Page 58 of Between Now and Forever

Well, fuck these people. So much for small-town hospitality.

I’m halfway down the block when I realize that I forgot to get more shampoo. I rush back to the store, but when I get there, the lights are off and the door is locked.

This town is fucking strange.

9

CLOVER AND LIES AND EVERYTHING DIES.

ELISABETH

“He’s very lucky,”my brother’s doctor says as he comes close to his chart.

“Lucky? His face is half gone,” my father barks back, his fist wrapping around the arm of the bed so tightly that his knuckles turn white.

“He’s lucky to bealive,” the doctor says reproachfully.

My father grunts in disgust.

The man gives Fiona and me sympathetic smiles and then leaves.

My eyes return and remain riveted to the bruised, bloody face of my older brother. And that’s the part that’s not covered by a huge bandage. He was in surgery when I got here, and they’ve just wheeled him back in from recovery. They said he was awake when they called us back, but he’s been sleeping since we got to the room.

My father hasn’t looked away from James’s face since we walked into the room.

“Drew, are you okay? Let’s go get something to eat,” Fiona says, in what’s supposed to be a coaxing voice. But, it’s more seductive than anything, and my eyes slide to her.

She looks like she just stepped out of a Pinterest post titled “How to Make Him Notice You Again.”

“I don’t want anything to eat. But it doesn’t shock me that you do,” my father snaps angrily, his head shaking tersely, but his eyes remain glued to James.

My stepmother’s eyes drop to her lap and her shoulders hunch.

“I just don’t understand what he was doing out there at that time of night.”

“Where exactly did the accident happen?” I ask, confused as well by that.

My father’s pocket starts to vibrate.

He pulls his phone out and puts it to his ear and barks out a terse, “What?” all without looking away from his son.

“What the hell do you mean, they sold?” he shouts and turns his back to the bed and walks over to the window.

If anything could make my father forget his injured son, it is his first and true love, Wolfe Construction.

“I’m on my way.” He snaps his phone shut.

“I’ve got to go to the office,” he says and stands to leave.

Fiona looks startled. “You’re leaving? Now?”

My father’s eyes flit back to the bed.

“He’s not going anywhere. I’ll be back.”

“Well let me drive you, then,” she says.

“I have a driver, Fiona,” he says like she’s a moron.

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