Page 1 of Fragile Love (Fragile 3)
Chapter 01
CAYDEN’S HANDS WERE huge compared to Lillian’s. As they sat there in the quiet of the middle of the night, she looked down at how her hands seemed to disappear when he held them. The way the shadows rippled across his skin made him look even stronger than he already was, including his hands. She never realized people could have hand muscles. Cayden was certainly teaching her a lot.
She sighed, timidly looking at him out of the corner of her eye. He was staring into the distance, some small, mysterious smile lingering on his lips. It made the corners of her mouth turn up as well.
“Hey.” She lightly tapped his shoulder. He looked down at her. “What’s that smile for?”
He blinked, like he was trying to understand what she was talking about. The grin got bigger. “Oh, this thing?” He pointed at his mouth. “This means I’m thinking of you.”
Lillian blushed.
Cayden leaned down and whispered, “Is it real?”
“Yes,” she whispered back.
“We’re not broken anymore? You and me, we’re together, right?”
“No, we’re not.” She felt slightly embarrassed about it. “I mean, we’re not broken. We’re together.” All that trouble of breaking up with him, the silly arguments, the energy she’d spent trying to get rid of her true feelings towards him. When she realized getting rid of her feelings was impossible, she tried to conceal them. That was equally impossible for them both.
I guess fate can’t be reckoned with, she thought.
“If we weren’t in a hospital right now,” Cayden murmured, his breath tickling her ear, “I would get up and dance.”
“Would you now.”
“I would.” He looked serious about it.
“What kind of dance would you do?” Lillian threw the question at him, trying not to giggle.
“Some sort of jig, definitely,” he replied, without skipping a beat.
Her eyes widened. “Wow, you certainly have given it some serious thought.”
“What do you think I’ve been envisioning, staring into the distance over here?” He winked, moving his arm to wrap around her shoulders. The hospital room was freezing; she hadn’t realized how cold she was until the warmth of his body began to thaw her out.
The clock ticked. She felt herself nodding off and didn’t fight it. The past couple of days she had barely slept, staying in this room twenty-four hours a day to make sure Andrew was fine. He looked so much better already. Lying here in the faint light in this hospital bed surrounded by machines ensuring he was stable, he looked so much like his sister, Amelia.
Lillian felt her lips form the shape of her best friend’s name. Amelia’s face appeared in her mind, smiling and laughing like she always was unless she was sharing some existential truth with someone. Only a couple of years ago, Amelia had been lying in a bed in this very same hospital. If she had been allowed in the ICU, Lillian could have walked directly to the room Amelia had been in for a day before she let go.
Her eyes grew wet, but no tears fell. She straightened her back and leaned her head on Cayden’s chest. His arm hugged her tighter, helping ease some of her emotional discomfort. Andrew’s okay, she told herself, looking at his sleeping face. He’s still here after a couple of days. The doctors said he’s going to be fine. His wreck wasn’t nearly as bad as Amelia’s.
All of a sudden, her phone vibrated in her pocket. Shifting her weight to the side, she pulled it out of her sweatshirt. Frances Waters. Andrew’s mom.
“Hi, Frances—Mom,” she croaked. “Are you two sleeping okay down there?”
“These chairs are terrible,” Frances complained, sounding just as tired as Lillian felt. “How is he?”
“Nothing has happened. He’s fine. Still asleep.”
Frances hummed. “Good. The doctor came and found us down here; I guess he didn’t know you were in there tonight.”
“What did he say?”
“He said they’re really pleased with how strong Andrew is. I don’t remember everything. All good things.”
“Great.” Lillian breathed a sigh of relief.
“You were out of the room earlier when they came in to check his sutures,” Frances continued, sounding like she was half-asleep already. “They’re going to take him back in around six. He’s got something leaking and they want to clean it up and make sure everything looks okay inside. Said it was normal. However, I might be getting all the details wrong.”
“It’s okay. It’s not a big procedure, is it?”
“No. It’s nothing serious, the way the doctor made it sound. It shouldn’t take very long, either.”
“Okay.” She rubbed her eyes. “Are you going to try to get some more sleep now?”
“Actually, we’re going home to rest for a few hours. I’ve given the doctor your phone number. I told him you won’t be far away.”
“That’s fine. Yeah, I’m going to try to get some more sleep.” She looked at Cayden. The bags under his eyes were getting darker and darker.
“Is Cayden okay?”
“He’s good.” She held the phone up to his mouth.
“Hi, Mom?” he said. “I love you.”
Lillian lightly pushed him. “He’s getting weird. Lack of sleep is getting to him.”
“It must be getting to you, too. Promise me you’ll get some rest.”
“I will.”
“And you won’t come home with us to rest?”
