Page 33 of Never Leave, Never Lie

She laughed. “Yeah, like that. Do you want to get out of bed?”

Alek nodded. Maybe he could convince her to spring him from the hospital.

Sarah hooked her arm around his elbow and helped him sit at the edge of the bed. All the blood rushed from his head. Shadows crowded the edges of his vision.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let you fall.”

Alek didn’t doubt it. Sarah was quite tall, but she was always so dwarfed by Ian, that whenever she was without him, Alek couldn’t help but be taken aback.

“Just sit a while. There’s no rush.” She squatted down to his eye level. Ian had her golden brown eyes. “You know I love you, right? No matter what happens between you and my son.”

He didn’t know that, actually. There was only so much disbelief he could suspend. Sarah didn’t know the whole story. How would she feel if she learned exactly what he’d done to her son?

In an unexpected show of emotion, Sarah pulled him into a hug that made his bruised ribs hurt and his eyes blur with tearshe most certainly would not be shedding. He didn’t hug her back. Instead, his arms dangled lamely at his sides.

“Do you have any idea how much you scared me? I didn’t know if you’d ever wake up again. I wasn’t just worried about what that would do to my son. I was so worried aboutyou.” She patted him on the back. “You ready?”

Alek blinked, then nodded, “Yes.”

Linking her arm again in his, she heaved him to his feet. He swayed and were it not for the scratchy non-skid socks, his feet would have slid out from under him.

“Nice and easy,” Sarah coached.

She held his hands and took a single step backward, waiting for his unstable footsteps to follow. An eternity later, they reached a narrow recliner set in front of a small square table. Sarah held Alek’s gown closed as he lowered on shaking legs into the chair. Breathing fast and only as deep as his battered ribs would allow, Alek looked back at the bed. It may have been four feet away, but it might as well have been four miles.

He pointed to the crumpled paper Ian had left on the window sill. “Could you hand me that?”

Her forehead wrinkled. “Sorry. I don’t understand.” She grabbed the clipboard from the bed and put it in front of him.

Thank you. Could you please pass me that?He pointed at the paper ball.

Following his gaze, she said, “Of course.”

Trying to uncrumple it one-handed was an exercise in futility.

“Do you want me to help?”

“Yes.”

Looking away, as if to grant him privacy, Sarah opened the paper ball and set it down in front of him. Alek’s own handwriting said,I could forget everything and still know that I love you.His stomach dropped. That wasn’t exactly a good sign. He balledup the paper again and then wrote on the clipboard,Did Ian say when he would be back?

Sarah dipped her chin with an apologetic smile. “He didn’t say, but he will be back—on his own, or because I dragged him here.”

His pulse ticked faster.Ian told you?

She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s happened between you two, but I know my son.” She pulled out her phone and held up a picture of a long-sleeved henley pattern she’d earmarked. “What about this one for Ian?”

Appreciating the abrupt, and obviously intentional, change of subject, Alek nodded and wrote,What fabric are you thinking of?He loved Ian in full sleeve shirts and pants. It emphasized how tall and long-limbed he was.

“I have some forest green jersey or gray waffle-knit wool.”

One of each, please.

“You got it.”

Ordinarily, Alek would have rather been alone, but having Sarah there was tangible proof that Ian planned to return. Surely Ian wouldn’t dump Alek and leave his mother to pick up the pieces.

After lunch, and a harrowing walk back to bed, Alek was more exhausted than he’d ever been in his life, and though he hated sleeping in public places, his eyelids were too heavy to keep open. When he dreamed, he dreamed of his mother, something he never did.

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