Page 66 of His to Cherish
I yanked it to my chest.
“Chelsea?” he asked, not taking his eyes off my phone.
“Someone else had a problem with Derrick’s birthday last night,” I whispered, my voice gravelly and afraid. I had no idea what was wrong with Shane, but Beth wouldn’t have texted me if it wasn’t important.
His jaw clenched and his eyes slowly lifted to mine.
“Who?”
But he knew. I could see it in his eyes.
I swallowed the thick, scary words I didn’t want to say and inhaled a deep breath.
“Shane’s in the hospital.” Tears pooled in my eyes before I finished the short sentence.
It said everything and nothing.
“Beth sent me a text,” I continued when I watched Aidan have the same frightened reaction. “She wants me to go see him.”
Suddenly, I realized the time as my eyes flickered back to my phone.
“Oh crap,” I said quickly, and started moving toward the door. In all the craziness of last night and this morning, I’d completely forgotten about work.
“I’m going to be late,” I told Aidan when he followed me out of his room.
He stood at the top of the stairs, staring at me as if things had just clicked into place for him.
My fingers curled around my phone. Shit. I couldn’t go to work.
Without thinking further, I called the school, and when the administrative line picked up, I explained what was going on. “Shane Johnson is in the hospital. His mother has requested I go see him. I’m so sorry, but I’ll need to take the day off.”
“Shane Johnson,” Rebecca said. I could almost hear her gears working over the phone before she let out a quick gasp of shock.
“Yes,” I whispered into the phone. “Rebecca, I have to go.”
“I know.” Her voice mirrored mine. “Is there anyone I can call or anything I can do to help?”
I ran my hand through my hair. It was tangled and oily and I needed to get home to shower first. Squeezing my eyes closed, I tried to calm my racing heart. “No. I don’t know. I’ll keep you or his guidance counselor informed once I see Beth and know what’s going on.”
“Okay,” she said, pausing for a moment. “I’ll let his teachers know he won’t be in today.”
“Thank you.” I hung up and hurried down the stairs.
I was at the bottom of the stairway when Aidan called my name.
I turned to see his hardened jaw and the way he was glaring at the phone still in my hand. Gone was the beautiful morning we had shared. In its place was reality crashing down on both of us. We might have been able to ignore his pain and his loss for a brief moment while we clung to one another, but there was no hiding the fact that he was terrified.
He swallowed and shook his head. “I can’t go there.” His hands curled around the railing at the top of his stairs before he could bring his eyes to meet mine. “I know I should be there, talk to him, but I can’t go there.”
I took a step up the stairs before stopping myself. Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the way his sad eyes were once again making me yearn to hold him and make him feel better.
But I couldn’t. Not this time. There were certain things Aidan was going to have to figure out himself, and being there for Shane was definitely one of them.
—
The hospital was loud with people rushing to get to where they needed to be. The horrible lighting and bright white corridors were sobering. I found the hallway where Beth had told me Shane was when I’d sent her a text telling her I was on my way.
My hair was still wet and thrown into a ponytail. I didn’t have makeup on, and based on a quick glance at myself in the mirrored elevators on my way up, I hadn’t thrown on a matching outfit.
