Page 32 of All In

Is Natalie my future?

How will the team survive this?

The only thing I know right now is that I can’t get answers to any of these questions by standing in my room.

Stepping into the hall, I see Chloe shutting the bathroom door behind her. Tiffany is walking down the stairs, and there is no sign of Natalie. I walk over to Chloe just as she notices me. Leaning forward, she rests her forehead on my chest. “Nattie is still in the bathroom. She asked us to give her a minute. Said she’d be right behind us.”

“How is she?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Chloe looks back at the bathroom door. “I think she’s going to be okay. But I don’t know if the shock of it all has worn off yet. Should we have called her dad?”

“Why don’t you head downstairs. See if Sebastian needs help with Cooper. I’ll wait here for Nat. Only Nat can decide if she wants to call her dad. That’s not up to us.”

“Yeah. I guess. Are you alright, Brady?”

“Nobody hurt me, Chloe.”

“I don’t believe that for one second. This hurt all of us. Maybe not the same as Nat, but that was some crazy stuff happening downstairs.”

“Go ahead downstairs and help with Cooper. I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Brady.” She lowers her voice. “Be careful with her. She’s really upset.”

“Yeah. I got it. I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Okay. Let me see what Tiffany is doing with the guys. Did you ever think she would be the one to keep it together in a crisis? Because it shocked me. I always figured she would cause the crisis or be stuck somewhere in the middle of it. She impressed me tonight.”

“Maybe we all underestimated her.”

“Guess so.” She looks so unsure of herself right now. So unlike my sister. “See you downstairs. Love you, big brother.” She gives me a tight hug, then leaves me alone with my thoughts.

I stand there, leaning against the wall, staring at the bathroom door. I’m starting to think I should just go downstairs when it cracks open. Natalie is there, in the doorway. She hasn’t looked up yet, and I watch as she takes a deep breath before lifting her head. When she sees me, those baby blue eyes are big and surprised. They are rimmed red from crying, and my beautiful girl looks pale.

“Sorry. I thought I was alone up here.”

“You were alone in there. Chloe said you needed a minute, but I wanted to make sure you were alright when you were ready. You want to go downstairs?”

“Not really.” She laughs. It’s tight and forced. Then wraps her arms around herself. “I kinda just want to go to bed and sleep until I wake up and realize this was all a bad dream. But that’s not going to happen. So, I might as well get this over with.”

She takes another deep breath, then continues, “I feel so stupid.”

“Nat, you have nothing to feel stupid about. None of this was your fault. We’re all on your side. Just tell us what you need from us.” Pushing off the wall, I offer her my hand.

She takes it without hesitation.

It feels so small and delicate, and I wish more than anything I could wrap my arms around her right now and tell her everything was going to be okay, but none of us can know that.

Not without knowing what happened.

I shudder thinking about how easily Nat could have been hurt tonight. “Come on. Your brother is ready to run through us all to get to you.”

“I’m surprised he hasn’t forced his way up here.”

“Bash was with him when I came up. I don’t know how much longer he’s going to wait.”

She leans into my side, like she needs my support.

I wonder if she senses how much her touch is calming me?

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