Page 113 of Up In Flames
“Livvy, this isn’t your fault.”
“How bad is it?” she asks through sniffles.
I don’t believe in giving families false hope. So, I don’t.
“It’s bad. Even if he pulls through, he has a long road ahead of him.”
“Mr. Bennett?” The sound of Taylor’s mom’s voice makes me pull back from Livvy, but Liv continues clutching my arm. Her presence is welcome by my side despite her earlier reservations about her brother and me.
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Landry.” I nod. “I’m sorry to see you under these circumstances.”
“But what are you doing here?” Mr. Landry asks.
I rub a hand across the back of my neck. “Along with my contracting business, I’m also a volunteer firefighter, sir. My unit got the call about Tay’s…um, Taylor’s accident.” I swallow hard to dislodge the lump in my throat threatening to cut off my air supply as I wait for their response. I wish I could tell them what Taylor means to me, but I don’t want to out our relationship untilhe’sready. He’s had his reasons for not telling them yet, and I’ve learned my lesson and will never speak for him again without his permission.
But Livvy doesn’t feel the same way. She squeezes my hand, and I’m grateful for her reassurance…and then she opens her mouth.
“Mom, Dad, Knox is also Taylor’s boyfriend. They started seeing each other a few months ago when Tay knocked himself out by wrecking his jet ski while you were gone on that vacation. Knox took care of him.”
“Livvy,” I groan, scrubbing a hand down my face. “That should have come from me.”
“No,” she argues. “Thatshouldhave come from Tay…like, two months ago.”
“He wasn’t ready,” I choke out, unable to meet his parents’ gaze.
“Well, he just ran out of time to be ready. You think you’re going to be able to hide how you feel as soon as you see him? You get all twitchy when you’re not touching him, and your eyes never leave him when you’re in the same room. You think they weren’t going to notice something’s up?”
Blowing out a breath, I face my boyfriend’s parents.
“Mr. and Mrs. Landry, I never intended for this to happen, but Taylor is…” I trail off, not knowing how to finish, so his father does it for me.
“Taylor is Taylor. Why don’t we get settled? Looks like we’ll be here a while. We can discuss this once we know our son is going to pull through.”
I nod while thinking to myselfand if he doesn’t, they might as well bury me right alongside him.
Chapter 40
Taylor
Arhythmic beeping is the only sound I hear at first, but the voices soon follow.
I try to piece together the information I’m hearing. I try to remember where I am, but everything hurts, including using my brain. I try to break through the fog, but I hear a whoosh followed by a ding, and the edges of my brain go dark again.
Chapter 41
Knox
Once Taylor is out of surgery and moved to a private room, his parents tell the rest of his siblings to come over. When Taylor’s brother Ashton and his older sister Francesca arrive at the hospital, Taylor’s dad tries to edge me out of the room, saying he feels it isn’t appropriate for me to be here.
“You can kick me out, but the hallway is fair game, and I’ll sit there until Taylor wakes up.”
He seems hellbent on arguing until Livvy speaks up again. “Dad, I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not the same. Trust me, Bird would want him here, and I think we can all agree that whatever gets him through this is what we should do.”
I’ve never loved her more.
Finally, Taylor’s dad huffs and takes a seat next to his wife, dropping the argument.
I’m already running on the fumes of adrenaline, butnothingcould have prepared me for Taylor’s twin brother showing up.
