The male orderly directed her down the hall. She hoped thelatte was still hot. Jake could use something sweet and distracting. She was about to round the corner to his room when she heard the raised voices.
Phoebe halted in the doorway. Perry was standing at the foot of his brother’s bed, arms out by his sides. Jake lay under a white blanket, one leg up in traction. Her little brother had never looked so small.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Perry asked, his voice rising in anger.
Jake stared back at him, his face dark with regret. “I told you I’m sorry, Perry. It was an accident.”
“Sorry?” Perry bellowed. He banged the bottom rail of Jake’s bed, and Jake winced. “You let my daughter drink beer to the point she was intoxicated. Then you drove the boat into a dock. Christ, Jake, you could’ve killed them!”
Phoebe froze. She wanted to run in and yell at them both. At Perry to stop; couldn’t he see the pain Jake was in? At Jake to not listen to his brother. They all knew Jake would never have done this on purpose.
“It was an accident,” Jake said again. “A terrible accident that I will never forgive myself for.”
“It wasyou!” Perry bellowed. “You being reckless, and showing off, like you always do. You will never change, Jake Goodwin. But one thing will: you willneverbe allowed near my family again.”
Jake sat up in bed, the blanket falling from his bare chest. His face twisted in pain. “Perry, please!”
“And after what you’ve done to little Luci, I’m sure Olivia will want nothing to do with you either!”
At that Jake fell back against the pillows, hands to his face.
“Stop!” Phoebe yelled from the doorway. “Both of you, stop it now.”
A strangled cry came from the bed, and she rushed for Jake. “He didn’t mean it,” Phoebe cried. She grabbed his hand, but Jake refused to look at her.
“The hell I didn’t!” Perry roared.
A nurse flew through the doorway. She bumped against Phoebe as she tried to get to Jake. “All of you, out,” she ordered. “Now! Or I’m calling security.”
Perry’s face was flushed, the veins in his forehead throbbing. “I’m sorry,” he managed, pulling himself together. “I’m leaving now.”
The nurse checked Jake’s vitals, adjusted the IV bag. “You need to calm down, Mr. Goodwin. We have to keep that leg immobile.”
Phoebe’s eyes darted between her two brothers. Thank God her parents weren’t here to witness this; she could imagine the disappointment in her father’s eyes. In all their mistakes and missteps growing up, they’d never known Edward to raise his voice, let alone his fist. Jane would’ve intervened; she was the shouter. But neither brother listened to her.
When Perry ducked past her toward the door, she reached for him. His hands were still balled in fists, stiff at his sides. “Perry,” she said. “Stop.”
But he wouldn’t. He stepped quickly around her and hurried through the door. Phoebe glanced back at Jake, who was staring helplessly out the window while the nurse spoke with him. “I’ll be right back,” Phoebe said. Then, to the nurse, “I’m so sorry. This accident… it’s hurt us all.”
But Perry was getting away. Hastily she excused herself and went after him. He was already halfway down the hall, making stiff, sweeping strides toward the elevator. She had to break into a run. “Perry, wait!” she called.
Phoebe caught up to him at the elevator doors. He kept his back to her, stabbing at the buttons.
Warily, she reached for his arm. “Perry,” she tried again.
When he turned to look at her, Phoebe saw something in his watery expression she’d never seen before. It looked like fear. “I’m sorry,” he managed, and without warning, Perry fell against her. Phoebe struggled to prop him up, to wrap her arms around the breadth of his shoulders. “It’s okay,” she said, pressing her face to his heaving chest. “Emma is safe, and so is Luci. Everyone is going to be okay.”
The elevator doors swung open, but neither Goodwin noticed. For the first time in her life, Phoebe held on to her older brother as he sobbed against her. She imagined herself as a blanket, muffling the pain. Phoebe had never seen Perry cry. And it scared the hell out of her.
This was the big brother. Unflappable, rational, problem-solving Perry. The one they all turned to, and always had, their parents included. What did a family do when their one true rock broke?
Over his shoulder, through the sweeping bank of hospital windows, she could see the horizon, nothing but blue sky and rolling green hills. It shifted with every racking sob that escaped her brother. Phoebe squeezed harder. “We’re all going to be okay,” she lied.
Olivia
Olivia splashed cold water on her face and regarded her reflection in the hospital bathroom mirror. She hadn’t slept, and the evidence stared right back at her.
“There’s my girl!” The beauty of a familiar voice sang out and Olivia turned in the tiny bathroom doorway to see Marge sail into Luci’s room, arms outstretched. Luci’s face brightened and she gasped, but Olivia’s spirits sank when she didn’t emit a single sound. Marge and Ben were like family, and this was another test she’d been holding her breath for. Sometimes it was possible to snap Luci out of her nonverbal state. If she was surprised by something both familiar and positive, her instinctual reaction might be to vocalize. But it didn’t happen. Olivia tried not to show her disappointment as she went to Marge and hugged her.
