans down to kiss Hanlon’s cheek. I growl in jealousy and anger.You couldn’t pick up the phone and talk to him once in the last two months to check on him, but suddenly you’re all concerned?
I know it’s an unfair thought, so I keep it to myself.
Until she attempts totake his hand from mine.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I snarl.
She turns to me and finally sees the state I’m in. She then looks up at my father, who comes to stand by my bedside, looking paler than a ghost.
“Of course,” she whispers. “I’m sorry.”
“For which part?” I ask, unable to stay quiet any longer because, fuck this, I’m just as scared as she is. “Cutting him out of your life for the past couple of months? For making him choose? Or for barging in here and trying to take him from me just now?”
She bites down on her quivering lower lip.
I expect my father to chastise me for speaking to her this way, but he stays quiet, making me feel like there’s a line drawn in the sand and they’re on opposite sides for the first time ever.
Looking where Hanlon and I’s hands are still connected, she says, “I’m trying, Stone. Regardless of how you see each other,Isee you as brothers, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around this, but I no longer have doubts that you care deeply for one another.”
The next fourdays pass in a blur of beeping machines, nurses coming and going, and me touching Hanlon every second of every day.
Chase had to fly back home, and I’ll genuinely miss him. Logan has gone back to work, and I’m pretty sure the goodbye he gave me when he left our hospital room was the only one I’ll get from him.
I hate that it didn’t feel like the closure we needed.
Dad and Lana haven’t left our bedside since they arrived.Everyone is tired and looks like hell, but our common ground is that we all want Hanlon to wake up so fucking badly.
Finally, shortly after lunch on the fourth day, a doctor comes in to tell us the edema has subsided and it’s time to wake him up.
We all hold our breath for the next twelve hours as they wean him off the medications that have kept him asleep so he could heal.
Chapter 40
Hanlon
