Page 124 of Stay

“Sweetness, don’t cry. He’s okay. He really is.”

“I just can’t stop thinking about how much worse it could’ve been,” she cries.

“I know. That’s all I’ve thought about too, but about both of you.” My voice cracks at the end and we’re quiet for a moment.

“My dad will be back soon. He went to the bathroom and to get more water. I just needed to hear your voice.”

“How are you feeling?”

“My head’s weird, but I’m okay.”

“You wouldn’t say even if you were feeling awful, would you?”

She laughs softly. “You sound like my mom.”

“Oh no.” I laugh.

“I’ll let you go,” she says. “You should be sleeping.”

“Youshould be sleeping. Try to, okay? I’ll be there in the morning…or in a few hours now, I guess.”

“Okay, I will…I have. They just keep waking me up.” She’s quiet for a beat. “I miss you.” Her voice breaks, and it fucking kills me to not be there.

“I miss you too. So fucking much.”

“Good night.”

“Night, sweetness.”

I’m woken up to my phone ringing and I fumble around to answer, heart thundering.

“I’m outside,” Tracy says.

“Here?” I squint to see the time and rub my fingers over my eyes when I see6:53.

“That’s what I said,” she snaps.

It’s not what she said, but I don’t argue. I’m not in the mood to deal with Tracy for a second longer than I have to.

“Just a minute,” I say and hang up.

My alarm was set to go off in a few minutes and I showered only a few hours ago, so I throw on my clothes for the day and check on Owen—still sleeping soundly—before I jog down the stairs. As soon as I open the door, Tracy rushes in, already spewing her toxic.

“How could you let this happen?” She turns on me, pointing her finger. “You better have fired that girl. I knew she was too inexperienced to take care of him when I saw her.”

“Do you want to know how our son is doing?” I pour water into the coffee maker and the beans, and for a minute, the sound of the beans grinding is the only noise.

“Of course I do,” she spits out when the noise stops. “But you’re acting like what she did was nothing, and I’m here to tell you?—”

“Owen has slept through the night. I’m sure the pain medication has helped him sleep more than anything, but he was up late last night, so that also plays a role. He?—”

“Do not act like I don’t care about my son because I’m talking about her?—”

“You haven’t once asked about him, so I thought maybe you’d want an update.”

She scowls at me and sits at the kitchen table. “You’re avoiding talking about her.”

“I’m not. I’m telling you about Owen first. Besides the broken arm, which Wyatt says should heal completely based on the break, he has a bruise on his hip and his cheek was a bit raw from landing in the snow. I was there, Tracy. Felicity is a seasoned driver. I watched her before she took him out. If I’d been driving him, it still could have happened. It also could’ve been so much worse. A fox came out of nowhere, and Felicity turned to avoidhitting it. I watched her turn to grab Owen and it was to her detriment because he had a better landing than she did.”

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