Page 27 of Serenity

When my phone rang again, I expected it to be my mom since I hadn’t answered my dad’s call and it wasn’t unheard of for them to tag-team parent like that. I was surprised when I glanced at the screen and saw Corey’s name instead. It’d been at least two months since we’d last talked, and he’d replied with text messages the last couple of times I’d triedcallinghim.

“Dude, where the hell haveyoubeen?”

“Sorry, man. My dad actually flew out here in April and things got superweird.”

“Parents,” I sighed. “They sure can fuckthingsup.”

“What the hell do you have to complain about? Your mom and dad areperfect.”

“They fell off that pedestal pretty fucking hard,” I said before filling him in on everything that had happened over thepastweek.

“Fucking A, dude. What the hell is up with parents and secretslately?”

I felt like an ass for dumping my problems on him when it was obvious he had his own shit going on in his life. “Were yours keeping something important fromyoutoo?”

“That’s putting it mildly.” I heard a muffled thumping sound and had the impression he was banging his head againstsomething.

“You want to talk about it? I’ve got time,” I offered. “Faith is happily gossiping with a nurse upstairs, and I’m sure most of it isaboutme.”

“Now’s not a great time for me because I’m in the airport waiting for my flight. We should be boarding soon, but I was calling to see if that offer was still good? For me to use my old room? I know you really did replace me with a new roomie. But I figure since Faith is bunking with you, it’s not like my room isn’t sittingempty.”

Fuck, this was awkward. Corey was my best friend, and I’d totally meant it when I’d told him he could have his room back. But that was before Faith had moved in with me. Before we discovered the secret my parents were hiding from me. And before she got sick. It was absolute shit timing to even consider having my best friend move inwithus.

“Dude. Relax. I’m just fucking with you,” he laughed. “I can almost hear your brain getting ready to explode from halfway around theworld.”

“Asshole.”

“What can I say? I had to at least give you a little bit of a hard time since you weresocertain I was wrong about Faith moving in with you. I totally called it, man. You were ape shit over that girl from the momentyoumet.”

“Still am.” And I alwayswouldbe.

“Thank fuck some things haven’t changed.” I couldn’t tell if he sounded more pissed or upset, and he didn’t give me the chance to ask. “Gotta go. They’re boarding now. I’m going to be wrapped up in family shit when I get back, but I promise I’ll be intouch.”

“You better. And if things get really bad, you can crash at our place for a little while. I’m sure Faith willunderstand.”

“Nah, I’ll be fine. If worse comes to worse, I’ll reach out to Gramps and ask him to get me a suite at one of the five star hotels downtown. Room service and housekeeping make everything better,right?”

What the hell?Things had to be royally fucked for Corey to even consider calling his grandfather and asking for help. As far as I knew he hadn’t talked with him since he was in high school. But before I had the chance to react, he disconnected the call and my phone started to ringagain.

When I saw Faith’s name pop up on the screen, I grabbed my tray and dumped the contents into the trash. Racing out the door, I answered, “You okay? I’m on my waybackup.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to let you know that Stacey just left and my nurse came by to let me know Dr. Stewart should be in to see me again any minute. My test results came back, and he’s looking themovernow.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes. Do me a favor and ask him to wait until I get there if he beats me toyourroom?”

“You clearly don’t remember what it was like to be in the hospital.” I easily pictured Faith rolling her eyes as she spoke. “Any minute really means sometime in thenexthour.”

“With my luck lately, he’ll be there and gone before the elevator even comes,” Igrumbled.

“Yeah, those are notoriously slow too. But don’t worry. I’ll stall him if a miracle occurs and he shows up beforeyoudo.”

It was a good thing I’d asked her to wait because that miracle did happen, and Dr. Stewart was with Faith in her room when I made it upstairs. “Did I missanything?”

“Not a thing. Faith insisted that I couldn’t start until youwereback.”

“Thanks.” I pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before I sat down on the chair next to her. “How’dshedo?”

“Better than Iexpected.”

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