Page 73 of Waiting for Her

“Another one of my family members who knew everything that was going on without telling me,” he says, a far-off look to his face.

I stop, grip his forearm, and turn him to face me. “You need to understand something. I had to get better without you. That’s what I learned in therapy. You and I, we had a habit of relying and leaning heavily on each other. It’s not a bad thing, but if they had told you what was going on, you’d try to fix it. Fixme. I had to do it on my own. I needed to get stronger without you. For me, and I had hoped, for us. And then… well, the accident.”

“What about the accident?”

I wait, letting him connect the timeline. His eyebrows scrunch together. “Were you in treatment when I had the accident?”

“I was, though it’s not like I was locked up. I was allowed to leave if I needed to,” I explain, again wondering if my words are going to trigger a memory. “If something happened that was important enough for me to leave.”

He looks at me closely then down at my hand that’s still resting on his arm. He takes it in his own. His eyes are glistening when they meet mine once again.

“You were there.”

All I can do is nod and shrug.

“It wasn’t a dream? You were really there? In my hospital room after the accident?”

“I didn’t know you remembered.”

“I thought… fuck, Bri, I thought I had imagined you being there. Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t youcome back?”

“I did come back. The next day after your surgery.”

He shakes his head like he’s about to argue with me, but he didn’t see me. No one did.

“You had a visitor.”

He thinks for a moment then his eyes flare. “Kennedy.”

In my head, he said a four-letter word.

“She was very… emotional.”

He squeezes my hand but doesn’t let go, bringing me the comfort I desperately seek from him. We start walking again as Rocky seems to be losing his attention span for smelling the bushes we stopped near.

“She was worried,” he says after a while.

“Yeah.” I want to say I was too but think better of it.

We continue in silence for several more blocks before arriving back at his house. He tugs me along, not releasing his grip on my hand.

As soon as Grady unhooks Rocky’s leash, he rushes over to his water dish. I excuse myself to use the restroom. He points me in the direction of a small powder room off the laundry room, and he tells me he’s going to use the one off his bedroom.

I do my business quickly and walk back into the kitchen just in time to see Grady pouring us each a glass of iced tea from a pitcher in his fridge.

Glad I made a pitstop in the restroom.

“I think we need to clear up the question rolling around in your head about Kennedy,” he tells me, settling us both into chairs on his patio.

I don’t even try to argue with him or lie that I don’t have questions. I have so many questions I can’t even begin to count them.

“I met her the summer after my sophomore year. We went on a couple dates. It didn’t feel right, but we became good friends. We remained that way. In the recent weeks, it appears she may be wanting more. It’s possible when we discussed only being friends, she may not have been as on board with the idea as I originally thought. Last night she stopped by unannounced. She overheard Drew say something that led her to believe I was in love with her. Without waiting for me to tell her otherwise, she kissed me, which, of course, you saw.” A dark single eyebrow raises above his right eye, and I feel my face flush. “If your face would have stayed planted to the window, you would’ve seen I stopped the kiss and gently let her know she misunderstood what she heard, who we were talking about.”

“Oh.”

He grins. “Oh? That’s it? You’re not going to do a little dance? Cheer? Fist pump?”

“Fist pump? Really?” I joke with a roll of my eyes. He doesn’t need to know that I already mentally did all three of those as well as high-fived myself.

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