31. Chapter 31
Grace
“So you haven’t seen him since?” Mariah barely waited for me to clock in. I expected it after she called me the other night—and again yesterday morning.
I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to.”
“I’m kinda surprised your brothers didn’t kill him.” She chuckled like she was kidding, but I knew she wasn’t. Mariah followed me around while I made sure our cart was fully stocked, counting bandages I didn’t need to count in order to buy time.
“They offered to.” I shrugged. Nobody will ever know where he went.
Mariah lifted both brows, and her eyes lit up with amusement, even at my expense. “And you said no?”
“I don’t hate him. I’m mad at him. I’m so fucking mad.” My eyes started to sting, and I closed them in hopes of stopping the tears from rolling down my chapped-by-this-point cheeks. “But I did love him. A lot.”
When I cleared my throat and started to walk away with the cart, my vision blurred. I blinked back the tears, but they almost won. A lump formed in my throat, making it harder to breathe. Still, when we stepped into Mrs. Holiday’s room, I pasted a smile on my face.
“Hey, Beverly! You look great today,” I said, noting she had a bit of red lip balm on her wrinkled lips. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m feeling great, dear.” She smacked her lips together while I put a blood pressure cuff on her arm to take her vitals.
Mariah laughed, erasing notes from the whiteboard and adding new ones with the current date and time. Her back was to the door when it opened, and when I looked up, I forgot what I had just read on the monitor. What was he doing here?
“Connor, I said I don’t want to see you,” I said, crossing my arms. I couldn’t believe he would just show up here. For a moment, I regretted not letting my brother’s friend tag along as a makeshift security detail.
“I’m not actually here to see you.” Connor strolled across the room to where Beverly beamed even more.
I furrowed my brow. What the hell was going on? “What are you talking about?”
He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to the side of her head. “Hey, Aunt Bev. You look lovely today.” Mrs. Holiday giggled like an excited schoolgirl.
“Wait, this is your nephew?” I asked when she looked up at me with enough excitement to fill the whole wing of the hospital.
“Isn’t he handsome?” She grabbed Connor’s hand, patting the back of it and missing every cue as she prepared to introduce us.
“I can’t believe this.” I set everything in my hands back on the tray before I walked out of the room. Behind me, Mariah tried to gloss over the fact that I had disappeared, telling Mrs. Holiday that she would be taking over the exam with a little giggle and a clap.
Connor followed me out of the room, letting the door close behind him. “Just talk to me for one second, Grace. Let me explain.”
“Explain what? How you lied, led me on, made me think you had feelings for me, just so you could fuck me, arrest my brothers, and break my heart?” My voice was shrill, and I no longer cared how many people around us were now watching and listening.
“Yeah, I think I’m good,” I said when security turned their attention our way.
I stormed off when he tried to object, leaving him in the hallway outside his aunt’s room alone. I was done. When I turned the corner at the nurse’s station, I heard him open her door and go back in, leaving it ajar behind him.
“It looks like you fucked up,” Mrs. Holiday said, and I stifled a laugh at her blunt nature and the way the joy in her tone didn’t even falter.
Mariah joined her with a loud, “Mmhmm.” Then, I heard the wheels on the cart start to roll and knew she would be stepping out of the room any minute.
“Yeah,” Connor said while I leaned against the wall. “I know I did. I’m going to fix it.”