Page 8 of This Time I'm Keeping You
“My brother and I were in a car accident.I remember the pain and then the ambulance ride to the hospital.”
“I never knew you had a brother.”
“You never asked.”
And wasn’t that the truth.He’d never asked her anythingabout her life because he’d been obsessed with himself.
“How bad were you hurt?”
“Broken tibia, fibula, femur, and pelvis, internal bleeding, punctured lung, and cracked ribs.
“Ouch.”
Nick watched the memories come and go across her face.
“I don’t remember much after arriving at the hospital.For days, I would wake occasionally, only to have another nurse medicate me, and then I’d sleep again.”
“How old were you?”
“Fifteen.”
“So, the reason you didn’t play sports in college or run anywhere was because you couldn’t?”
She nodded.
“And I never asked you why.”He was disgusted with the self-obsessed jock he’d been.
“I told you because you asked.Nick, I don’t want you to feel guilty.”
“I’m sorry just the same.”He hooked his foot around a chair leg and dragged it closer.“Was your brother badly hurt?”he asked, dropping onto it.
She looked away from him briefly, and when she turned back, the pain in her eyes told Nick what she hadn’t said.
“Ah hell, Poppy.”
“Hell about sums it up,” she whispered.
Nick remembered that sometimes he’d seen her sitting alone, looking sad.He’d just never asked her why.
“The words are inadequate, but I’ll say them anyway.I’m sorry for your loss, Poppy.I’m doubly sorry you didn’t feel like you could tell me, and that I could have been there for you after you lost your brother, if I’d been able to see past the end of my nose.”
“We, you and me, weren’t like that.”
He knew what she meant.They’d spent time together, and she’d listened to him talk about himself while they studied, and he’d made her cool.It had been an odd relationship that he’d wanted but never worked out how to tell her that, and then it was too late.
“You can go now,” she whispered.
“Sure, and then you’d have another reason to hate me,” Nick said, catching a tear as it slid down her cheek.
“Seriously, Nick, I’m okay.I can handle this, and thanks.What you did, after how I behaved earlier?—”
“Proves I’ve grown up?”
“Something like that.”
She was pushing him away, which he deserved.They were strangers now, but he’d never felt that with her.She’d been comfortable around him, and he, her, from the first day they started talking.He had a feeling she still would be if they had a chance to get to know each other again.
“I’m not leaving,” Nick said.
