Page 23 of Reckless
7
Gage
“Your mom won’t be awake for hours now,” Kelly’s nurse friend—Millie?—told me, fighting a yawn. She’d explained earlier that she was pulling a double shift, that the hospital had been short staffed lately. “She’s just taken a cocktail of medication to help her with the pain, and it’s made her drowsy. I think she’ll sleep through the night. It might be a good idea if you go home and rest for a bit.”
I chewed on my thumbnail, not sure if I should leave her side at all. “You think so?”
“Your mom won’t need you until the morning. You have to look after yourself too.”
I couldn’t go back to Mom’s house, to my old room, and stare at those four walls again. There were too many memories inside, too many things I couldn’t stand to think about. I was restless and needed to get out of that damn place,dosomething, but not alone. I really needed some company.
Kelly.
I could ask Kelly out for a drink.
Would that be a good idea? I was enjoying reconnecting with her, but if we reconnected the way my cock was thinking about, it’d create problems when I had to leave once more. There was still something there, and I feared the more time I spent with her, the less resistance I’d have. Seven years was a long time to think about taking a woman to bed. I recalled the conversation I’d overheard in the ER. Surely, she wasn’t still a virgin. She couldn’t be. Could she?
The nurse left the room, and I remained with my sleeping mom for a few more minutes, debating. I still wasn’t one-hundred-percent set onnotgetting a second opinion, even after my talk with Kelly, but the desire wasn’t quite as persistent as before.
The main thing that got to me was Kelly’s view on my mom. She was right, if Mom wanted to speak to someone else, she would’ve done so by now. I couldn’t push her into anything. No one had ever been able to push Mom into anything, and this would be no different.
She would always do whatever the hell she wanted.
“What can I do, Mom?” I wearily asked her as she slept peacefully, her chest rising and falling in even breaths. “I can’t just accept this. I can’t lose you, I don’t think you understand. I honestly have no idea what I’ll do when you aren’t around. You’re literally the only family I have.”
Shit. The emotion boiled in my chest until tears burned the back of my eyes, and I bolted upright. I had to get out of there before I fell completely apart.
“Mom, I’ll be back tomorrow.” I hesitated, hovering at her bedside. “I don’t know why I’m worried. It isn’t like you need me. I’m the one who needs you.”
There it was again, fear so thick it made it hard to breathe. Even as an abstract idea, it was impossible to imagine Babs Strickland no longer existing on this planet. The world needed her, it would be a terrible loss. To me more than anyone else.
Sitting in the hospital parking lot in the black Mustang I’d rented, I scrolled through my contacts to Kelly’s name. I’d kept her on the list all these years, so I’d know it was her and answer if she ever decided to call me up. She never had.
My finger shook as I pressed the call button, and it began to ring. This was stupid. Surely, she wouldn’t have kept the same number.
“Hello?” It was definitely her, but she sounded slightly out of breath.
“Kelly?” The familiar moment rocketed me into the past, when this had been a daily occurrence. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, all good, just finishing up some things for my mom.” She almost sounded shy. “Is Babs okay?”
“Mom’s fine, passed out for the night. I was just about to head out myself.”
“Okay, great. You need to rest while you can.”
Silence fell, and it dragged on, creating a chasm. I missed the warmth that had always existed between us.
“Well, I guess I’ll…”
“Do you have plans…”
We laughed as our words clashed over each other, then she said, “You go first.”
I tried my question again. “Do you have plans tonight?”
For a miserable heartbeat, I thought she was going to say she had a boyfriend or a husband or she’d turned lesbian, some response that would crush the rest of my heart. “No, not really. Why?”
“Did you maybe…”
