Page 33 of No Second Chances

“You’re gonna have to marry her, you know that, right?”

His eyes are locked on the doors that lead beyond the waiting room. We are the first ones there, and I take advantage of the few moments of silence before chaos descends in the form of her family to tell Chief Townsend the truth.

“I hurt her. I don’t think she’s going to give me a chance, Chief.”

His response is a snort. “Try again.”

I cough in a poor attempt to clear my throat. “If she wants me, I’ll be hers until the day I die.”

This time, he nods. “That’s my boy.”

Right on cue, the doors open behind us and the Townsends arrive en masse. First comes Veronica, Kennedy’s mother, followed closely by a very pregnant Casper and her husband Cole. Then, about thirty seconds later, Parker and Remy storm in with Nox, who is wearing a pair of bright-green pajamas. I think they are the last to arrive, until Emma and my parents walk in behind them.

“What the hell?” The question tears from my lips about the time that Mom and Veronica crash into a hug and start crying together.

“Shut up, boyo.” My father pulls me into a tight hug and slaps my back. “She’s family.”

“We don’t even know what’s going on, though.” Emotion clogs my throat, making it almost impossible to keep talking.

There I am, sitting in a hospital waiting room, with all the experience I have not only as a cop but as a Marine, and I can’t do shit for Kennedy.

“Why do we spend so much time in hospitals?” Parker asks loudly. “This shit is bananas.”

Casper plops down next to her and rests her head on Parker’s shoulder. “So much time.”

Cole takes a seat next to his wife and laughs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The only time I spend in a hospital is because of one of you Townsend lot. Car accidents, explosions overseas, I blame it all on you.”

The man has a point. Our families seem to be cursed, especially when it comes to traumatic shit happening.

“Didn’t you know?” Nox pipes up from Remy’s side. “All the best people go through the crazy stuff. At least that’s what my feelings doctor says.” He yawns loudly and curls into my best friend’s side, and I have a moment.

Nox really is the very best of all of us. Danny, Parker, Remy… all of us. Hell, he even has the sass that only Kennedy seems to have. And he is right. The traumatic shit that we’ve gone through brought us together, closer than anything else.

Emma sidles up next to me, wearing a bright-pink onesie that has white clouds all over, and leans against my shoulder, taking note of where I’m looking.

“You know he’s just like his daddy,” she murmurs quietly.

“You’re kidding, right?” I smile despite the seriousness of our situation, sitting around waiting for an update on Kennedy. “Danny would be running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He couldn’t sit still for anything.”

Emma shakes her head, and I feel it more than see what she is doing. “No, dummy. I mean that Danny always had a way of saying exactly the right thing at the right time.”

To that, I agree. “Parker told me that he fell in love with someone else overseas.” Changing the subject may be the only thing to save my sanity. “But I lived with him, Emma. I think I would have known.”

“Would you?” Emma counters, wrapping her arm around my back. “Or were you so obsessed with Kennedy, like you always have been, that you didn’t pay attention to the signs?”

Before I can protest, she goes on like she didn’t just insult me.

“Of course you wouldn’t know. You didn’t know when I fell in love for the first time. You didn’t know when Mom decided to color her hair. There are some things, big brother, that you just don’t see. And that’s okay. If Parker said it, I believe her. Think about everything she gave up for our family.” She smiles at the little family having a quiet conversation with Casper and Cole, then squeezes my waist a little bit tighter.

Alex and Veronica are rushing forward in the next second, and we turn to see Dr. Tyler Masterson standing there with an inscrutable expression on his face. Tyler’s twin is one of the deputies for Birch County, and I count both of them among my closest friends. Especially when Tyler leaves his psychotic wife at home.

“Tyler.” Alex holds his wife in his arms and stares at the young doctor, waiting for an answer about Kennedy’s condition.

“What is it about your family, Chief Townsend?” Tyler shakes his head and puts his hands in his pockets. “Kennedy is going to be fine. She’s got one hell of a concussion and a few broken ribs. But there’s no internal bleeding.”

“Concussions fucking suck,” Parker says suddenly in a singsong voice from behind me.

How I end up standing directly next to my dad, who stands on the other side of Chief Townsend, I don’t know. But there I am.

---