Chapter 67
Nick normally liked The Killers’ song he had set as the ringtone on his
cell phone, but when it woke him up that morning, it only aggravated his
already pounding headache. It literally
was a killer, he thought – so much, in fact, that his own semi-clever pun did
not even make him smile. Instead, he
groaned in discomfort, as he struggled to roll over in bed and groped around
for his phone.
His fingers curled around the tiny, silver flip-phone and dragged it
off of the bedside table. Blinking
rapidly, both to get rid of the crusty gunk that clogged his eyes and to avoid
the intrusive sunlight, he flipped open the phone and squinted at the caller
ID. Claire? he wondered,
surprised that she would call him so early.
According to the clock on his phone, it was only seven in the
morning. Hell, he’d only been asleep for
a few hours. And damn was he hungover.
Still, he couldn’t ignore her call, so he cleared his throat and tapped
the button to answer. “’Lo?” he rasped
as he hoisted the phone to his ear.
“Hey, Nick.” Her voice was
grim. Instantly, he sat up, despite the
fact that it made his head pound with twice the intensity. “I’m so sorry to wake you up; I just couldn’t
wait any longer to hear your voice.”
“Why, what’s going on?” Nick pressed worriedly. “Somethin’ happen? Are you okay?” His thoughts went first to his house,
remembering the burglar alarm incident, then to her leukemia and the rejection
scare she’d had not quite two months ago.
Oh my god, no… please, nothing like that…
“My dad had a heart attack this morning.”
As horrible as it was, a part of him was instantly relieved to hear
that nothing bad had happened to her.
But the reality of the situation hit him less than a second later. Something bad had happened to her father,
whom she was very close to. Physically,
she may have been fine, but emotionally, she had to be a wreck.
“Oh shit, baby, I’m so sorry,” he responded quickly, his own heart
aching for her. “Is… is he…-?” He was afraid to ask.
“He’s doing all right,” she answered.
“He’s in the CCU, recovering from angioplasty.”
“What’s that?” asked Nick immediately, feeling ignorant. The term sounded vaguely familiar, but the
only medical shit he really knew anything about was the medical shit he had
been put through.
“It’s a procedure to clear clogged arteries, basically,” Claire
answered concisely. “Minor surgery. The doctors are hopeful, but we’re all still
pretty worried.”
“No kidding; I would be too!” Nick sympathized, shuddering as he
wondered what he would do if something like that happened to his own
father. Maybe they weren’t very close
anymore, but he still loved his dad…
“What can I do, baby?” he asked.
“Do you want me to come back and be with you? I’m sure I could move up my flight a few
days…” He was scheduled to fly home
Wednesday morning, since Thanksgiving was on Thursday, but what was a few extra
days? The guys would understand – hell,
this would give them all a chance to fly home early and be with their families.
“No, you don’t have to do that,” she said. “I don’t want to mess up your work
schedule. I just… I’m going crazy here,
and I needed to hear your voice.”
“It doesn’t sound very nice at the moment,” he croaked with a hoarse
chuckle, his voice cracking appropriately.
“Yeah, I can hear that,” she replied, and he could tell she was
smiling, at least a little bit. Despite
his worry for her and the all around ugh-ness that accompanied his hangover,
the thought made him smile too. “You a
little hungover, are ya, baby?” she teased him lightly.
His smile turned sheepish. “How
could you tell?” he groaned.
“I know you too well. Not to
mention, you called me last night, drunk off your ass, and left me a
voicemail,” she replied, sounding almost amused. Before he could respond, she added
maternally, “Now drink some water, take some aspirin, and go back to bed. We can talk later, okay?”
“No, no, you don’t gotta hang up,” Nick insisted, pressing the phone
closer to his throbbing temple. (Did
I really call her last night? he wondered.
Somehow he didn’t remember doing that.)
“I’ll be fine. I’m more worried
about you right now.” (A
voicemail? What the hell did I say??)
“Don’t worry about me… worry about my dad. As long he’s going to be okay, I’ll be okay
too.”
“I’m sendin’ good vibes his way,” Nick assured her, casting the alleged
voicemail aside. That didn’t matter now
anyway. “You sure you don’t want me to
fly out today? I don’t want you to have
to go through this alone.”
“I’m not alone; my mom and brother are here.”
She was putting up a brave front, as she often did, but he sensed that
she secretly did want him there with her… she wouldn’t have called him so early
if she didn’t. So as soon as he got off
the phone with her a short while later, he forgot all about the water, the
aspirin, and his bed, and moved to his laptop to buy an airplane ticket.
***
It had been a very long day for Claire.
Her lack of sleep the night before, coupled with the emotional turmoil
of the day, had left her drained, and by eight o’clock that evening, she wanted
nothing more than to curl up in bed and sleep.
Well, that wasn’t true… the only thing she wanted more than to sleep was
to be with her father, and so she remained with her mother, Kyle, and Amber (who
had arrived later that morning, around the time she’d finally called Nick) at
the hospital.
At least things were looking up.
Her dad was still in the intensive care, where they would monitor him
closely overnight, but aside from being sapped of strength and energy, he both
looked and felt better (or so he said).
Dr. Corwin had hinted that if his condition continued to improve, she
would release him Tuesday or Wednesday.
He would have a period of recuperation and rehabilitation ahead of him
after that, of course… but at least he would be home for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving…
She sighed as she thought about the looming holiday. It was normally one of her favorite holidays
– family and food, what could be better? – and she had been looking forward to
it. Nick would be home, and they had
planned on going to her parents’ house, as she always did. Her grandparents, whom she rarely saw, were
even flying down from Baltimore. But
now, with her dad sick, she wasn’t sure what the plan was. Her mom was great at multitasking, but she’d
never be able to take care of him and still get everything ready for
Thanksgiving dinner.
Maybe it’s
my turn to take over, she thought, absently drumming her fingers against the armrest of the
stiff-backed chair she’d been sitting in for a large part of the day.
Kyle and Amber’s baby was due in a matter of weeks; there was no way
Amber could handle the Thanksgiving preparations. And besides, she was the only
daughter… if anyone had to take over for her mother, the duty would rest on her
shoulders. She made a mental note to ask
her mom for all her traditional Thanksgiving recipes when she came back from
sitting with her father in the cardiac care unit. Surely it couldn’t be that hard, as
long as she had recipes to follow…
As she sat gazing blankly down at the thin, patterned carpet on the
waiting room floor, Claire was lost in thought.
So lost, in fact, that she did not hear the familiar set of slightly
uneven footsteps coming down the hallway.
Nor did she hear them stop.
***
The day had been a long one for Nick as well. Going on only a few hours of sleep and
hungover after a night of clubbing with Howie, AJ, and Mary, he had
nevertheless packed his bags and had Howie drive him to the airport to catch
his flight back to Florida.
The guys had been very understanding when he’d explained what had
happened. “She’s lucky to have you,
Nick,” Kevin had even told him over the phone when he’d called to let him know
he was leaving.
“She’d do the same for me,” Nick had replied with a shrug, remembering
how she’d flown to Iowa to be with Jamie after his own father’s heart attack a
year ago… and then flown right back to Florida when she found out he was
sick. Still, Kevin’s comment secretly
pleased him – respect from his oldest brother had always meant a lot to him.
The direct flight into Tampa had been hell. He hadn’t been able to get a first class seat
because he had booked the flight on such short notice, so he’d been forced to
travel coach, which he hadn’t done in many years, not since the early days of
the Backstreet Boys, when he was still small enough to actually fit in
coach. You’ve gotta be kidding me!
he’d thought in horror when he’d squeezed his way down the narrow aisle of the
plane to find his seat, which looked to be about two inches behind the seat in
front of it. And on top of that, it was
a window seat. He hated window
seats; they always made him feel claustrophobic and nauseous.
A middle-aged businessman type had been sitting in the aisle seat,
reading a magazine. He didn’t even look
up when Nick stopped beside him, and Nick had to clear his throat quite loudly
to get his attention. “Excuse me, sir?”
Nick had asked, trying to be polite.
“Sorry, but is there any way we could trade seats?” The man had just blinked up at him, and when
he did not get the response he’d hoped for, Nick sighed and added, “It’s just
that I usually get airsick when I’m by the window. This one time, I went through like five barf
bags…”
That had done it. Without a
word, the man had risen from his seat and moved over one, allowing Nick to take
the aisle seat. It had still been quite
cramped, but at least he could stretch his long leg out into the aisle. Still, the changing altitudes and the
constant roar of the plane’s engine had made his headache worse, and he’d found
it impossible to sleep. He envied the
businessman, who had shut his magazine and closed his eyes before the plane had
even taken off, somehow managing to doze the entire flight.
Stiff and lethargic, Nick had stumbled off of the plane in Tampa and
taken a cab back to his house. After
sitting on a plane for nearly five hours, the last thing he felt like doing was
driving another two hours to Gainesville, but he’d dutifully dropped off his bags,
splashed some cold water on his face, and climbed into his Jaguar.
His cruise control set on eighty for most of the way, Nick made it to
Gainesville in less than two hours and found the hospital Claire had mentioned
on the phone – he’d called her while waiting for his boarding call at LAX and
had managed to casually get it out of her without letting her know that he was
coming. Surprising her would be a good
way to cheer her up.
He just hoped she would still be there.
It was almost eight o’clock, Florida time, and already dark by the time
he was making his way into the brightly-lit hospital. The woman at the front desk told him how to
get to the cardiology wing, and he followed the signs in the curving hallways
until he found the correct ward. “Excuse
me,” he said, stopping to address an older woman at the nurses station. “I’m looking for the family of a patient…
Kris Ryan? Well, really just his
daughter, Claire. Do you know-?”
“Are you family, sir?” the nurse interrupted him.
“Yeah, I’m Claire’s husband,” he answered with ease. Noticing the woman’s sharp eyes drift down to
his left hand, he realized he’d been caught in a white lie and added quickly,
“-to-be. She’s my fiancée. Her dad – my father-in-law… to-be – had a
heart attack this morning.”
Finally, the nurse nodded. “Walk
down this hall and hang a right. There
will be a family waiting room on your left, about halfway down the hall. The last time I saw the family, they were
there.”
“Thank you,” Nick replied with a grateful smile and set off quickly,
anxious to get to Claire. He turned the
corner and started down the hallway, looking for the waiting room. His eyes traveled upwards to read the sign
overhead, pointing the directions of different areas of the hospital, and when
he glanced back down, his gaze locked onto a familiar figure striding up the
hall in the opposite direction.
Instantly, he came to a halt, as recognition dawned. No… he thought warily, frowning at the
approaching person. No way… I did not spend all day flying back to find him
here.
But sure enough…
“You have got to be kidding me,” thought Nick, as Jamie Turner
stopped a few feet in front of him. Only
too late did he realize he’d actually muttered that out loud.
“Surprise, surprise,” Jamie said slowly, looking Nick up and down. “I thought you were still in Los Angeles.”
“And I thought you lived in Iowa,” Nick returned, gazing levelly at
Jamie.
“Claire came to Iowa when my dad was sick last year,” Jamie replied
with a shrug. “So I came to Florida for
her. She sounded like she needed a
friend when she called me this morning.”
Well, she’s
got me now, Nick
wanted to say. I’m her friend. I’m more than her friend! Go back home; she doesn’t need you!
But of course, he didn’t say that.
Even if he’d had the nerve, he wouldn’t have had the chance, for at that
moment, Claire stepped out into the hall.
Nick held his breath, watching her closely, waiting for her
reaction. How long had Jamie been
here? Did she know he was here?
It quickly became apparent that she didn’t, for her mouth dropped open
in surprise, her head shooting back and forth between the two of them. “You guys!” she finally exclaimed. “What are you both doing here?!”
“What do you think?” Nick replied quickly, stepping forward and pulling
her in for a tight hug before Jamie could make a move. As he held Claire against his chest, rubbing
her back with one hand, he peered at Jamie over her shoulder and couldn’t help
but feel a pleasant rush of satisfaction at the frown on his face. “I’ve been thinking about you all day, baby,”
he murmured into her ear. “How are
things?”
“Better,” she replied with a smile as she slowly pulled away. She turned to smile at Jamie too and added,
“Much better now that you’re both here.”
Jamie flashed her a smile in return and asked, before Nick had the
chance, “But how’s your dad?”
“He’s doing okay,” said Claire, nodding. “They’re going to keep him overnight and
probably tomorrow night too… but then if everything looks good, he might be
released on Tuesday.”
“That’s awesome news,” Nick jumped in.
“Thank God, huh?”
Claire nodded emphatically, glancing between the two of them. “Wow,” she said, “I can’t believe you’re both
really here! What, did you guys plan
this or something?” She winked at Nick;
she knew full well they had done no such thing.
“Well, you know what they say,” Jamie shrugged. “Great minds think alike.” He smiled at Nick, a smile that did not
quite reach his ice blue eyes, and Nick forced one back, though it probably
ended up looking more like a smirk.
Claire laughed. “Yeah, I guess
so. How were your flights?” She kept looking between them whenever she
said anything, as if she were afraid to give one more attention than the
other. The whole situation reminded Nick
of a basketball game, of which she was refereeing.
“Honestly? Awful,” he answered
her question first. “I got stuck in
coach,” he added before he could stop himself, sticking his tongue out.
“Coach, huh? That must have been
terrible,” Jamie interjected dryly, rolling his eyes. When Claire laughed, Nick immediately
regretted saying it. “Well, my flight
was fine,” Jamie continued before Nick could recover. “Coach is coach, you know; what can I
say? I’m here, and that’s all that
matters.”
Slam dunk for Jamie. Nick scowled.
Claire, on the other hand, smiled.
Again. “Thank you for coming,”
she said sincerely, reaching out to touch Jamie’s shoulder. “It means a lot to me.”
“That’s what friends are for, aren’t they?” Nick put in before
Jamie could, slipping an arm around Claire’s waist as he stressed the word
‘friends.’ Leaning closer to her, he
added in a low voice, “And fiancées too.”
And then he gently took her chin and placed a tender kiss on her
mouth. Ha, he thought, noticing
the way her lips curved up as he drew his away from them. Carter’s back in the game.
Jamie smiled in a very forced-looking way and nodded wordlessly,
bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet with his hands clasped behind his
back. He looked uncomfortable, and Nick
was glad. He wanted him to get the
point, stop living in the past, and move on.
Claire looked from Nick to Jamie and back again; she appeared a little
uncomfortable too. Nevertheless, she
said, “Come on, let’s go sit down,” and ushered them both into the waiting room
from which she had emerged.
Nick alternated between listening to Claire as she described the day’s
events and casting furtive looks in Jamie’s direction. Jamie kept nodding as if he were listening
intently, his eyes oozing with sympathy, eyebrows cocked perfectly. Nick wondered if he really cared as much as
he appeared to, or if it was all an act to get closer to Claire. That was a mean thing to think, he knew, but
he didn’t trust Jamie farther than he could throw him and was not above
questioning his motives.
He realized he had momentarily spaced out when he heard Jamie saying,
“I prayed for him in Mass this morning.
I couldn’t stop thinking about you and your family and what you all must
be going through, and I was so worried.
You know your dad’s always been like a second father to me.”
Are you
serious?? Nick
thought, staring at Jamie incredulously.
What a chump! The guy was feeding
Claire such bullshit…
“I know,” Claire said softly and patted his hand. “Thanks, Jamie; that means a lot to me.”
… And she was eating it up!
Nick thought desperately for something to say, but he was drawing a
blank. Claire’s dad was a nice guy, and
Nick had been worried too, but it wasn’t as if they were close yet. He’d only met the man a few times; future
father-in-law or not, there was no way he could get away with saying Kris was
like his second dad. (Besides, Kevin had
that one covered.)
His silence allowed Jamie the opportunity to keep talking, and Nick
nearly choked when he heard him continue, “I know it’s kind of after the fact,
but… do you want pray together now?”
Nick’s eyes immediately shot over to Claire, who did not look as
surprised as he thought she would.
Instead, she nodded and replied, “Sure, that would be nice.”
Jamie offered her a smile and his hand, and she took it, lacing her
fingers through his. “Nick?” asked
Jamie, extending his other hand towards Nick.
Swallowing hard, Nick reluctantly dragged his chair in front of Claire
and Jamie so that they were sitting in a small circle. He took Claire’s free hand, gripping it
tightly, and then let Jamie grab his other, the whole time thinking, You
hypocrite. Don’t even tell me you’re
some Jesus freak. You can’t be. Not after all the shit you’ve said and done.
But if Jamie was putting up an act, it was a very convincing one. “Heavenly Father,” he began, his eyes closed
– Nick immediately followed suit, dropping his head – “Thank You for being with
Dr. Ryan today. We pray that You will
watch over him and walk with him on his road to recovery. Please give him the strength he needs to get
better, and bless the doctors and nurses who are taking care of him. In Your name, we pray… Amen.”
“Amen,” Nick muttered and looked up.
Claire and Jamie both looked very serene, and he realized they had a
connection he was not a part of. Claire
was not incredibly religious, but he knew she had been raised Catholic, as had
Jamie, from what he had gathered. He, on
the other hand, had probably learned more about Christianity from Brian than
anyone else; his family had not gone to church since he was a young child, and
though he believed there was a God who looked out for him, religion had never
been a huge part of his life.
As he dropped Jamie’s hand, he felt Claire squeeze his. He glanced over to see her smiling at him, as
if to say, ‘I know that made you uncomfortable… but thank you.’
He returned the smile and the hand squeeze, wishing he knew what else
to do to comfort her, as Jamie had.
***
Claire thought for sure she would fall asleep as soon as her head hit
her pillow that night, but instead she lay awake in the guest room of her
parents’ house, watching shadows dance in the warm golden light of the
streetlamp outside, listening to Nick’s steady breathing (exhausted, he really
had fallen asleep almost as soon as he’d crawled into bed next to her), and
thinking about the events of the day.
The day. One day. She could not believe that’s all it had
been. It had been such a long one, and
so many things had happened. She
shuddered as she thought of the terrifying phone call she’d awoken to. Had that really been less than twenty-four
hours ago? At the time, she’d had no
idea what was going to happen, whether or not her father was going to be all
right. But he was. He would need time to recuperate, as well as
some lifestyle changes, according to his doctor… but it looked like he was
going to be all right. She couldn’t have
been more relieved, or grateful.
And then Nick… and Jamie… both of them.
She hadn’t excepted either of them to drop everything and fly to Florida
to be with her, and she’d certainly never fathomed that both of them
would, arriving virtually at the same time.
What at awkward situation that had been, but still, she couldn’t have
been happier to see them. Besides her
father and her brother, they were her two favorite guys in the world, and she
knew now that she could depend on them anytime.
Nick had almost always been there for her anyway, and as for Jamie…
Jamie had grown up. Listening to
him pray aloud for her dad that evening had made her realize that like never
before. He was no longer the immature
kid who balked in the face of a crisis; this time, he had really come through
for her. It was the second time in
recent years that he had helped her in a big way, and she wouldn’t forget it.
Yawning as a wave of fatigue washed over her again, she rolled over so
that she was facing Nick. He was curled
up on his side, his back to her, and she gently slipped her arm around him,
spooning him from behind. “Thank you for
being here,” she whispered through the darkness. Her only answer was his deep, even breathing.
She smiled, closing her eyes as she snuggled closer to him. That night, she needed something to hold on
to.
***