Page 86 of Never Say Never

“I know,” he says softly. “One more thing. Brandi… when I spoke to her, she called me an ass. She’s nothing like Jessica and they don’t look much alike. You need to make sure she knows that.”

“Ifshe makes it. And I’m out here. Not in there. I’m—”

“You’re right. It’s going to be a bad night, Travis. Brandi’s hours after surgery are critical. The knife… well, they told you. But if she makes it, you’ll know in the morning.”

“And if she doesn’t, she’ll die alone in ICU and I’ll be outside.”

“No, you won’t,” my twin says. “I’ll lend you a white coat, and she’ll die with your hand holding hers.”

I follow him upstairs, for the longest night of my life.

One where I’ll find out if my heart gets to live.

Or die.

25

BRANDI

The world swims about me,wavering this way and that and I want nothing more than to sink down into oblivion again. Except, except there’s something I need to do.

Panic slams cold into me, cutting through the wavering of my senses.

Jessica.

She’s going to do something to Travis, if I don’t—

“No, baby, no, she’s not.”

He needs me.

“I’m here. You’re safe.”

His voice is a balm against my senses and the panic recedes as the warmth on my hand morphs into something I know more than anything else in this world. Him. My Travis.

I try and speak, to tell him he can read my mind but words don’t come.

“Hush, no, I can hear you,” Travis says, his voice scratched and thick. “I thought… Fuck. I thought I lost you. During the night. You— I wouldn’t go. I couldn’t. And you pulled through. Stable, baby, my rock. And I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

His voice weaves a cocoon about me and I give myself over to oblivion, because I can’t stay awake.

This time, I’m not facing the onslaught of emotions at caring for my dead child.

There’s only darkness.

“But she’ll be fine?” Travis again, and I can practically see his face. He’s not holding my hand when I wake, but he’s here.

This time the light paints my vision red and I crack open my eyes, the world phasing into place.

I’m in the hospital. A constant beep next to me and a tube in my arm. And my chest, when I move, it pulls and tendrils of a deep throbbing pain run through me from that spot.

“We—”

“She’s awake.” Next thing I know, he’s coming into my line of sight.

He’s pale, he needs a shave. His eyes are bloodshot and his clothes are crumpled and he’s wearing a white coat that says Tyler Masterson.

But it’s Travis.

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