2. Nathan
NATHAN
“Nate?” Nathan opened his eyes slowly, the fluorescent overhead lights burning them instantly. His neck hurt either from falling asleep in the chair or from earlier, in the hotel room with Octavia against his mouth. Fuck, he thought. How was that only a few hours ago?
“What?” he said groggily as the room came into focus. His contacts felt dry and he forced a yawn, hoping to moisten them.
“He’s awake.” Nathan’s mom stood beside him, pointing toward the hospital bed where his brother, Scottie, lay hooked up to an IV and heart monitor.
Nathan sprang from his chair. “Scottie, fuck.” He grabbed his brother’s hand and squeezed before quickly letting go. “Shit, sorry, that probably hurt.”
Scottie shrugged, or tried to, seeing as his collarbone was broken. “Pain means I’m still alive right.”
“That’s the right attitude,” their mom said, patting Scottie’s leg. “Are you thirsty? The doctor said you were allowed to have water if you were.”
Scottie looked up at Nathan and back at his mom. “Yeah, that would be great, thanks.” After she left, he looked at his brother. “I need you to find my phone,” he said through clenched teeth.
Nathan looked toward the door then back down at his brother. “Why? Do you have something incriminating on it? Your home screen isn’t a screenshot from a sex tape or something is it?”
Scottie rolled his eyes. “No, I just need to text someone.”
“Don’t hate me when I tell you this, but your phone is gone.”
“What do you mean gone?” he asked, his voice an octave too high.
“Um.” Nathan rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “It was run over by a car after you were hit.”
His eyes went wide in horror. “No, really?” Nathan had to admit that growing up messing with his brother was a priority, one he took seriously, but in his current state he wouldn’t do something to upset him.
“Fuck.” He dropped his head, wincing in pain as their mother walked back carrying a Styrofoam cup.
“Oh, your IV is almost out. I’m just going to run out and see if someone is going to come change it.”
“Mom.” Nathan reached for her. “They know. I’m sure someone will be in soon.”
“You’re right.” She sighed, patting Nathan’s hand. “They know what they’re doing. I just hate seeing him in pain.”
“Not a fan of it either,” Nathan promised her. “Do you want to use my phone?” he asked, pulling it out of his pocket and holding it out to Scottie.
Scottie looked at it like he was being handed a toad. “Why?”
“Didn’t you say—” Nathan stopped talking when he saw the look on his brother’s face. A true, shut the fuck up in front of her, kind of look. Who the hell did he want to text? It was either something illegal or a woman, and both seemed unlikely.
Scottie didn’t even jaywalk, and he’d always been a nervous wreck around women.
Nathan needed to get his mom out of the room again.
Needed to send her on some quest. “Hey, Mom?” he said slowly, still thinking of what to ask for.
“Would you mind going to the caf and grabbing something to eat? I want to ask Scottie about an update for my website.”
She rolled her eyes. “Nathaniel, do you think right now is the best time to bother your brother about the zeros and whatever else goes into coding? He’s got a concussion, for Pete’s sake.”
“It’s alright, Mom, I could use the distraction,” Scottie assured her.
“Well, if you’re sure. I could actually use some coffee anyway. Don’t push your brother if he starts getting woozy from all the thinking,” she warned Nathan as she left the room.
“What website update?” Scottie asked.
“Seriously? I don’t even run that thing. Someone from the agency does. No, moron”—he held out his phone again—“now you can message whoever it is you need to message. However, if this is some illegal shit, don’t do it on my phone. With my luck I’ll get hacked, and I don’t need that kind of press.”
“Oh yes, heaven forbid you mess up your squeaky clean image.” Scottie scoffed as his fingers closed around the phone. “I need to download an app. It’s ugh…”
“Okay, unless it’s a sex thing. I don’t need that shit on there either.”
“Well, it’s not a sex thing so much as a dating thing.”
So it was about a woman. He watched Scottie swipe his thumb across the screen a couple of times and then heard him swear and drop the phone.
“Want me to do it?”
“No, but it’s going to take me a while, so please be patient,” he whined.
“Or, I’ll message for you. But just so you know, I’m not sexting for you.”
A disgusted expression settled on Scottie’s face. “Ew, as if I’d ask you to do that. I really like this woman. The last thing I need is for you to scare her off.”
Nathan couldn’t help but laugh. In his thirty-four years, he’d never had a problem getting a date. Scottie, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. If he found someone who he connected with and wasn’t freaking out about, the last thing he wanted to do was mess it up.
While Scottie got everything set, Nathan sat back in the chair and closed his eyes.
He was instantly back in the bar, dreading a night of being the sober one around his drunk teammates.
He’d felt slightly overwhelmed when he saw the woman in the blue dress.
He loved the way she’d smiled back at him and how he could almost taste her if he focused hard enough.
He swallowed as he remembered how she felt coming against his mouth.
The sound she made when he’d flicked his tongue against her clit one last time.
The look on her face just before he’d walked out the door.
A wave of guilt washed over him. While his brother was laying broken on the side of the road, he had been preparing to fuck her into the goddamn wall.
“Shit,” Scottie cursed, and Nathan opened his eyes to see his brother looking down at the phone.
“I don’t remember my password.” Scottie’s head thumped against his pillow.
His head must really be bothering him if he couldn’t remember something.
“The one time I feel like I’m making progress and I get hit by a fucking bus.
It’s like the universe doesn’t want me to be happy. ”
“Are you unhappy?” Nathan asked. Scottie never gave the impression that he was. He had a great job and a good group of friends. He’d never really expressed disappointment in his lack of a romantic life. But then again, they didn’t often talk about that stuff.
Nathan talked about his games, and Scottie gave him pointers from an analytics standpoint.
They shared jokes about their overprotective mother and occasionally discussed real estate, but beyond that, they weren’t up to date on the ins and outs of one another’s love life, and until this minute, Nathan preferred it that way.
“Yes and no,” Scottie admitted. “Figured I’d start the new year by getting out there. I’m just kind of sick of being the single friend at all the weddings, ya know?”
Nathan did not know. He’d been to seven weddings in the last two years and never once did he go alone. All he ever had to do was think he needed a date and one practically materialized in front of him.
“Oh?” A voice came from the doorway and Nathan looked over to see a pretty nurse in pink scrubs. “Sorry, I didn’t realize Scottie had, um…” She waved her hand toward Nathan. “Well, a hockey player in his room.”
“He’s my brother,” Scottie mumbled, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, well, lucky you,” she said, seeming to regain her composure.
“I’ve just got to take your vitals and then I’ll be out of your hair.
” She smiled quickly at Nathan before strapping the cuff to Scottie’s upper arm.
She didn’t look at Nathan again, which he was happy about.
The last thing he needed was to be a distraction to medical professionals taking care of his brother.
Scottie hissed as the cuff tightened, and the nurse apologized but told him to take a deep breath. Nathan watched as his brother’s gaze met the nurse’s and she breathed slowly with him.
“Good. Very good.” She wrote down some numbers on his chart. “I’ll be back with a new bag,” she added before scurrying out of the room.
“She’s pretty,” Nathan said.
“She thought you were too,” Scottie said bitterly.
“No, she recognized me. There’s a difference.
Trust me, I know it.” He could see the difference in her expression and hear it in her voice.
Her eyes didn’t linger on him, she didn’t blush, she focused on Scottie.
Her reaction was purely based on being surprised that there was a professional hockey player in the room and not that she was about to fall all over herself to get to him.
“They only had turkey left,” their mom said as she walked back into the room. “I know it’s not your favourite, but it cost sixteen dollars, so you better eat it.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Nathan said, taking the sandwich from her.
“I see no one has come to replace the bag yet.”
“The nurse said she was bringing one soon, don’t worry about it, Mom.” Scottie sighed, looking over at his brother.
“I saw that look, young man,” she scolded.
“I’m your mother, it is my job to worry about you, and for good reason.
You were hit by a damn bus. A bus!” she exclaimed as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying.
“And you were dressed so nicely too, I saw the clothes in the bag after they cut them off of you. Why would they even bag those? Do they expect someone to sew them back together?”
The nurse walked back in and their mom shut up immediately. “Sorry, I’m just going to quickly swap the bag.” She held up the bag as though they needed evidence.
“Thank you, dear,” their mom said, sitting on the end of the bed, the events of the night showing on her face.
“Did you sleep at all, Mom?” Nathan asked, glancing over at the chair on the opposite side of his. The thin hospital blanket the nurse had brought them last night was still folded over the back, unused.
“I couldn’t. I just watched his chest the whole time.
” She patted Scottie’s leg as her eyes filled with tears.
“I just kept thinking how close I was to seeing you never breathe again.” Giant tears rolled down her cheeks and Nathan rubbed her back.
The tears came faster, the realization of how close she had come to losing her youngest child overwhelming her.
“Why did I know I’d walk into this?” Nathan looked over to see their sister, Emma, standing there, her long black coat draped over one arm and a rolling suitcase set beside her.
Emma was the oldest, widowed, and as no-nonsense as they came, but that didn’t stop her from setting her stuff in the corner of the room and pulling their mother into her arms.
“Not a great way to start the new year, little brother. Also, this seems like a really extreme way to get us all in one room,” she said over their mom’s head.
“Hey, Mom was complaining that we’re never together anymore. I had to do something.”
“You’re already the favourite, you didn’t have to do anything,” Nathan drawled, sitting down heavily in the chair.
“I love you all equally,” their mom stuttered, stepping away from her daughter and reaching for a tissue.
“Why are you dressed up?” Emma asked, giving Nathan a once-over. “You didn’t play last night.”
“We had a charity thing.” He shrugged.
“I bet your date wasn’t thrilled when you had to take off.” She laughed, reaching for Scottie’s chart. “Wow, you are lucky, kid,” she breathed out. “Hit by a bus and you may only need surgery on your shoulder. That’s some wild luck.”
Scottie laughed, and then alarms started going off. Nathan watched in horror as his brother went limp.
“Get them out of the room,” someone shouted, and Nathan and his family were ushered into the hallway, their view of Scottie blocked by countless bodies.