Page 154 of We Are Just Us

“They’d been talking about it. About starting a family. They’d already started collecting things. A little at a time. Whenever they’d see something at a store.” Samantha paused. “And now Britt was gone and those kids were never going to exist. And Rory just—he brought them to me.”

“That’s heartbreaking…” Kieran couldn’t finish.

“He said ‘Maybe one day you’ll use them. When you have kids. I don’t know. I just can’t keep them.’” Samantha wiped at her eyes. “He was trying so hard not to cry. Standing there in my doorway at six in the morning with this box full of a future he’d lost.”

“What did you do?”

“I took the box. Told him to come inside. Made him coffee. We sat on my couch and didn’t say anything for an hour,” Samantha pursed her lips. “And when he left, he hugged me. Tight. And said ‘I’m glad you still get to have that. The family. Someone should.’”

Tears slid down his face.

“I still have it,” Samantha said. “In my closet. Waiting. Even when I got pregnant a couple years later with Aubrey, I couldn’t bring myself to open it. It felt too—sacred, maybe. Like those toys belonged to the children Rory and Britt were supposed to have.” She paused. “But I kept them because…because that’s who Rory is. He takes his grief and finds a way to turn it into something for someone else. Even when he barely has anything left to give.”

“He’s the best person I’ve ever met,” Kieran said.

“The fucking best.” Samantha’s voice cracked. “Which is why he can’t—he has to be okay. He has to.”

“He will be.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I have to believe it.” Kieran stopped. Tried again. “I can’t think about the alternative.”

Samantha reached over and took his hand. Squeezed it.

They sat there for a while. Holding hands. Two people who barely knew each other, bound together by their love for the same man.

The clock on the wall ticked past the five-hour mark.

Kieran’s leg was bouncing. He couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t sit still anymore.

More time passed. The janitor finished mopping and disappeared through a doorway. A different nurse walked by, her glance lingering on them a second too long. Samantha checked her phone again. Sighed. Put it back down.

His phone buzzed. A text.

EMORY: Still no news?

KIERAN: Nothing yet.

EMORY: I’m here if you need me. Say the word and I’ll drive down.

KIERAN: Thanks. I’ll let you know.

He put his phone away. Stared at the opposite wall. At the generic landscape painting that was probably supposed to be soothing but only made him more anxious.

“Tell me something about him,” Kieran said suddenly. “Something I might not know.”

Samantha pinched the bridge of her nose, like she was sorting through a drawer of memories. “He’s terrified of birds.”

“What?”

“Birds. Hates them. Got attacked by a seagull when he was seven. It went after his bag of chips and he’s been convinced they’re all out to get him ever since.”

Kieran laughed. “You’re kidding.”

“Dead serious. He’ll never admit it but watch him at the beach. He always sits where the seagulls can’t sneak up on him.”

“He warned me about them,” Kieran said, shaking his head. “The first time we met. Told me to watch my eye contact around the gulls. I thought he was joking.”