To the Stars (Thatch #2)(94)
Chapter 23
Harlow
Present Day—Richland
“WHO SAID WE were leaving?”
“Family only? Don’t we look like family? We’re her brothers, we’re practically triplets,” Deacon said, and imitated Graham’s intimidating stance.
“This is no longer about family; visiting hours are about to be over,” the older nurse said sternly.
She was met with twin looks of indifference. “And?” Graham finally said.
The nurse’s eyes bounced back and forth between the two, then over to Knox, and then to me.
I had to fight back a smile. “I’m sorry, but the other nurse said she was getting my discharge papers?”
“Right, because we’re leaving and taking our sister with us,” Deacon said arrogantly.
“Deac,” Knox murmured, then shook his head once when he had Deacon’s attention.
When she left with an exaggerated huff, Deacon turned and asked, “Where’s the nurse from earlier? The hot one,” he clarified. “She needs to come back; she didn’t question us being in here.” He snorted, then mumbled to himself, “Like we’re just gonna leave without you.”
I shook my head as Graham studied the monitors even though I was no longer hooked up to them, and Deacon started on his definition of “family.” I looked at Knox and we both mouthed, “Mother hens.”
There was a quick knock on the door a couple of minutes later, and Knox cursed. “If you got security called on us, I will never forgive you,” he said as Deacon went to answer the door.
“We’re not leaving,” Deacon said as he swung the door open. “Have a nice night!”
The door was halfway shut on my parents’ confused faces before I could yell, “Wait!”
“Harlow!” my mom cried out, and pushed past the door. My dad and Hadley followed, and a sharp cry burst from my chest seeing my sister so much better than she’d been just the day before.
Knox mumbled something, and he and my mother hens all stepped closer to my bed in unison—as if to protect me from my family—but I just looked at the doorway expectantly.
“Where’s Hayley?”
“She and the family are getting a hotel for all of us so we don’t have to worry about it when you can get out,” Mom explained as she hurried to my side. She grabbed my hand and sat on the side of the bed as her eyes roamed all over my body. “Oh, sweetie, how could you not tell us?”
Graham scoffed, and Knox sneered, “How could you not notice?”
“Knox,” I whispered, hoping he would get the hint.
“I knew within seconds of—”
“Knox,” I said harder, and held his stare for a moment. “I had a role I had to play in front of them. I couldn’t let them see what he was doing to me.”
My mom held my hand up, and gently ran the fingers from her other hand over my arm and across my knuckles. She sobbed freely as she studied me. “You’re so thin, Harlow. So thin,” she whispered. “You look so sick,” she continued, but it sounded like the words were meant for her. Her eyes fell over my face, and her next words were so soft they were nearly inaudible. “Your cheeks . . . your collarbones. Your eyes looks so—oh, honey!”
The need to defend my family was suddenly gone. I knew that other than the bandages on my forehead and the fact that I was lying in a hospital bed, I couldn’t look much different from when I’d seen them yesterday, or even a few months ago. But she wasn’t mentioning the bandages. My mom was mentioning things that had been noticeable for years. Physical parts of me I’d worried endlessly over every time I’d been near any member of my family, because I’d known they could give something away. Physical parts of me that I’d made myself sick over with the worry that they would see something they weren’t supposed to.
And now . . . now a part of me was angry. Angry that they could see it all that time and had just refused to; but I knew I couldn’t think that way. Because like I’d just told Knox, I’d played a part. And like I’d known every time, if they would’ve seen, it would’ve been so bad for them.
“You need to come back to Seattle, where we can take care of you, where we can help you get better. We’ll make sure that you recover from this the way you need to.”
“No.”
My mom straightened her back, and looked over to Knox for the first time at his response. The room filled with tension as everyone looked at each other, and my parents no doubt were wondering who Graham and Deacon were as the two glared at my family. I hadn’t mentioned them to my parents all those years ago, since things had always been so tense between Knox’s friends and me—that had been reserved for rants to my sisters. And as the boys looked at my family like they were ready to fight to keep me with them and Knox, I couldn’t help but be taken aback again at how things had drastically changed with them.
“Knox, honey, it’s so very good to see you,” Mom began again. “But Harlow needs her father and me to get through this time.”
Knox’s mouth opened, probably to tell her no again, but snapped shut. After a deep breath, his eyes slid over to me. His voice was gruff when he said, “I think it’s time Harlow gets to decide what happens in her life—no matter what that means.” Despite the ache in those last words, I knew he meant them.