Page 47 of Summer of You

“Are you going to be okay?” Chase’s voice was gentle, and I threaded my fingers with his when he reached across the console and held my hand.

“I really don’t know.” Maybe I would be once I saw my uncle, but this was only a small taste of what Chase had lived through when he’d gotten the call about his parents.

I instantly felt like shit. What was he going through at that moment? Outwardly, he seemed composed, possibly for my sake. Would he collapse the second everything calmed down again?

This time, I would be there for him the second he fell apart.

The drive felt like it took five hours. Maybe time always felt like it slowed down when you were in a hurry to get somewhere. The ominous white building that made up Providence Medical Center was overwhelming, and my feet didn’t want to move to enter the building. What if the worst occurred during our drive? They’d call us to let us know he’d passed, wouldn’t they?

Maybe not. Who wanted to receive that sort of news over the phone? “Hi, Mr. Grant, sorry to tell you that your boyfriend just broke twenty different traffic laws for no reason. Your uncle died en route.”

Chase looked at me like I’d lost my mind when I snorted a laugh, shaking my head before heading to the front doors. Myheart thudded so hard against my ribs that I was sure I was going to have my own cardiac emergency. At least we were already at the hospital.

There was a large U-shaped desk that was staffed by a bored-looking woman wearing a headset. She tapped lazily at the computer as if the lives of others’ loved ones didn’t hang in the balance. I approached slowly, and she lifted a manicured finger in a gesture to wait as she took a sip from a coffee cup before giving me a tight smile. “How can I help you, gentlemen?”

I frowned. “My uncle was supposed to have been brought here. I got a call to come find him...”

The woman posed with her hands over her keyboard and cocked an eyebrow at me. Crap, she lacked empathy and proper customer service skills. This had to make things miserable for anyone trying to visit a friend or family member.

“His name is Drew Morris. He was brought here from Ocean Shores with a cardiac emergency.”

The woman typed, her fingers pecking one at a time over the keys. When Chase’s hands landed on my shoulders, they lowered from my ears and then relaxed further when he began rubbing soothing circles into my shoulder blades with his thumbs. “It’s all good, babe.”

Was it good? The woman looked up at us, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks and out of nowhere she started typing much faster, as if realizing that I wasn’t going to go off on her.

“It looks like he’s on the fourth floor. They are only allowing one family member in with him at this time, and it looks like someone is already there. You can head up to the nurse’s station if you want and let them know you’re here.”

I shot for the elevators. What the hell did she mean someone was already here? I was listed as his emergency contact and I hadn’t called anyone.

“Would you slow down?”

I huffed as the elevator doors closed and the car began to rise.

“I’m just a little freaked.”

Chase’s eyebrows rose. “If anyone gets it, it’s me.”

I instantly fell into him, wrapping my arms around him. “I know, and I’m so thankful you’re here with me for this.”

Chase hugged me back, kissing the side of my head as the elevator doors opened again. A couple stood there and smiled at us before stepping aside to let us off. My palms were slick with sweat because it was one thing to have been open with my friends and family about being bisexual, but this was my first time out somewhere so public with a boyfriend. Ocean Shores was so tiny that it hardly felt like it counted.

The fourth floor was busy. Nurses were moving in and out of patient rooms and working around a big desk in the middle. I felt out of place, but walked up to the desk and asked for my uncle’s room. The nurse gave me the number, but directed me to the waiting room, keeping up with the information that only onefamily member would be allowed in with him at a time. She refused to answer me about who was currently in his room.

Chase sat on the couch while I paced the waiting room. My legs wouldn’t let me rest until I saw the man with my own two eyes. My mind raced with all the outcomes. They still hadn’t told me about his current condition and maybe I’d settle the fuck down as soon as I knew something.

The clicking of heels down the hall had my heart racing. Was that the doctor coming to tell me the horrible news? A nurse to tell me that visiting hours were over and that we’d driven all this way for nothing? No... I wasn’t prepared to see a very sheepish-looking Gabriella come around the corner. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a half ponytail and she looked a little too put together for what was happening with my uncle.

“Gabi...” I didn’t get to finish before she ran at me and wrapped me in a tight hug. Her whole body shook with sobs. I patted her back and held her for a moment before Chase got up and joined us.

“I’m sorry. I had been giving him this cough medicine when he was sick and I wasn’t thinking. They said it’s not good for people with high blood pressure and it’s what made his go through the roof.”

I shushed her before I pushed her gently on the shoulders. Her perfect makeup was all smudged and I wondered just how long she’d been trying to hold it all together.

Chapter 33

Chase

Watching Nathan with Gabriella was different. He was gentle, more reserved. Not that I didn’t like how he treated me. His relationships with other people would always be different. But it made me feel uneasy all the same, almost insecure. It didn’t matter that he’d just told me he loved me back at the beach before all this shit went down.

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