Page 43 of Wish For Me

He takes in a deep shuddering breath, rubbing at his chest. “What if it’s not the same for us?” he finally whispers, voice ragged. “What if we don’t find our way back?”

“Then maybe it wasn’t meant to be,” I say gently. “And that would suck, Nix. It really would. Nothing me or anyone else can say is gonna change how much that hurts.” I clap his shoulder. “But we will all be here for you, okay? No matter what happens, you’re not going to be alone.”

He rubs his face again and I’m relieved it’s so dark. At least this way he won’t feel embarrassed tomorrow that I saw him cry.

“You want me to go get your sister?” I ask. “Or Silas?”

“Nah.” He rubs his eyes again. “I don’t need to go ruining their night with my bullshit.”

“No one would think about it that way.”

“Will you, uh, hang out for a while?” he asks. “I don’t really feel like going in and facing all that right now.”

“I’m not going anywhere, man.”

I do send Alex a text, letting her know I’m hanging out with her brother but I don’t share any details. He can tell people when he’s ready. We pass the whiskey bottle back and forth for a while, not talking. The liquor helps to chase off some of the cold. Nix is slowly getting trashed, but I’m not going to cut him off. If a guy can’t drink away his troubles at a time like this, when can he?

Eventually his hard starts bobbing and I figure it’s time to get him to bed. He goes without a fight, leaning heavily against me the entire way up the stairs. I manage to get his coat and boots off and get him onto his bed before he passes out on me. I’m pulling a blanket over him when he grabs my wrist. “Thanks, Wyatt,” he mumbles.

“No problem, Nix.”

“You’re a good brother,” he says, eyes already closing again. “Will ’n Si are lucky.”

I punch his shoulder. “I’m your brother, too, kid.”

I make sure he’s sleeping on his side and put his trash can next to the bed just in case he gets sick in the night, then make my way back to the darkened hallway—and nearly crash right into Levi.

“Hey, sorry,” I say, taking a step back. “Didn’t see you there.”

I wait for him to say something dismissive, or look at me in that way that tells me he wishes I would go anywhere else. But it’s not badly concealed disdain I see in his eyes. I’m not sure what it is, actually.

Just then my phone rings and I pull it from my back pocket, figuring it’s Alex checking on Nix. Sure enough it’s her contact picture smiling up at me.

“Hey, babe,” I say into the phone.

“Hey.” I don’t know how I can tell from that one word, but I know something’s wrong.

“What happened?” I ask, barely noticing the way Levi’s eyes narrow on me. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing happened,” she says quickly. “I just…my ankle is pretty swollen.”

“Damn it,” I mutter, already calculating how much whiskey I had with Nix. I’m not drunk, but the mountain roads are twisty and dark as fuck.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” she says hurriedly. “But everyone here is asleep and I didn’t want to wake up Everly.”

“Where are you right now?” I ask, ignoring Levi’s frantic hand motions demanding explanations.

“Sitting in the kitchen. I was going to try to come over to the lodge to get you but…it’s hurting pretty bad.”

I never should have left her tonight. “I’ll be right there, okay? Don’t try to walk on it.”

“Wyatt.” She sounds distraught. “The wedding istomorrow.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I say.

“One way or another?” she whispers, completing our little mantra of the past year.

“One way or another,” I agree. “Be right there.”