Page 92 of Just One Kiss

“You didn’t tell me that,” Josh said.

“You weren’t here.” Carly snapped the response without thinking.

Josh looked away.

“So, what did she say?” Jaden asked.

Carly filled them in on the details of her conversation with Elizabeth, ending with, “I have the name of her doctor. I already called and left him a message.”

“Even if I can still compete, they start training next week,” Jaden said. “I’m already behind.”

“So, you’ll have a little extra work to do,” Josh said. “The season doesn’t start for months. Isn’t that better than not being able to compete at all?”

God, please. Don’t take this away from him.

She wasn’t sure who her son would be if he couldn’t ski.

“I just want to sleep for a while.” Jaden closed his eyes, dismissing them.

After about twenty minutes, he was in a medically assisted slumber, and she was in the room alone, with Josh.

“You went and talked to the coach?” she whispered over the beeping of one of Jaden’s monitors.

“Yeah.” Josh sat down in a shiny leather chair on the opposite side of the bed. “It’s why I was late getting back here.”

The protective wall around her heart cracked, causing a tiny web of fissures.

“You saw his face,” Josh said. “I had to do something.” He looked at her. “You talked to the swimmer?”

“Yeah. Really nice girl. I was so grateful she got back to me.”

Her eyes fell to her sleeping son, looking a little like the toddler she’d sung to sleep so many times, and she prayed—earnestly and fervently—that this whole thing would be a setback but not a roadblock.

* * *

Carly looked uncomfortable on the makeshift sleeper sofa, but that didn’t stop him from wondering how soft her skin would feel underneath his fingers.

Nurses were in and out of Jaden’s room, checking his vitals, giving him pain medication and making sure their son was recovering as he was supposed to.

Carly understood everything happening in front of them. It wasn’t a surprise to her when Jaden woke up feeling nauseous again and they had to give him more Zofran.

Josh, on the other hand, understood nothing.

He spent the night half-sleeping upright in the chair while Carly dozed softly on the uncomfortable sofa.

Around three in the morning, she rolled over and found him, eyes open, blankly staring at the muted TV screen. He wouldn’t tell her he’d also found himself blankly staring at her off and on throughout the night, and every time he did, he begged God to help him figure out a way to make up for his broken promises.

Hehadchanged—he knew he had. So why was he still finding ways to mess everything up?

“You’re still here,” she whispered.

He adjusted the thin hospital blanket on his lap. The light of the television flickered, spilling a faint blue over the room. “Yeah.”

“You should go home and get some sleep,” she said.

He found her eyes, faintly illuminated, and said, “I’m not leaving again.”

A world of weight hung behind those words, and he knew she felt it too.

---