Chapter 21
21
Cade
T he sun shines down like a welcome rain shower in the desert. The air still has a chill to it, but most of us have traded jackets in for sweatshirts. The braver guys are wearing T-shirts.
Charley has on a cute green heathered hoodie made out of sweater material. She’s been happier since her grandmother reached out. Yesterday, they went shopping together, and this is the result. Well, one of them.
I can tell she feels guilty for letting her grandmother spend money on her, but if I missed out on most of Charley’s life, I’d shower her with gifts, too. Actually, the woman sounds hilarious, and I can’t wait to meet her.
“Yo, this one,” Aidan says, pointing at me.
Charley chuckles, perched between my legs while I lie on the grass.
“Aw, come on.”
“No. This one decides he’s going to run a completely different route than what he’s supposed to and then asks me why the ball is nowhere near him. He even argued with Coach about it.”
“I had my routes mixed up.”
Kenna throws a few blades of grass at me. “It’s all those hearts in your eyes messing with your brain.”
“I know a thing or two about that,” West states, lifting his fist so I can bump mine into his.
“Are you kidding me?” Aidan complains. “No offense, Cade, but West doesn’t forget plays. Or argue with Coach. There’s a reason why there’s a C on his jersey. You two aren’t the same.”
I chuckle. He’s got a point. West isn’t the type to mess up anything football related.
“Listen, I had a plan. It was revolutionary. I’m just sad you guys can’t keep up with me. It’s truly heartbreaking.”
Aidan sits like he’s getting off the pulpit with that remark. Bailey leans against his shoulder, and he kisses the top of her head before saying, “There are all kinds of wrongs with that. I can’t remark on all of them.”
“Jealous.”
“Totally jealous,” Charley says, leaning into me. She can bust on me as much as the guys, but she keeps her lips sealed. “Are you guys ready for the next game?”
“Please,” I scoff, like it won’t even be a competition. “We’re all locked in.”
“No running weird plays that don’t exist?” she asks.
There it is. My girl. “Oh, it existed. I just didn’t tell anyone else about it before I ran it.”
The rest of the guys laugh. I tickle Charley, and she squeals, kicking away from me. It’s music to my ears to hear her like this. Unrestrained. Not worried about anyone judging her. I can’t wait until she meets the rest of my friends. They’re going to love her, and I think they’ll love the me I am when I’m with her, too.
“Oop.” Charley leans forward, digging through her bag while her ringtone goes off. Last week, I changed it to the Walker, Texas Ranger theme song, and she laughed so hard she nearly peed herself.
“What the hell is that?” Bailey asks.
Charley narrows her gaze at the screen, and I spy a local number before she answers it. “Hello?”
I trail my hand absently down her spine.
“Yes, this is Charlotte Heywood.” She sits up straighter. I catch the side of her face, recognizing when it pales. Her eyes meet mine, and the fear in them makes me sit forward. “Yes, I’ll be right there.” She ends the call. At this point, everyone is looking at her. “It’s my dad,” she whispers. “He’s on the way to the emergency room.”
I hop to my feet, dragging her up with me. “Come on, I’ll take you.”
“We gotta go,” Charley says. “Bye.”
“Go,” Kenna waves us away. “Keep us updated.”
I place my arm around Charley, keeping her upright as we move toward the parking lot. Unfortunately, it’s nearly on the other side of campus.
“What did they say?”
“They said they got a 911 call from him. They couldn’t tell me anything other than he was being transported to the hospital.”
“Is it his sickness? Has he been bad lately?”
Charley rubs her arms. “He was fine this morning.”
“Well, we don’t know what’s happening. Maybe he’s fine. Maybe he fell or something.” Then again, maybe he’s prone to falls. My assurances would be easier to make if I knew what was wrong with her dad.
We get to the car quicker than I imagined and then we’re cruising through downtown, my foot heavy on the gas.
Next to me, Charley bites her nails, knee bobbing up and down. “This is so bad.”
She checks her phone, turning the screen off almost immediately.
“Did he text you?”
She shakes her head. “He would’ve texted me if it was no big deal, right?”
I shrug, not knowing what to say.
“This is what I feared,” she says, rocking back and forth now. “He was never going to be able to keep going how he was going. He should’ve seen more doctors, but he would never listen to me, you know? Never.”
I rub her arm. “It’s not your fault.”
No matter what I say, she doesn’t acknowledge it. It’s like she’s checked out, and I get it. I don’t know what I’d do if I got a call right now that my father was heading to the hospital.
“Deep breaths.”
She does what I ask, taking in a breath and letting it out slowly.
I hook the right into the emergency room parking lot and slide in the first space I see. Charley jumps out of the car and runs toward the automatic doors. An ambulance is pulled up to them, and she peers inside before maneuvering around it. I have to sprint to keep up with her, and even then, she’s out of reach.
“H-Heywood,” she says to the woman at the desk, but then a man moans in the corner, and Charley turns. “Dad!”
I peer over, catching a glimpse of Charley’s father for the first time. I’m stuck in place. He’s almost the exact opposite of what I’d pictured. I had in mind a frail man who could barely get around, eaten up by a sickness I wasn’t sure he had. But Charley’s dad? He’s the biggest human being I’ve ever seen in my life. The oxygen mask attached to his face is cutting into his cheekbones. Angry red marks slice there while he pulls at it, moving the straps.
“Sir, you need this on,” a nurse says. “We’re waiting for an observation room.”
His arms are huge, nearly the size of my thighs.
“Dad!” she says again when she gets to his side.
He pushes her away, his mouth moving but no words come out other than groans.
I swallow, taking in the scene, dumbstruck.
“Is he okay?” Charley asks, wrapping her arms around herself. Tears stream down her face.
“You are?”
“His daughter.”
I make my feet traverse the space between us, coming up behind her. I place my hands on her arms, and she jumps nearly a foot in the air. Spinning, she takes me in, her mouth agape.
Her father grunts some more, and I look down to see him pushing at Charley again, and I move her out of his reach.
“Cade, what are you doing?”
“I’m— I…”
She starts to shake. Full-body tremors. “What are you doing in here?”
“I drove you here.”
“But what are you doing here ?” she emphasizes, pointing at the ground like I’m in her space.
Her face turns red, eyes sparking. I take a step back. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Behind her, her dad pulls off his mask. “Who is that? Who are you?”
I peer behind her to see an angry face screwed up like a wrinkly plum.
“Sir, your mask needs to be on.” The nurse gives me major side-eye, and I take another step in the opposite direction I want to go in.
“Dad,” Charley complains, turning her back on me.
I stand there for a few moments, but it’s as if she’s shut me out. A door opens up, and the paramedic starts pushing the stretcher, Charley following after.
My mouth works like I’m going to call out to her, but I snap it shut. She doesn’t want me here.
A pinch starts in my chest, her rebuff sitting like a lead weight in my stomach.
I walk toward the doors. I surprised her is all , I tell myself. She didn’t want me there, and I guess she never actually told me to follow her, but I wanted to be there for her. Like I have from the very beginning. Not letting her push me away when that’s all she wanted to do.
I can’t shake the feeling that we just took two huge steps backward. Not to mention the fact that her father clearly didn’t want me there.
I’m not pretending to know anything about their dynamic, but I’m predisposed not to like the guy. The name he called her. The fact that she told me she does everything for him and sometimes, he’s not very nice to her. I can picture her running around the house while he just sits there. You don’t get that large by helping out.
I can’t stop the word selfish being thrown around in my head. Not to mention what she’s told me about her grandmother not seeing her until recently.
What is this guy’s problem?
I’ll be damned if he’s going to come between me and Charley.
I get to the car and take a deep breath, wrapping my hands around the steering wheel. Next to me, a phone pings, and I look over to see Charley’s blue case seated there.
I run it inside, telling the nurse at the front desk that it belongs to the daughter of the Heywood patient, and I’m not sure where they went. She agrees to make sure she gets it, and then I take my time walking back outside again.
Several hours later, my phone pings.
Charley: I’m sorry about earlier.
Relief washes over me. It’s amazing what kind of lies you can tell yourself when you get into an argument with someone you care for. I don’t like not knowing where I stand with her.
Me: I’m sorry I came in when you didn’t want me to. I only thought you could use the support.
Charley: I do want it. I just got freaked out. And my dad was freaking out, which made everything so much worse.
Me: Is he okay?
Charley: He had a minor heart attack. They’re going to keep him for a few days.
A minor heart attack? Shit.
I immediately call her, and she picks up after the first ring. “Hey.”
“Hey, are you okay? Do you need me?”
“I’m with Molly. She picked me up.”
My stomach falls. I want to tell her that I would’ve picked her up, but there has to be a reason why she didn’t ask me to. The tether keeping me with her feels taut, tense.
“Hello, Cade,” I hear a soft voice say.
“That’s your grandma? Hi.”
“He says hi,” she whispers. “Yeah, that’s her.”
“When am I going to meet you, young man?”
I smile at that. At least her grandma knows about me and isn’t throwing a fit. “You tell her I’m ready to work my charm on her just like I did you whenever she wants it.”
Charley chuckles. “Oh, I’m sure you will.” To her grandma, she says, “He’s ready whenever you are.” There’s a moment of silence before Charley gets back on the phone. “I am really sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”
“It just reminded me of the old Charley. It was a little reminiscent,” I try to joke.
She’s quiet, and I hate that I can’t see her face because I can read anything in her facial features. She’s an open book.
“I should probably go,” she says. “I don’t want to be rude.”
I blow out a breath, wondering if I screwed that up. “Okay, text me. Let me know any updates and whether you need me for anything.”
“I’ll let you know. Bye.”
“Bye.”
I stare at my screen as it says Call Ended, then drop my phone and lie back on the bed, squirming to get comfortable. Unsettled. It’s what it feels like wondering what’s going on and why it seems like Charley is being short with me.
I run through the events of the day, and I can’t see where I would’ve changed what I did. Why wouldn’t I want to be there for my girlfriend? The fact that she apologized to me for the way she reacted is good, but it still feels like there’s a wedge between us that definitely was not there before I decided to walk into that hospital after her.
Fishing for my phone, I bring it up again and press on Briar’s name in my contact list. She’s the girl I’m closest to, and I need a woman’s perspective right now.
“What’s up, Farmer?” she answers.
“Briar, I need advice.”
“Don’t use the same soap to wash your balls that you use for the rest of your body.”
“Ha. Funny. But I need womanly wisdom, not your take on men’s bathing habits.”
“Is this about Charley?” she asks excitedly. “Okay, give it to me. I’m ready. I’m already going to be on her side, but let’s hear it.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, yeah, women stick together and all that. Listen…”
I proceed to tell Briar the whole story, and she asks questions here and there, and by the time I get through, I’ve pretty much told her all of Charley’s life story. At least as much as I know.
“So?”
Briar sighs into the speaker. “It sounds like she’s scared, Cade. I bet there’s a lot of shame built up around her dad. From what you said about her not telling you about him and not wanting you to see her house, I bet it was a shock to the system for you to be there, right at that vulnerable moment.”
“But I had to go, didn’t I? How could I have stayed in the car? As it is, he actually had a minor heart attack. That’s not insignificant.”
“She apologized, so she realized she didn’t handle the situation well. I bet you just really freaked her out in that moment. I’m sure everything is fine. I’m sure the next time you see her, everything is going to be perfect. I mean, you know how it is, Cade. When you lose someone, sometimes you react differently about things. She’s used to being on her own. She never would’ve had to explain things to anyone before. Hell, she never would’ve had anyone to explain things to before. She’s probably struggling with the idea of letting you in. I feel bad for her.”
“Me too. It doesn’t sound like she’s had it the easiest.”
“But you know, those are the best partners. They don’t take love for granted.”
Her words hit me, my chest warming. “I think you’re right.”
“I mean, obviously. I can’t wait to meet her. Are you making it home for Thanksgiving?”
“I’ll be there.”
“I will be, but Reid will be on the road.”
“Lex?”
“He’ll be there, too.”
“Can’t wait to see you guys.”
“Me either. My advice is to give Charley a little space. I bet things are fine. She’s just processing.”
“Will do, sis. See you soon.”
“Bye-ee.”
I take a deep breath, relaxing a little. Briar confirmed everything I thought, so I’m not going to worry about it.
A little thing like this isn’t going to break me and Charley, that’s for sure.