15. Ian
15
IAN
Chloe wraps herself around my arm as soon as we walk into the hospital waiting room, and even an hour later she doesn’t let go. Not that I want her to.
“Can someone tell me why we get the hell away from Birch Harbor for a week and we still end up at a hospital?” Kennedy crosses her arms and leans back in her chair, using Linc’s outstretched legs as a footrest. He, however, has his eyes closed as he tries to sleep. “I thought the point was to get away from our normal lives.”
“Technically, it’s none of us,” Emma points out from her spot on the ground where she is using Dom’s lap as a pillow while he snores quietly. “I don’t think it should count against us. We’re here ’cause Chloe and Ian did a good deed and saved a life.” She raises her hand and waves it around, motioning to where she thinks Chloe and I are sitting. “I think this is a good karma one.”
“She’s got a point,” Kennedy muses.
“Are all of the guys passed out from too much sex?” Chloe whispers.
“Yes,” Emma answers. “You two set off a chain reaction with all your sex pheromones that made these weirdos feel like they have to compete.”
“Shut up,” Linc groans. “I don’t wanna hear about you having sex with my friend. You’re my little sister.”
“Oh,” Remy counters from his spot across the room. “Like I really want to hear you having sex down the hall with my sister.”
“You guys are ridiculous.” Ben walks into the waiting room with a drink carrier full of coffee. “I don’t even know why we’re here for this, to be honest.”
“Poor Benton.” Parker pats his arm. “You don’t know about the tradition. We’ve all been there. Or here.” She rubs her stomach. “You know what I mean. In the hospital. No one wants to be alone at the hospital. Since that woman didn’t have anyone, we’re her people. At least, we will be until her other people get notified.”
Chloe is up before anyone else as a nurse walks out from the ER.
“I know you can’t give me specifics,” she gushes. “But I was hoping you could let the redheaded woman who was brought in from Sebago Lake know that the people who got her out of the water are here and just want to know how she is.”
“Oh.” The nurse blinks owlishly. “Her husband’s a doctor here at the hospital. She’s already been taken home.”
Chloe hugs the nurse, which surprises the shit out of me, and apparently the nurse as well.
“Thank you so much. I was really worried.”
The nurse awkwardly pats her back and then steps away. “No problem at all. Have a good night.”
We leave as a group, and immediately Emma stops in the walkway. “Do you guys think we could find a Denny’s or something? I’m starving.”
“I didn’t eat dinner,” Chloe says. “I would love to eat something. Anything really. Except from the diner we had breakfast at before we got sick. I don’t think I even want to smell anything there ever again.”
A chorus of agreements echoing from everyone in the group means that we are loading up into our vehicles and heading to the only twenty-four-hour restaurant in the area, which isn’t a Denny’s after all.
Since the hospital closest to our lake house is actually in Portland, we get delicious food and fries without resorting to a drive-thru.
Sitting down with a party of nine has been hilarious, and when we order, the cook actually pops his head out to make sure there are enough people for all the food we’ve ordered.
“Do you think their fries would be good dipped in a shake?” Chloe lays her head on my shoulder. “I really want to dip some fries.”
“Yup,” I answer quietly.
Around the table, there are hushed conversations, and more than one person has their eyes closed briefly.
“You guys didn’t have to come with us,” Chloe says suddenly. “We could have just grabbed something.”
“You’re crazy, right?” Dom sighs loudly and wraps an arm around Emma’s shoulders. “If I didn’t come, I’d never hear the end of it. Plus, even if we’re getting old and can’t hack it with the younger crowd, we can still get out for midnight snacks. At least a little bit.”
“Don’t knock us out of the running yet,” Remy adds. “I might have kids, but I’m not retired.”
“I like food,” Ben offers.
Logan is the only one who stays silent, perusing the menu for the third time, but his eyes aren’t really seeing the words on the page, I can tell.
I eye him carefully, making a note to bring up my concerns about him seeing a redhead who looks a lot like Poppy lying on the beach without any life to her. After everything they’ve gone through…
Honestly, I was surprised that Chloe was able to get her breathing. We cracked her ribs while doing CPR, and it had been at least ten minutes of working on her. Long enough that both Logan and I had taken a turn. Chloe touches her, though, and everything changes.
If we were witches or wizards or lived in a land full of magic, I might think that she cast a spell on the woman to bring her back to life. But we don’t. Chloe just happens to be the one to bring her back.
“Thank you, guys,” Chloe goes on, talking to the people around the table. Her friends and family, even if not bound by blood. “I know you didn’t have to come. I know I was in the wrong, and I’m sorry. So thank you. To all of you. For having my back and for being there for me.”
Her eyes well with tears, and I barely manage to keep from wiping them away and trying to change the subject. Chloe needs to tell them how she feels. She needs the catharsis of getting the words out there.
A series of nods and quiet affirmations go around the table, until Poppy claps her hands together loudly.
“Stuff it,” she snaps, suddenly irate. “You act like it’s some big magnanimous thing that they’re all doing… that we’re all doing by being here for you. You’re family, and even if you’re an asshole, you’re allowed to be an asshole while you’re grieving. Shit. How many of the men around this table are assholes on a regular basis? We’re all assholes. Don’t just nod at her and tell her it’s okay. It’s normal. It’s normal to be this way.” Her chest heaves, and she plops back down next to Logan, slapping him with her hair accidentally as she does so.
Logan doesn’t even flinch.
Yeah, I definitely need to talk to him as soon as possible.
“Use one of the bedrooms we’re not staying in.”
I turn to see Chloe looking back and forth between Logan and me. “What?”
She nods toward Logan. “For him. I’ll distract everyone. It looks like you’re going to have a crisis meeting with him. I’ll handle the heathens.”
I love this woman.
“Okay.”
Our food comes out and all the conversation dies at that point. We are too busy stuffing our faces and then arguing over who is paying for dinner to talk about anything else.
It isn’t until we are driving back to Sebago that I remember Chloe’s words from the lake.
The ring.
We had gotten so caught up in everything that happened with the woman in the lake that we hadn’t even had a chance to talk about it. When I shoot a quick glance to the passenger seat of my car, Chloe is passed out against the window, using her seat belt to hold up her head.
Logan and Poppy sit in the back seat, and Logan snores loudly when I check in the rearview mirror not even a half hour into the drive.
“Are you still planning on leaving?” I ask when I lock eyes with Poppy. “Or has this week changed anything?”
“Not at all,” she says grimly. “I’m still going. I’ve got three different offers. Two of which are heading up a communications center for their fire and police departments.”
I whistle quietly. “That’s pretty amazing.”
Poppy brushes her hand over Logan’s hair, smiling sadly when he turns into her hand even in his sleep.
I take my eyes off the mirror and turn them back on the road where they belong.
“I can’t stay here anymore.” She lowers her voice to keep from waking Logan or Chloe up. “You knew, no matter what, that Chloe loved you before Kevin died. There was always that spark of hope that she’d forgive whatever hate she had, to give your relationship another chance. I don’t have that.” She sighs deeply. “I don’t have that love or hope to fall back on. All I have is the hurt. Over and over again. But I know I can’t let him go as long as I’m around him all the time. That’s why I keep switching departments.” She pauses when Logan shifts, causing me to glance in the rearview mirror and see him moving his hand down to hers.
“I get it,” I tell her. There isn’t much more I can say without breaking confidentiality, but I can listen.
“I know he ruins my dates. I know that’s his perverse way of showing me that he still cares. But I can’t wait around for my entire life on a man who only wants to keep me on a shelf, waiting for him, making sure that no one else can have me.”
I’ve never, in my entire career, wanted to break the rules that require my silence, until that moment. I won’t do it, but my hands grip the steering wheel as tight as I can, before I do something that will ruin my career. And probably one of my best friendships, too.
Chloe surprises the fuck out of me by reaching over and touching my thigh. “I wouldn’t give up on him just yet,” she says with a sleep-addled voice. “This week, I’ve seen a side of him I legitimately didn’t even know exists. From the way he’s interacted with you, to how he’s treated me. That has to mean something.”
Poppy makes an uncertain gurgling noise in the back of her throat.
“I mean it.” Chloe squeezes my thigh. “I didn’t understand the importance of someone not giving up on me, until I was ready to see it. If you need to leave, then you should leave. I’m not arguing that. But I also don’t think you should count him out completely. At least not yet.”
No one can say anything else because we pull up to the lake house and as soon as I put the car in park, Logan starts to wake up.
“I’m tired.” Chloe yawns loudly. “I just want to go to bed and sleep until lunch tomorrow.” She leans over and presses a kiss to my lips before getting out of the car. “Come on, Poppy. Let’s get the leftover food into the fridge before bed.”
Poppy follows her without complaint, and I fall even more in love with Chloe in that moment. Not only does she read my mind on a regular basis, knowing exactly what I’m thinking or feeling about something, but she does her best to help me when I don’t even know that I need her.
“You better marry her before she changes her mind again,” Logan says when the two women are far enough away they don’t hear anything we say.
“We need to have a crisis meeting in the morning.” I cut to the chase. “I saw the way seeing the redhead on the beach bothered you and the way it affected you through dinner too.”
Logan doesn’t argue. He doesn’t make an excuse. He doesn’t try to pass off the situation as less than it was. He nods and then checks around to make sure no one is there.
“I saw her. I saw Poppy, on the beach, dead because of me. I stood there, and I saw a bullet in the middle of her forehead, and I was holding the gun, Ian.”
I don’t have a choice. Morning will be too late.
“Come on.” I lead him to the beach.
“I don’t want to die, Ian.” Logan’s hoarse voice breaks me. “But I’ll eat a fuckin’ bullet before I let something like that happen to her because of me.”