Page 2 of His to Cherish
“Did you get ahold of Aidan?” I asked, pulling away and wiping my tears to look at Declan.
He and Aidan were friends, and I knew both of them from spending time with my girlfriends at Declan’s restaurant, Fireside Grill. It was also how I’d met Trina several months ago.
“He’ll be here soon.” His eyes dropped to my shirt and he flinched. “We should probably get you cleaned up.”
I followed his gaze and pulled at the hem of my oversized and frayed T-shirt. I’d been at home, relaxing on a Friday after a long week of school. With nothing planned, I’d changed into my most comfortable and well-worn clothes.
They were still covered with Derrick’s blood.
A noise escaped my throat, but I didn’t have time to react before Trina wrapped her arm around my shoulders and pulled me toward her.
“Come on,” she said, holding me close. “Let’s get you cleaned up. Declan called Tyson and Blue, and they’re on their way here, too. We’ll see if the nurses have a change of clothes for you.”
She spoke to me like I was a child as she led me away.
I let her.
I couldn’t think of anything except Shane’s screams as he yelled for help and the blood and the ambulance I’d called as I held on to Derrick, praying with everything I had in me.
We reached the front desk in the waiting room of Detroit General when the doors behind us slammed open.
A voice I immediately recognized bellowed, “Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on with my son?”
Trina spun around, taking me with her, and we locked our gazes on Aidan, rushing toward us, tool belt clanking around his hips.
He froze when he reached us.
“Trina…Chelsea…” He blinked as he looked at me, and then his eyes dropped to my shirt.
My arms went instinctively around my stomach to shield it from Aidan’s view, but it was too late.
“What happened?” His hands wrapped around my biceps and he shook me, making my head snap back. “What the hell happened?”
Tears spilled down my cheeks before I could stop them. His grief. His fear. It was as real as the feeling of his fingers on me.
I began to shake my head. I wanted to erase the images I’d seen from my mind as much as I didn’t want to have to be the one to tell him.
“I’m so sorry, Aidan. He fell…off his skateboard outside my house.”
He knew exactly where my house was. When he drove by in his work truck and I was working in the yard, he’d give me a friendly hand flip. He knew my house sat at the bottom of a hill around a blind curve.
“Aidan Devereaux?”
We all turned to the unfamiliar voice calling his name.
Aidan looked at me, blinked again, as if he was trying to understand what I had just told him before he turned back to the doctor walking toward us.
He cleared his throat. I felt his arm slip around my waist as he pulled me toward him.
In any other moment, at any other time, I would have enjoyed that. I’d had a crush on Aidan for the last couple of years, and I’d had glimpses where I thought he felt the same for me. We’d never acted on it. I never would as long as Derrick was a student at the school where I worked.
But in that moment, when his fingers dug into my side and he pulled me toward him, bracing himself, I wasn’t thinking of my crush.
I was thinking of blood and screams and sirens and the news I knew was coming.
The doctor held out his hand and introduced himself, but all I heard was a whirring in my ears.
It grew fiercer and louder until the doctor shook his head and said so softly I almost missed it, “I’m sorry, we did everything we could…”
His voice trailed off as I felt the weight of a man collapse against me.
An anguished cry filled the room. It took me a moment to realize it was coming from both Aidan and me.
Aidan’s knees buckled and I saw Declan move to pull him up. As he did, I was turned and pulled into Trina’s arms.
Through it all, Aidan never dropped his hold, moving his arm to clasp his hand around mine. I did the only thing I could for a man who’d just lost his son.
I held on as tight as I could.
