Chapter 44
Dane
This is the eleventh time Lucy has raised her phone, tapped the icon to call one of her parents, and waited with bated breath to see if they would pick up.
And it’s the eleventh time that it’s taken her straight to voice mail.
Lucy is still wearing the tight, pretty designer dress she put on to go out with Julian.
We’d all admired her as she stood at the door, taking kisses on her cheeks, promising to let us know when she was on her way home.
None of us wanted to let her walk out the door wearing that dress, but there was a quiet understanding that we would be the ones peeling it off her when she got back.
It was enough. While she was gone, we discussed the various properties we might want to purchase for the three of us.
Cole floated the idea of building a custom house, something that would suit our arrangement better.
It would give us the opportunity to design a master bedroom with two en suite bathrooms, several closets, rather than just the one. Room for all of us.
A sunroom with plenty of space for Lucy’s painting. Offices for each of us. Somewhere closer to the marina, for Nico, and with an underground server room for Cole, who wanted to design his own for our usage, for better security.
That’s what we were talking about when we got the call from her friend Julian, who explained from the Uber when Lucy was crying too hard to speak. He told us he would bring her to the airfield, that he knew where it was, and that we were going to want to try and find a pilot.
“I don’t get it,” Lucy cries now as Nico rubs her back, and Cole passes her a bottle of water. Her blonde hair is loose, her faux fur U-cape hugged tightly around her shoulders, making her look like a large, sad teddy bear. “Like, I know they’re mad at me, but if Auggie—”
Augustus, Lucy’s brother, plays a wide variety of sports, just like Lucy did.
I remember hearing her talk to him about it on the phone, back in Amsterdam, when she was in the shower.
And, apparently, he was in some sort of freak accident on the court, running into another kid head-first. Cole was able to find the live stream of the game and showed it to me, though he hasn’t shown Lucy.
It does not look good for her brother.
We’re in the air now, headed back to Missouri in a trip that feels like deja vu of the first time we raced across the country to see her family in the hospital.
It wasn’t snowing in New York when we left, but I know that below the clouds we fly above now, there very well could be different weather.
Missouri is a little warmer, but more prone to heavy falls.
I want to check my phone again, examine the weather forecast, study the radar, but I hold myself perfectly still instead. It makes me feel more in control, ignoring the urge to fidget with nervousness.
Nico is doing no such thing. He stands frequently to pace between the seats, tap his fingers on the counter in the back, run his hands through his hair.
The pilot patches through to let us know we’ll be landing within the hour. Then, Lucy’s phone starts to buzz against her lap.
“Hello?” she answers in a breath, blinking hard, desperate.
It’s a woman’s voice on the other end of the line.
I’m guessing her sister, since she said that’s who called her in the first place.
Lucy drops the phone to her lap and sets it on speaker, so her sister’s staticky voice comes over the line.
“—taking him to Lancaster Memorial, and I just… would be safer going somewhere better, but Mom and Dad… can’t get him somewhere better, I guess… afford the helicopter ride—”
Mary continues talking, and Lucy continues staring forlornly at her phone, but I’ve heard enough. Standing, I move to the back of the plane, close the soundproofed door, and pull out my phone.
“What are you doing?” Nico asks, opening the door. Cole stands just behind him, peering in. They both look their own versions of chaotic—Nico’s hair puffed and standing at attention from his hand running through it, Cole’s eyes darting, his hands clenching and unfurling at his sides.
I scowl at them, glancing over their shoulders at Lucy. “Don’t leave her alone. I’m going to make some calls about getting him to a better hospital.”
Nico takes the scowl in stride, which speaks to how long we’ve been friends. Cole seems eager behind him, watching me carefully. “How can we help?”
Of course, it makes more sense for us to do this as a team. Making the plan is easy, fluid, like most things we work on together.
I contact the hospitals and see who has the helicopter, where they can get Augustus.
Nico charms and bribes his way through the staff, getting information about the teen and where he’s en route.
Cole quietly makes a call to an old classmate of his, who is, apparently now the head of trauma and a head injuries specialist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Within twenty minutes, we’ve re-routed both our plane and her brother to the new hospital location, bending patient confidentiality and likely some ethics to do it.
But it’s important that he gets good care, that he goes somewhere far more equipped to care for him than the middle-of-nowhere hospital Mary mentioned.
Cole and Nico go back to sit with Lucy, who’s no longer on the phone with her sister. I contact our new executive assistant, send him Lucy’s sizes, and tell him to make sure someone has something more comfortable for her to wear when we land.
When I return to the seat, I tell Lucy about the new plan. She nods, looking numb as she picks up her phone and types slowly, likely notifying her sister of the change.
“What if something happens to him,” she murmurs, putting the phone down, her eyes unfocused, “and the last he thinks of me is whatever they’re telling him? That I didn’t come?”
We each offer comfort, taking her hand, her shoulder, her knee.
“That’s not going to happen,” I tell her, knowing maybe I shouldn’t make that promise, but doing it anyway.