Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Instantly, I melt.
Maybe there is someone Weaver is willing to go that extra mile for.
And maybe it’s…me.
Chest aching at the thought, I nod. “Okay. That sounds good. Thank you.”
I don’t tell him that I wouldn’t really be alone at the hospital, not with my entire family there. I don’t want to seem ungrateful for his support, and there’s a part of me that is starting to feel “alone” without Weaver.
We don’t pull any punches with each other. We haven’t from the beginning. But with my family? I pull punches all the time. I keep secrets and soften blows and sometimes, I just lie.
I don’t like to, but when it’s the kindest choice, I do.
I lie to Gramps about how quickly I can see him slowing down. I lie to my cousin, Henna, about how many days a week I see her husband lingering at the pub for another drink, when she’s been at home alone all day with their two kids. I lie to Elaina about what the mean people in town say about her “raunchy” café and raunchier habits, and I lie to Maya about that the fact that not one of the men I hang out with has ever asked about my shy best friend.
I tell Maya tons of guys are interested, whenever she’s ready. I tell Elaina that Sweet Pussy Cafe is a great name for her bakery and she should keep it.
And I tell myself that the way the Sullivans do things is the best way because I want it to be the best. I want to believe that all the sacrifices I’ve made are because I’m a good daughter and granddaughter and niece and cousin, not because I’m a shmuck who’s let myself be used and abused by people too distracted by their own drama to have my best interests at heart.
My family doesn’t want to hurt me, I know that with every bone in my body. But have they hurt me without meaning to? Without even realizing what they were doing?
I honestly…don’t know.
There’s enough doubt inside that I’m not about to kick Weaver out of my life for saying the things he said. Especially when it’s obvious he was saying those things because he cares about me.
He really does care. This successful, gorgeous, supportive, sexy as hell man really does seem to love me. And I feel the same way about him. He’s everything I wasn’t brave enough to want until I met him.
But if it comes down to a choice between Weaver and my family—a very real possibility—which will I choose?
I don’t know the answer to that, either.
I only know that I need Gramps to be okay. After that, maybe I’ll have the bandwidth to take a closer look at the rest of my messed-up life.
I push the bigger questions aside as best I can, eat my now-cold sandwich, and brace myself for the worst as Weaver gets on the highway headed south toward the hospital.
But not even in my wildest fever dreams could I have imagined the shit show that awaits us just outside of Bangor…
chapter 20
WEAVER
I drop Sully by the entrance to the emergency room and circle around to park in the guest lot.
I dispose of our breakfast trash in a nearby bin and am headed back to the car to fetch my laptop case—might as well get some work done while I’m lurking in the cafeteria—when my gaze is drawn to a man stumbling out of a bus by the hospital’s main entrance.
The man is balding, with dark under eye circles, an unkempt beard, and a sizeable paunch beneath his gray hooded sweatshirt. He looks nothing like the sandy haired guy in a red tee and jeans who took a swing at me in a bar parking lot sixteen years ago, but somehow, I know it’s Leon, Sully’s father.
And he’s clearly still drunk from last night…
Or maybe he hits the bottle first thing in the morning, who knows? Whatever the case, he’s obviously impaired. He trips on the curb and nearly goes down twice more as he wobbles unsteadily toward the sliding glass doors.
I freeze, my stomach balling into a knot as I predict how this ends. Best-case scenario, the hospital staff stops him at the entrance and turns him away for public drunkenness. Worst-case scenario, he finds his way to his father’s hospital bed in his wasted state and causes a scene that makes a difficult time even worse for the rest of the family and imperils his father’s already ailing health.
And yes, the hospital staff would surely take care of that, too, but only after he’s upset grieving people and given his daughter another terrible memory for her collection.
I can’t let that happen.
Not if I can prevent it. Sully’s been through enough.
Leaving my laptop case in the trunk, I lock the car and cross the parking lot. Keeping my distance and the brim of my hat pulled low on my forehead, I tail Leon past the reception desk and into the wide, open space beyond. The center of the hospital is one large room, with floor-to-ceiling windows stretching four stories into the air and exposed staircases leading to other floors.