Page 64 of The Sweet Spot

She sobs again, and I can’t understand what she’s saying, so I press the damn gas pedal to the floor to get to her as fast as I can. “You’re scaring me, Brynn. Talk to me. I’m almost there.”

“It’s Ares...” She hiccups, and my rage suddenly has a target.

“I’ll fucking kill him if he hurt you.”

“No...” she cries harder. “Just come here, please. I need you.”

She ends the call, and I hold my breath until I get to her building and race up to her place. “Brynn...” I pound on her door. “Open the door, Brynlee.”

A door down the hall opens, and a woman looks out at me just before Brynn answers.

And holy shit, when she does, I’m not prepared for the complete devastation on her beautiful face.

“Baby.” I step inside and cup her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me. “What happened?”

She pulls back, broken and sobbing, her arms wrapped around herself, barely holding it together.

“Brynn, you’ve got to tell me something. Help me here. I don’t know what happened. I don’t—” My words die on my tongue when she shakes her head and looks away, leaving me helpless and guessing.

“Cross and Ares’s dad...” Her breath catches, and another tear falls. “He’s dead. He just died. Ares was just there last week, and he was fine, and now he’s dead.” Her tears fall faster as her shoulders shake with each new sob. “Grace and Nix flew up to Maine to be with them.”

Her knees give out, and I catch her before she falls and carry her to the couch.

I sit down with her on my lap and hold my wife as she breaks in front of my eyes.

“Were you close with him?” I ask, not having any idea how to help. She’s talked about Cross and Ares and the Sinclair twins before, but never about the Wilders’ dad.

She shakes her head no and cries harder. “I only met him once. It’s just... life is so short. And we really don’t have any control over how it ends or when it ends.” Her breaths come out short. Panicked.

Fuck. I know what’s coming next.

Her face pales. “I can’t breathe?—”

“You’re having a panic attack, baby,” I tell her calmly and wrap my arms around her, then press her against me in a deep pressure hold. The added weight has helped Kennedy before.

“Breathe with me, Brynn. Can you match your breaths to mine, baby? In for three.” I do it with her. “Hold for two.” We wait two beats. “Then exhale.”

We repeat this over a few times until eventually, she calms down enough to focus on my face, and the new tears that spring free morph into a different kind of pain. “I don’t want to die, Deacon.”

I press my lips to her forehead and hold them there. “You’re not dying for a long time. You’re going to live a long, happy life. And I’m going to be right there, making sure you’re smiling every day.”

“You don’t understand... “ she tells me through quivering lips. “My biological grandparents reached out to my dad at the beginning of the summer. We don’t have any relationship with them. Never have. So it was weird when he told us they called. Then his face...” She closes her eyes as if reliving a memory. “I’ll never forget that face as long as I live. They’d called to tell him my biological mom had died.” The sob that rips from her body barely sounds human.

“I’m so sorry, Brynn. I can’t even imagine how hard that was to hear.” I hold her so damn close, wishing I could take this pain away from her.

“That’s the thing. At first, I felt awful because I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t know her. She was never a part of my life. She literally dumped me on my dad as a baby and never looked back unless it was for money. I wasn’t heartbroken when I heard.” She closes her eyes, and a thick tear catches in her lashes. “I was numb.”

When she finally opens them, her tear-filled green eyes focus on me for the first time since I walked in, and I see my girl behind the devastation.

“I swear I’ve tried to tell you this so many times already, Deacon. But every time I’ve tried, I froze. Once I say it, I can’t un-say the words, and I’ve spent months not saying the words.”

“I’m not following you, Brynn . . .”

Fear is a funny thing. You think you know fear the first time you’re in a car accident. Or the first time you break a bone.

Then you have a kid, and fear takes on a whole new meaning. The way you fear you won’t be enough to keep them safe.

But the fear I feel now is entirely different. It’s the kind of fear you can’t possibly comprehend until the woman you love is talking about dying. Unable to breathe. Unable to calm down.

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