Page 52 of The Space Between Heartbeats
I shoulder past her, and my hand finds Sawyer’s arm. She flinches at the contact but I don’t let go. I pull her closer, using my body as a shield while Helen stays on her other side.
“Don’t look at them,” I mutter, close enough that only she can hear. “Eyes on the ground. Just keep moving.”
My father clears a path with his shoulder, repeating “No comment,” and somehow we push through to the parking lot. A few reporters follow, still shouting, but hospital security finally gets their shit together and starts herding them back.
“Thank you,” Helen says once we’re in the clear. She’s looking at me now, her eyes moist at the corners. I get this instinct to hug her that I quickly shut down. Helen was always a second mother to me, and even now, I hate to see her upset. “That was…She couldn’t…Just, thank you.”
I nod, not trusting myself to speak.
Sawyer is still pressed against my side. She’s fisting my shirt like she doesn’t realize she’s holding on. I can feel her trembling, can hear her trying to slow her breathing and failing.
“Sawyer.” I keep my voice low.“You’re okay. They’re gone. Just breathe.”
She looks up at me, and her eyes are glassy with this barely there look. Her fingers tighten on my shirt and she takes a shaky breath.
Then she blinks, awareness crashing back. She’s holding onto me. She’s letting me comfort her. She jerks away, toward Helen, like my clothes are on fire.
“I’m fine,” she whispers, looking from me to my father to Helen. “Let’s go, Mom.”
Helen shoots me an apologetic look and I wonder if Sawyer told her about our conversation in my hospital room. I doubt it. If she knew, she’d be looking at me with a hell of a lot more disdain, even if I did get rid of the reporters.
I watch them get into Helen’s beat up Toyota, my hand still tingling from touching Sawyer.
“Son.” My father’s already heading toward his Benz, not bothering to look at them, not even acknowledging the encounter. “Come on.”
I turn away from Sawyer before I can do something stupid, like follow after her.
The driveto the lake house is silent and uncomfortable. I don’t know what the fuck to say to him, and clearly he has other things on his mind. He grips the wheel hard, staring out onto the dark road. There’s no music on, no conversation. I’m relieved when we finally turn into the tree-lined driveway.
I can’t help but think about where my mind was at when I left this driveway yesterday morning. How my main thought was what to say to Sawyer. How Owen told me he needed to talk to me about something…and that ended up being him showing me a fucking ring.
It was only yesterday. Twenty-four hours. It feels longer and shorter all at the same time.
“Your mother’s medicated,” Dad says as he turns off the car. “She’ll probably be asleep.”
“You think her taking pills is a good idea?”
He goes still, his hand frozen on the wheel. For a long moment, he doesn’t move an inch, doesn’t even look at me.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.” I reach for the door handle, but he’s faster. His hand clamps down on my shoulder, keeping me in place.
“No. You don’t get to say shit like that and then walk away. What the fuck are you implying?”
Even with only the motion sensor lights lining the driveway, I can see how tense his jaw is. There’s a warning in his eyes. A challenge to say exactly what I know.
And I want to, so fucking badly.
I want to acknowledge that I know what happened four years ago. That I’m the one who found her. That I’m the one who saved her while he was too busy drinking and fucking Helen Thorne to notice his wife was trying to die.
He knows I know, but he’s too much of a coward to admit it.
I swallow and it all goes down like razor blades.
“I’m not implying anything. Just asking if you think it’s safe…given her history.”
“Well, the doctor prescribed them…so what do you think?”
