A Million Miles Away(49)

Even if she hadn’t been lying, she didn’t quite belong here. Who would want to see an unfamiliar face when they were feeling sick? What good could she do?

“You all must be so tired,” she announced. “Can I go down to the cafeteria and get you some coffee?”

Her voice must have been quieter than she thought. No one turned, including Peter.

“Soda?” she said louder.

“What?” Peter’s sister said.

Kelsey coughed. “Coffee or soda?”

Peter’s father paused what he was saying for a moment to answer, “That would be great,” and continued railing on the Jayhawks’ inability to play fundamental defense.

Kelsey stepped out into the empty hall, looking around. Which one? Coffee or soda?

Exit signs hung at either end. She could hear Peter say something. His family laughed.

She didn’t even know if there was a cafeteria in the small hospital, let alone where it was. She blew out a breath and decided to go the way she came, toward reception. Maybe she could drop coffees off with one of the nurses and wait for Peter somewhere else. She wondered if she should have come at all.

“Hey!” she heard behind her.

She turned around.

Peter was walking toward her. “Coffee machine’s this way,” he said, pointing behind him.

“Oh” was all she could manage to get out, and she walked quickly past him with a cursory smile.

“Wait for a second, I’m going to get some change,” he said.

“No, no, that’s all right,” she said, continuing toward the exit.

“Please wait?” he said, a puzzled smile growing on his face. “I want to come with you.”

“Okay,” Kelsey said.

He must have sensed she was feeling out of place. Those faces looked at her with Peter’s eyes, Peter’s nose, his childhood, giving her the wrong name. Her body, her trusted self, mislabeled in a tiny room.

But with him by her side, she was simply someone he had chosen.

When he emerged from the room, putting his arm around her, a grateful feeling spread in her that she was not used to. She could get used to it, though. She wouldn’t even have to try.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN


When they left the hospital that evening, Peter insisted that Kelsey stay over at their house so she didn’t have to make the four-hour drive back in the dark. As he said it, he subtly ran his hand down her back. Kelsey bit her lip, wishing, but politely refused.

Peter’s sister said, “You should totally stay,” but Kelsey declined again. She was surprised to see Meg’s mouth fall in disappointment. When Peter mentioned that Meg was trying out for El Dorado’s dance team at the end of the year, the girls had slipped immediately into dancer talk, discussing pirouettes and fouetté turns and high kicks. She had to explain she knew all this through Kelsey, careful not to get too excited.

“Please stay?” Meg said.

“Come on,” Peter said, and he had that look again. The look that said, I’ve already won.

“Thank you, but I don’t want to impose,” Kelsey said, and they entered the parking lot.

Peter’s father unlocked their car and said, “Stay, or we’ll tell everyone in Lawrence you should be jailed for treason.”

Kelsey opened her mouth, aghast. “Why?”

“Anyone who doesn’t know the starting lineup of the KU basketball team is committing a gross betrayal of the state.”

They laughed, Kelsey shrugged, and Peter muttered, “He’s serious, though.”

She answered her mother’s multiple voice mails with a text that she was staying at Ingrid’s, and followed them in her car to pick up ingredients for dinner at the nearest grocery store, a Kroger with the R portion of the sign flickering in and out.

“Welcome to the finest twenty-four-hour food store in El Dorado,” Peter said as they went through the automatic doors. The store was empty except for two cashiers manning the late shift.

“The only twenty-four-hour food store in El Dorado,” Meg said, rolling her eyes. Kelsey had to suppress a smile at how much Meg reminded her of herself at that age, right down to the attitude and the high ponytail.

“Carly, Todd,” Peter’s dad said in greeting to the cashiers.

“Hey, Bill,” Carly said. Kelsey noticed that she didn’t even have to look up from her manicure to recognize him.

“Welcome home, Pete,” called Todd.

“All right, you know the drill,” Bill said to his children, looking at a list he had pulled out of his pocket.

Meg sighed. “Do we really have to do this? Even with Mom in the hospital?”

“Wait, what are we doing?” Kelsey asked, looking around the fluorescent, empty store for a clue.

“No excuses,” Peter said, bracing himself against the shopping cart as if he was about to run. “Mom would have wanted us to get a good score tonight.”

“It’s not like she’s dead,” Meg muttered, but then she posed on the other side of the cart, also ready to run.

Bill cleared his throat. “Peter, you’ve got spaghetti noodles, garlic bread, romaine lettuce, onions, and mushrooms. You know what kind of mushrooms. Meg, you’ve got marinara, ground beef, Caesar dressing, Parmesan, and croutons. Stopwatch set,” he said, setting off a beep on his watch.