Page 49 of Summer of You

Nathan’s head shot up. “What?”

Drew sighed and coughed a few times. “When Natasha found out she was pregnant, her mother stepped in. I wasn’t allowed to see her or the baby. It was for the best because I’d failed to help Natasha to begin with.”

The whole reason Drew had stayed at the beach instead of moving to Seattle with his family was to stay close to the daughter he wasn’t allowed to see.

The look of betrayal was hard to miss on Nathan’s face. “Well, I guess I should go call everyone and let them know you’re in the hospital again.”

As he moved to leave the room, Drew grabbed his hand. “Let me tell them everything else?”

He looked between his uncle and Gabriella and nodded. I followed him out into the hall.

Chapter 34

Nathan

“Dammit.”

“I get that you’re mad.”

“Mad?”

“You have a right to be.”

I laughed as I combed my hands through my hair. “I’ve been living in his house for almost two months and you’d think he’d take the time to tell me he had a daughter that he’d known about for twenty-five years? Hell! At any point in my life, he could have told me.”

Chase approached with caution and wrapped his arms around my middle. I instantly deflated and sank against him. It was impossible to be so worked up in his presence. He’d finally fallen apart in the waiting room and I was amazed by how quickly he’d slipped that mask back on, but he’d been wearing it for years. Would I ever get to a point that I’d be able to turn off my emotions like that? Did I want to? I hated that he could.

I finally pulled my phone from my pocket and made the phone call I’d been dreading since we got to the hospital. At least he wasn’tdead, but this responsibility was the worst. I didn’t want to be the one to tell everyone that Uncle Drew had another close call. But it was better than the last time when I couldn’t respond at all. At least I was there.

“Mom?”

My mother was instantly on high alert when she answered. “What happened?”

Explaining things to her was easier than I expected. She was much more calm than I was. While we were on the phone, she’d gathered Dad and Aiden and had them loaded into the car to start their drive south before we even hung up. She promised to take over calling the rest of the family and that Dad would be the one driving.

After hanging up, I couldn’t bring myself to go back into the room yet. I grabbed Chase’s hand and pulled him to the elevators. “Where are we going?”

“I need to eat something. Or do something. I don’t know.”

He nodded and trailed behind me wordlessly. We followed signs to the cafeteria and grabbed little individually wrapped sandwiches and sat at a table to eat them. The bread was dry and I probably should have looked for condiment packets, but it all seemed fitting. A shitty sandwich to end what should have been an amazing day.

“I’m sorry.”

Chase tilted his head to the side and studied me as he chewed his bite of food. “Why are you sorry?”

I set my meal down and grabbed my head, frustration washing over me in waves. “Because today should’ve been special.”

He laughed, little breadcrumbs spraying from his mouth. “You mean dry-ass sandwiches in a hospital cafeteria aren’t special?”

I groaned and looked at him from between my fingers. It was nice to see a smile on his face, to know that today hadn’t messed with him too badly. At least from what he was showing.

“I never imagined that saying I was in love with you would end with getting a call that my uncle had a heart attack.”

Chase laughed harder now. “I mean, it’s a little funny, if you really think about it.”

“How is it funny?”

“Oh Chase, I love you so much! It has so much impact that it almost kills someone.”

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