Chapter 10 #2
“What? Become a doctor who doesn’t sleep or spend any time with his kids?
Not a great look.” Kellan shook his head.
“You work seven days a week, usually, you just happen to be on the tiny sliver of time you get as vacation. It’s okay, Atlas.
We do well. It’s just a hard time right now because of budget cuts, politics, and the fact that we’re shorthanded.
But it all cycles through, at least the shorthandedness.
And we have our eyes on a new nurse, hopefully.
Then I’ll be able to actually staff the way I need to.
Our admin’s off, and it just makes things difficult. But that’s not why you’re here.”
“What happened to Will?” I forced myself to release the painful grip I had on the chair in front of me and let out a breath.
“Will said I’m allowed to tell you, and I know Sheriff Grayson will be around to talk to you soon. But it was his foster dad, and that kid Jace.”
My eyes widened. “Are you fucking kidding me? I thought his dad was behind bars?”
Thatcher snarled. “He has a court date set, and he was forced to sober up overnight in the drunk tank, but that was about it. Not much they could do.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I don’t know why Sheriff Grayson didn’t tell you. I thought he had. I wouldn’t have let Elizabeth feel like she was in danger or anything, I promise.”
“Was she? Fuck. I’m not letting that woman out of my sight,” I growled.
“From the way you two are cuddling up to one another, it doesn’t seem like that’s going to be a problem,” Kellan said.
I flipped him off. “Really? Now?”
“Do you realize how long it’s been since I’ve been on a date?
” Kellan asked. “Actually, don’t answer that.
I need to live vicariously through you. And if it can’t be through your so-called playboy antics—something none of us actually believe here, by the way—we can live through childhood sweethearts finding their way back to one another. ”
“I don’t know what to say to that.” And frankly, I didn’t.
Childhood sweethearts finding their way to one another?
Was that it? Or were we stumbling into mistake after mistake?
I didn’t know what I felt about that, other than the fact that I loved that woman and I didn’t want to let her go.
But I had let her go the first time for a reason, and I had broken both of us.
Even if she said she was the one to walk away for my sake, in reality, I was the one to take those steps.
To go towards my dreams and leave her behind.
There was no mutual parting, and the crap that we lied to each other about for all those years was only so we could breathe.
But I was coming home. I was coming back. To Lizzie. And she needed to realize that.
And the idea that Thatcher and Kellan didn’t believe I was an asshole who slept around as much as the media thought, warmed my heart slightly.
Except for the fact that we were in the fucking clinic, with a hurt kid.
Helpless didn’t even begin to cover what I felt in that moment.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
“I don’t know everything,” Kellan began. “You’ll have to ask Will and the sheriff. I only know his injuries. Which aren’t as severe as they look, thankfully.”
“They look pretty fucking bad,” I spat.
“You’re a hockey player, you’ve seen worse. You’ve been through worse,” Thatcher said.
“So? That’s an eighteen-year-old kid. He should be thinking about college or a career, or taking a break because school was fucking hard. He shouldn’t be dealing with this.”
“No, he shouldn’t,” Thatcher said softly.
“His foster dad, Dobson, I think,” Kellan began.
I nodded. “Yes, that asshole.”
“Well, he and Jace jumped him and beat shit out of him. They used their fists, steel-toed boots, and I think a bat.”
I blinked. “A bat?”
“Yeah. That’s what broke his radius and ulna.” Kellan began to list the rest of his injuries, and I nearly threw up.
The black eye, which thankfully wasn’t a broken eye socket or cheekbone.
A minor concussion. The two broken bones in his right arm that seemed to be clean breaks and would heal.
Bruised ribs that were near broken. And that busted lip.
His knuckles were also bruised and cut open thanks to fighting back, but he shouldn’t have had to. He should have been with us.
“It’s going to be okay? What about Jace and Dobson?”
“Dobson’s in the wind, Jace is behind bars.
Seems the little shit couldn’t run fast enough with all the whiskey in his system.
They’re going to get the foster dad. I promise you that,” Thatcher said with a growl.
“The fact that Sheriff Grayson’s back in the trailer park tells me that something else happened, and we’re going to be dealing with calls for the rest of the week. You know how it is.”
The thing was, I didn’t. I hadn’t even known there was a trailer park in Ashford Creek. Sure, there had been a couple of small trailers on the east side near the main mountain, but I didn’t realize it’d become an entire area where people lived.
There were so many changes I had missed over the years, and I could have kicked myself.
Ashford Creek had always been my touchstone. That slice of home that I had come to when I needed to breathe and remind myself that I was human. It was a place where I could be with my family and leave everything behind.
But Ashford Creek had changed. And with the secrets of the Ashford family slowly being revealed, as well as the other dark items that had appeared over time, Ashford Creek wasn’t the homey place I had remembered from growing up here.
And I had left Lizzie here.
“He’ll heal. He’s young, healthy. Well, as healthy as you can get by not getting enough sleep or enough protein, but with your brother feeding him and making sure that he has a decent job, he’s doing good.”
“He’s coming back with me,” I stated simply, and both men looked at me with wide eyes.
“Oh?”
“I have a huge fucking house, and the kid needs a place to stay. It’s not like he’s still in high school, or we’re dealing with the foster system. A foster system that dropped him at eighteen, I might add, and didn’t fucking care about him.”
“You don’t have to talk to me about the foster system,” Thatcher said irritably.
“There’s only so much we can do, and I hate when people slip through the cracks.
So yes, I’m going to beat myself up about this just as much as you are, but you’re leaving soon Atlas.
What are you going to do, leave a teen in your house just to watch it? That’s a big fucking responsibility.”
I threw my hands in the air. “I don’t fucking know. But Lizzie isn’t going to let him out of her sight anytime soon, and I’m not letting Lizzie out of my sight.”
“That’s not how life works, Atlas,” Kellan began. “This isn’t a math problem.”
“I know that. I know it’s real life, and I know I’m going to need more answers than he has a place to sleep.
But that’s a start, isn’t it? I have more money and more space than I know what to do with.
So I’m going to help. Help him, help this,” I waved around the shitty room, “I don’t know.
But I don’t like what I’m seeing in this town, and it pisses me off. ”
“Well, there’s Atlas Carter to save the day. What else are we doing wrong in Ashford Creek? Why don’t you write a list, or better yet, I will, and then you can spread your money over and see if that helps.”
I looked at Thatcher, taken aback. “What the hell?”
“I see the worst of this town, and so does Kellan. But there’s goodness too. You can’t just walk in once a year and try to fix it.”
“That’s not… that’s not what I’m doing,” I lied.
“Whatever. I have to go back to the station and deal with real issues, and not sudden guilt that I have too much money.”
And with that, Thatcher stalked out, leaving me standing there, wondering what the hell I did.
“Ignore him,” Kellan said. “I mean, offering to throw money at me would be great. But that doesn’t fix everything.
As for Will, he’s an adult. If you and Elizabeth want to help him out, that’s great.
I don’t know what you and Elizabeth are doing, and while I care, I don’t really care right now.
I’m too tired and overworked to worry about that.
But if you hurt her, I’m going to have to kill you, and then I’m going to have to bring you back to life because that’s part of my job. ”
“A necromancer, are you?” I ask, my lips twitching.
“Maybe. Your woman doesn’t have family here anymore. And it might look like she doesn’t have people in her corner, but she does. We always have been. Even when you left.”
I swallowed hard, the tightness in my chest not easing.
“Life happened, and I’m trying to fix it.”
“Just don’t break everything along the way, okay? Including yourself. You’re like a brother, Atlas. I love you. Seeing you around would be great. But you have a career in Portland. When you want to give that up, you can come back, but you can’t just throw money at a problem.”
“I know that,” I bit out.
“You can throw some money. I’ll take it. Hell, we’ll take anything at this point. We’re going to need a new roof soon.”
“Done.”