24. Merrick
24
MERRICK
T here are no words for the bone-deep relief I feel as I stagger into the hallway after hearing Wren’s voice, seeing her awake, alert, and okay.
They told us she’d be okay, but I needed to see it for myself.
“Whoa, big guy. Let’s sit down, okay?” her cousin, Reid, says as he takes my arm and guides me toward one of the chairs, his grip surprisingly strong for his stature. “Eat this.”
Handing me a protein bar and a bottle of water, he drops into the chair next to me.
“She’s awake.”
“Harlan told me.”
“I thought you’d be more excited.”
He chuckles. “I am. But that’s not what you need right now. Wren and I promised a long time ago that we’d die old and gray together, still going to happy hour and driving everyone crazy.”
“Sounds nice,” I muse and he smiles.
“It will be. And she knows I’d cart her around— Weekend at Bernie’s style—if she went before me.” He nods toward the unopened bar in my hand. “You need to eat. You might think you’ve won against Elora about bringing Wren back to your place with you, but that woman is still looking to pick a fight.”
“I just want her home.”
“And you think she has a home with you?” The question isn’t accusatory so much as it is inquisitive.
“She made it that way without me even knowing,” I admit. “There’s nothing for me anywhere but where she is.”
“Maybe tell Elora that instead of trying to strong-arm her, hmm? The woman almost lost her only daughter, and some guy she’s never met comes in claiming he’s the boyfriend, like that means a damn thing when you’re going against a family like ours.”
Dipping my head, I let that sink in, the last few days both hazy and crystal clear as they run through my mind.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” I whisper, letting myself feel the soul-crushing anguish of pulling up to the accident and finding Wren unconscious in the car.
“Most people haven’t.”
“And your family…” I swallow hard, dropping my head into my hands, the wrapper crinkling as I do. “Mine is nothing like that; we’re cold and distant. Wren was pissed I made her feel, but she cracked my chest wide fucking open. I love her.”
“Does she know?”
“I told her—and apologized—when she woke up, but I should’ve told her when I came back from New York. I was just so fucking scared. You know?”
“Oh, you sweet boy,” Elora Sterling says, her voice drawing my attention to the left where she’d stopped just out of view. My cheeks heat as I meet her gaze, not feeling at all like my thirty-five years. “All we’ve ever wanted for Wren is to be loved and cherished the way she should be. Her heart is so big and she guards it so fiercely. No one has ever broken through those walls.”
“Until now,” Reid says, and I can’t even be mad that he let me spill my guts in front of Elora—that he let me bleed out all over the floor. Because I needed it.
In fact, if the looks on everyone’s faces is any indication, I’m the only one that didn’t know I needed it.
“And you’re staying?” Beau asks, his face blank but his eyes a swirl of emotions as his gaze locks on mine.
“Yes.”
“And your father’s still at your cabin?” he asks.
“Honestly, I have no idea,” I say, my father the furthest thing from my mind.
“Keys,” Beau says, holding his hand out to me. I fish them from my pocket and drop them into his hand without hesitation. “Come on, Harlan. Let’s go for a ride.”