Page 9 of Top Shelf

I hang up, folding my hands in my lap to keep them from shaking. After a brief moment, I feel Tyson’s hand slide across the center console and into my lap.

“Hey,” he whispers, and I force myself to look at him. “I’m here. I’m right here.”

I nod slowly, staring down at his hands on mine. Then I slowly pull them out from under his. And he slowly, painfully, retreats his own.

Two hours later, we are pulling into the parking lot of Layton Memorial.

“Can you just drop me at the door?” I ask him. He looks at me.

“Sure. I can park and come—”

I pause before I reach for the handle.

Then I look at him.

“I’m not so sure you should… I don’t think… I think I should go in alone.”

His eyes widen, but he nods.

“Sure, yeah,” he says. “Whatever you want. Just call me when you’re done. I can come get you, or—”

I bite my lip as I look into his eyes.

Then I nod.

“Okay,” I say, getting out of the car. “Thank you, Tyson.”

I close the door, then turn away before he can say anything else.

CHAPTERFIVE

tyson

You’re already losing her,Calway.

The thought keeps forcing itself into my brain. I shake it away as I pull out of the hospital parking lot and onto the road.

I keep looking in my rearview mirror, as if she’s going to come running back out, waving me down, asking me to take her away again.

But she doesn’t. And before I know it, I can’t see the hospital anymore.

I’m an anxious mess for the next twenty-four hours. Finally, I cave and pull out my phone.

I’m sorry to bother you. I’m just checking in.

I take a deep breath, then press send.

And then I wait.

I go back to my dad’s, and I don’t say much to my family.

I don’t eat any of the food he’s made that’s sitting on the kitchen island.

I kiss my little sister on the top of her head and then make my way up to my room.

Two hours later, I wake up to my phone buzzing on the nightstand next to me.

Not buzzing, just one single, solitary buzz. A text. From Sadie.

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