Page 66 of One Night With You

“Like make a video or something?” Daisy asked. “Or give him presents?”

“We can totally do that. Presents for the whole ward if we can,” Claire answered, a little excitement in hervoice. I shifted, both of us moving forward on the couch.

“I can talk with the staff member I’ve been working with at the hospital, see if there’s something we could do last minute.”

“As for Buckley, I know we might not be able to get into the room, depending on his white blood cell count, but maybe we can just do something for his family.”

I looked down at Claire and kiss the top of her head. “You’re fucking amazing.”

“It’s nothing. I just hate the fact that there’s nothing you can do right now, so maybe there’s something I can do. I plan parties for a living. I can plan this. Do you think you can give my number to his mom, too? Just so I can test the waters.”

I brushed my thumb along her cheekbone, ignoring everyone else in the room.

“Let’s see if it works out. Maybe not something big. Maybe we can do something.”

“Anything. I’m there to help. Help all of you.”

I brushed a kiss to her lips, ignoring the hoots and hollering at the gesture, and then settled back into the couch, Claire in my arms, and figured that this felt right.

Even if it felt as if we were moving at the speed of a bullet train, it felt fucking right.

And why did that scare me?

15

CLAIRE

“Istill can’t believe you guys are doing all of this. I’m just overwhelmed.”

Buckley’s mom reached out and patted Kingston’s forearm, her eyes filling with tears. It was all I could do not to cry with her. My emotions had been all over the place these days, but crying in front of a woman who was in the middle of a circle of hell wouldn’t help anyone.

“Of course we’re here. And as soon as you feel like we’re too much, we’ll leave. I promise. We just wanted to do something.” I heard the sound of defeat in his voice, and I knew that he was hurting. He wanted to do so much—toomuch. Maybe it was to try to do what he couldn’t do for Eddie, or maybe it was just his way. I hated the idea that we would be too late, that wewouldn’t be enough. But if we could put a smile on Buckley’s little face, as well as make a few other children down on this ward laugh, then we would.

As soon as the idea for a little party had come to my mind, we had put plans in motion. That meant talking to Buckley’s mom, as well as the staff on the children’s cancer board. Just the idea of a children’s cancer board made my stomach hurt because there was so much that we couldn’t do. I couldn’t cure cancer. I couldn’t save a life. But I could bring a little joy, a little light in the darkness.

It honestly wasn’t that hard of a job, other than thinking of something to do for Buckley since we couldn’t enter the room he was in. He needed to be in a sterilized environment at least for now, with hope of a donation, so we took the party to the room right outside so he could still see us, and we could talk to him, and for the other children we had plans that the staff and care workers allowed us to bring in.

“We’re here for however long you need us,” I said, as Buckley’s mother turned to me and smiled.

“Thank you so much. You guys are so creative, no balloons and clowns in sight.” She shuddered. “I’m terrified of clowns, and someone decided to bring one along last time, and I’m afraid that my fear of clowns has moved on to my son.”

“No, clowns are…a no,” Kingston said as he visibly shuddered. Watching a most likely six-foot four man with broad shoulders and all muscle shudder at the mere mention of a clown was one of the cutest things I had ever seen.

It was seriously hard not to fall completely and madly in love with this man.

“My brother and a lot of our friends are tattoo artists, so I figured temporary tattoos done by actual tattoo artists on those who want them, and children who can have the hypoallergenic fake ink would be perfect.”

And the best part of all of it was that because I had found a printer who could make them on the fly for us, especially when I had told him what the temporary tattoos were for, each of the Montgomerys at Montgomery Legacy, Montgomery Ink, and Montgomery Ink Too, did personalized art for the children. Their parents had told us what some of their favorite things were, whether it was a comic book character, or an abstract piece of art. Just something to make them smile. Every single one of these kids were under the age of fifteen, and some of their favorites were of puppies and kittens with unicorns and rainbows, and it broke my heart because I knew that they were all hurting and putting on brave faces for us.

“I know a couple of the moms were a little skepticalof you guys showing up with fake tattoos, but in the end, they know it’s all just for fun. And safe.”

“One hundred percent safe. We cleared it with all their doctors, and we’ll be good.”

“And we’ll have Buckley’s ready for him when he is all out of isolation,” Kingston said, his voice low, full of promise.

“Yes. Exactly.” Buckley’s mother’s voice broke ever so slightly, before she rolled her shoulders back and lifted her chin. Ever the strong mother who would not let anyone see her weak, or frail.

I reached out and squeezed her hand again.

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