17. Bran
Chapter 17
Bran
“ H eather!” I find her a few feet off the road lying face-up in a small puddle of water. Her eyes are open and she’s looking around but there’s blood coming from her mouth and she’s coughing. Her left foot is turned so far up I can tell the bone is snapped and who knows what other internal injuries she may have.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
“Bran,” she sputters, and my heart feels like an anvil falling down through my stomach. I feather my hands down the sides of her face, needing to touch her but not hurt her. My tears want to fall fast and hard but I keep them at bay for her.
I have to be strong for my sister.
“You’re alright. You’re okay. It’s just a few scrapes,” I lie. “You’re going to be okay. Just breathe. Try to breathe and stay awake with me, okay? I just need to call nine-one-one and someone will come get us.” I pat the back pocket of my jeans expecting to find my phone there but it’s empty.
Fuck!
“Where’s my phone?” Panic is starting to set in as my voice trembles. “Where the hell is my phone? I NEED MY PHONE!”
“Bran,” Heather’s voice stammers again. “I lov-I-I”
I shake my head adamantly, bile rising in my throat that I swallow down. “No, no, no, no, no. Don’t you do that, Heather. You stay with me.” I squeeze her hand. “You’re going to be just fine. I promise, alright? We just have to get a ? —”
Just then a pair of headlights shines in my eyes as a car pulls up as close as they can to where I’m crouched next to Heather. A darkened shadow gets out of the car and I scream as loud as I can, “WE NEED HELP! PLEASE CALL NINE-ONE-ONE!”
“I’ve already done it dear. They’re on their way.” The person who stepped out of the car runs toward us and as the shadow fades, I can tell it’s an older woman. A little older than our parents at least. “I’m going to stay right here with you, okay? So, you’re not alone.”
“She…She…” I gesture to my sister, trying to remember to breathe but feeling the pain so sharp in my chest I can’t think straight. “She needs an ambulance. But she’s okay. She’s going to be okay. Right? She’s fine. She’ll be just fine once the ambulance gets here.”
I watch the woman glance at Heather before glancing back to me. I see it in her face. It’s not good. Whatever is wrong with Heather, it’s bad. Very bad.
Oh God.
I can’t breathe.
I start to hyperventilate but the woman lays her hand on my shoulder and says, “Help is coming. I can hear the sirens now. Can you hear them?”
I notice she doesn’t answer my question about Heather being okay but she distracts me from thinking about it. Within seconds I, too, can hear the sirens. I nod my head. “Yeah. Yeah I hear them. Heather, they’re coming okay?” I squeeze her hand but she doesn’t squeeze back.
She doesn’t squeeze back because she can’t.
She’s not going to make it.
My tears fall now but I still shake my head and bring her hand to my mouth. “Hey. No! You stay awake, you hear me? I’m right here, Heather! I’ll protect you! Nothing is going to happen. You’ll be just fine.”
She coughs again and it’s nothing but blood this time, but she tries to nod her understanding.
Thank God!
I need her to think positively.
It takes only another thirty seconds or so before there’s an ambulance pulling up to our accident and a crew attending to Heather and me. I try to tell them I’m fine. I want to stay with my sister but they tell me they need the time and space to help her. Another ambulance pulls up as Heather is being loaded into the back of the first one.
“I don’t want to leave her alone.” I shake my head, my thoughts overwhelming me. Eating me alive from the inside out. “She can’t be alone. My parents…they’re…we don’t live here. They’re so far…” The woman who stopped to help us lays her hand on my shoulder. “What’s your name, son?”
“Uh, Christopher. Christopher Brannon Finch. B-but most people call me Bran.”
The woman gives me a reassuring nod and a slight smile. “Bran. That’s a strong name. I’ll follow the ambulance to the hospital dear, okay? So, your sister won’t be alone. Until your parents come. I can help you contact them and then I’ll be there to sit with you too when you get there.”
I nod. “Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. I’m sorry. I…I don’t even know your name.”
“My name is Judy.” She waves as she starts to walk back to her car so she can follow the ambulance. “You just breathe and I’ll see you there.”
My eyes fly open as I jerk awake.
I take a moment to inhale a deep breath in hopes of slowing my rapid heart rate thanks to another vivid dream. There’s movement beside me and when I turn my head my eyes fall to the warm beautiful pigeon who is comfortably snuggled into my side.
And then I remember the moments we shared together a few hours ago.
Her stunning naked body on display for me in the barn.
The way she let me touch her.
The things I said to her.
The way her soft pussy took my cock like it was made for me.
The sound of her screaming my name as I made her come not once but twice.
Her laughter in the shower as we scrubbed each other from head to toe.
Her whispered moans as she came again in my bed.
The sound of her calm breathing as she fell asleep in my arms.
I swipe a hand down my tired face wondering how a night that was so perfect could end in a dream that has me wanting to throw up.
I want to be able to roll over and hold my pigeon close to me. I want to feel her soft, silky body against mine. I want to spend all damn day in this bed with her and never let go of her.
But there’s a difference between what I want to do and what I need to do. And I can’t lay here now after that dream. I have to make sure my Pigeon stays safe.
I have to.
As quietly as I can, I slip out of my bed and pull on the closest pair of pants I can find in the dark and then I step out of the room, closing the door behind me so my girl can sleep soundly until I can come back to her. I open the back kitchen door and walk around to the front of the house where her car is parked next to my truck. From the side of the barn, I pull out the air compressor and carry it to the driveway. Opening up the passenger door on my truck, I search through the glove compartment until I find a small flashlight and then grab my tire gauge and shut the door.
I walk around Paige’s car checking the air pressure in each tire along with the tread. All of them are just a tad low so I fill them to their appropriate levels and make a mental note to order new tires for her when I’m back at the shop. I fill my own tires with air since it’s been a few weeks, and then lift the hood of Paige’s beetle to check the oil.
“Bran?”
Her voice lifts me from my focus and I turn my head to see her. Paige stands not ten feet from me, wearing nothing but one of my long-sleeved shirts she must have found in my closet. The oversized shirt coupled with her bedhead is nothing short of adorable. She’s breathtaking. She tilts her head, surveying what I’m doing, her brows furrowed, and her arms folded across her chest to keep herself warm.
“What are you doing out here?”
I turn back toward her car and pull the oil stick from her car. “Couldn’t sleep.”
She scoffs out a chuckle. “And so, you perform oil changes in the middle of the night? And here I thought most people tried warm milk or you know, counting sheep.”
“Bad dream, Pidge.” I’m a man of few words right now because the last thing I want in my brain are more visions of my sister dying right in front of my eyes.
I feel Paige step closer to me. “Oh. I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“Bran…”
My chest tightens and I look anywhere but at her. “Pidge, I—” I try to take a steadying breath but the heaviness in my stomach overpowers any chance at trying to relax. “I can’t talk about it right now.”
“Alright.” She’s quiet for a minute before she speaks again. “Umm, I can get my keys and head home if you need space. I’m sorry if I?—”
“No!” I move to stand up and turn toward her but I bang my head on the hood of her car. “Ouch!” I bring my hands to my head and shout, “Fucking hell!”
“Hey,” she sings, rubbing my head and then wrapping her arms around my waist and kissing my bare back. Her voice is calm and soothing and nonjudgemental with a caring tone. I want to thank her over and over. “Talk to me. I’m worried about you, Bran. Do you do this often? Come out here in the middle of the night and work on cars?”
I nod. “Sometimes. I just need to keep you safe.”
“Why would—” She pauses for a moment and then releases my body from her hug. “Oh.”
I slip the dip stick back into her car having checked that her levels were perfectly fine with no evidence of leaks.
“Bran, was your dream about your sister?”
I don’t want to admit it to her. I don’t want to sound like I’m some weak man with survivor’s guilt, but I also can’t lie to her. “Yeah.”
“Do you have these kinds of dreams often?”
I close the hood of her car. “Yeah.”
“For all these years?”
Turning toward her again, I shake my head, not wanting to make eye contact. “Just since you knocked on my door.”
“Me? I—” Her lips separate and she softly gasps a sharp breath as she puts some of the pieces together. And then her shoulders fall and her head tilts. “Oh Bran.” She steps over and takes my hand in hers. “You do keep me safe. I’m right here. You have me okay? Look, you can touch me.” She takes my hand and moves it along her body. “I promise I’m not going anywhere.”
I drum up the courage to say what’s on my mind because it’s part of what’s keeping me from sleeping. “You’ll leave me someday. You aren’t staying here forever.”
She stares at me, her eyes round saucers, as she tries to think of how best to answer my growing concern. She inhales as if she’s going to answer me but then she flings her arms around my neck and kisses me, that familiar spark buzzing through my body when our lips meet. Her fingers graze through my hair and all at once I feel my body deflating.
I don’t know how she does it but in one brush of her tongue against mine, she calms me and excites me. She quiets my nerves but awakens my soul. She’s an angel in my darkest dreams and I am a fucking lucky man to have someone like her in my life.
“I’m right here, Bran. I’m standing right in front of you and I need that to be enough for now.” She steps back and tugs at the hem of the shirt she’s wearing and pulls it up over her head, her nipples hardening in the warm breeze. “I’m right here, okay? All of me. And I need you.”
Fuck, this girl. She guts me.
I’d do anything for her.
Literally anything.
I lift her from the ground as I did several hours ago, holding her against me, feeling her bare breasts against my skin.
“Paige…” I’m not sure what else to say.
Her hands pushing through my hair once again, she kisses my forehead and then my nose and then murmurs, “Take me to bed, Bran.”