Page 55 of Forged

“I’m sorry,” he said, the words gusting out of him. “I’m so sorry.”

He’d intended to walk away, leaving the chaos and frustration of Nick and his mum and the kids, and really the entire Hawthorne family behind him. Not forever, just long enough for him to gather his thoughts and settle himself. Instead, he headed back, stepping around the twisted remains of the unicorn to get to Nick.

“I am so incredibly sorry,” he said, tears stinging his eyes. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

“Are you really surprised?” Mrs. Turner inched forward, glaring at him. “This is what happens when you?—”

“Mum!” Nick shouted, twisting to frown at her. “Enough. Be quiet for once.”

Mrs. Turner was so startled that she stepped back and pressed her fingers to her thin lips.

Nick turned back to Bax, taking a deep, ragged breath. Again, Bax was certain he was about to be chewed out, but Nick said, “Don’t go,” in a tight voice. “Don’t walk away from me.”

Bax blinked, his mind reeling as he fought to adjust to the exact opposite of what he’d been certain would happen.

“I’ve wrecked all your hard work,” he said, shifting to look over his shoulder.

Rafe, Alfie, and Rhys were trying to lift the broken unicorn upright while Toby, Robbie, and Rebecca’s Claudia moved around, picking up bits of the table and some of Bax’s ceremonial tools. Nally stood to one side with Jordan holding his hand, both of them looking startled.

“It’s just a sculpture,” Nick said, his gaze still focused on Bax. “I’ll either fix it or melt it down and make something else. It’s a thing. You’re a person. I can’t replace you.”

The tears that had threatened earlier stung harder, making Bax’s eyes water. “Don’t say that,” he said. “Your art means something. It’s not inconsequential. And I know this sculpture was for Raina. It’s not scrap metal, it’syou.”

“It might as well be scrap metal,” Nick said, adjusting Macy in his arms as she settled a little. “Yes, my art is important, but something has been off with that piece since I started making it. I can deal with fixing it, but I don’t think I could deal with you walking away and us losing this thing we have growing between us.”

“I wasn’t leaving you,” Bax said, moving closer to Nick. He reached out, but instead of touching Nick, he rubbed his hand over Macy’s back, calming her a little more. “I just needed a timeout. Yes, it all got a bit too much for me. Things do sometimes. But a walk and a few deep breaths would have fixed everything.”

He switched hands, caressing the side of Nick’s stubbly face. “I’m not going anywhere. Yes, things are strained, but I?—”

His tender words were cut short by Jordan’s sudden, ear-splitting howl of pain.

Bax caught his breath and whipped around as Nick lurched forward. Jordan had stepped into the mess of twisted metal and splintered table. There was no telling exactly how he’d done it, but his hand was completely sliced open, along with a bit of his forearm. Blood seeped out everywhere.

“Jordan,” Nick gasped. He pushed Macy into Bax’s arms then leapt forward to rescue Jordan.

Everything that had ground to a halt moments before raced into motion. Rafe, Rhys, and Alfie hastened their efforts to get the gnarled sculpture out of the way as Nick swept Jordan up into his arms and moved him to a clear spot of grass to get a better look at his cut.

“Water!” he called out. “I need water to clean this and see how deep it is.”

Janice and Robert scrambled to look for water.

“It looks really deep,” Blaine said, grabbing a bottle of water that had been with the refreshments and crouching by Nick’s side. He opened it before handing it over.

“What happened?” Bax asked, struggling to keep Macy from wriggling out of his arms. “I didn’t see.”

“He reached out to touch the metal just as we lifted the sculpture,” Rafe said, striding back around to where Nick was washing out a screaming Jordan’s cut. “It happened so fast that I didn’t see more than that.”

“My poor baby,” Mrs. Turner wailed as she pushed Rebecca out of the way so she could kneel by Nick’s side. “He’ll lose too much blood. It looks like you nearly sliced his hand clean off.”

From where Bax was standing, it didn’t look like Jordan was in any danger of losing his hand, but he was losing a lot of blood.

“Should we take him to A&E?” he asked, uncertain whether he should join the crush of people crowding around Nick or stand back.

“I’ll run upstairs and get your car keys and wallet,” Rebecca said, running off.

“We could call an ambulance?” Rafe suggested.

“It’s not that bad,” Nick said, “but the bleeding doesn’t look like it will stop. It’s okay love,” he tried to soothe Jordan.

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