Page 100 of Eight Years Gone

The visits had become fewer and farther between after graduation—after Logan had stopped talking to his dad entirely and Grace had been stuck in the middle.

Eventually, the trips to Philly stopped altogether when Steve grew more frustrated with his son and started dropping hints that Jagger wasn’t good enough for his daughter.

Jagger made it through a yellow light, then stopped for the red up the next block. Glancing Grace’s way as the windshield wipers swiped at the rain, he caressed his thumb along her knuckles. “It’s just for a little while.”

She continued to stare out the window. “We should have stayed. Or I should have stayed, anyway.”

He shook his head. “You won’t be any good to him exhausted.”

She sighed as she met his gaze. “It doesn’t matter if I lie down. I won’t be able to sleep.”

He imagined that might be true, especially after he told her what he’d been holding off saying. But eventually, her body would give her no choice but to rest. He wanted her near an actual bed when she finally gave in.

Pressing on the gas as the light turned green, he slammed on the brake when a pedestrian walked into the street. “Idiot,” he muttered, tapping the horn.

The man tossed up his hand in a quick wave, then kept jogging across to the curb.

Shaking his head, Jagger started moving again.

“He didn’t have the right of way.”

Jagger glanced at Grace again. “No, he definitely didn’t.”

“It’s ironic that my dad’s the one lying in a hospital bed because he would never have done anything stupid like that.”

Jagger exhaled a quiet breath as he gripped her hand tighter.

“I’m realizing I don’t even know where it happened.”

“On Chestnut Street.”

Grace looked at him.

“Paul filled me in,” he explained.

“There was an accident. He got hit by a car. That’s all Paul said. I didn’t think to ask about the rest.”

He nodded, even when this wasn’t how or where he wanted to tell her. But she needed the answers. She deserved them. “A college kid got clipped on his bike and flipped over the handlebars. Your dad and the driver were getting him out of the road. Your dad shoved them out of the way when the car came.”

He imagined the accident would make the news with all its gory details. It probably already had. He wanted to protect her from the truth, but there was no way to do so, so he gave it to her as gently as he could. “The driver hit him hard, Grace. He flew up over the car.”

She stared at him as her fingers went lax against his.

“It was an older woman who didn’t see him on the road. I don’t know if there have been any further developments. I’ll contact the police once we get settled.”

She swallowed as she looked out the windshield again.

“I’m sorry, Gracie. I’m sorry that any of this is happening at all.”

She said nothing as she let him go to clutch her hands together in her lap and close her eyes.

Damn it. Flipping on the blinker, he turned right for the parking garage beneath Steve’s building, using the fob on the keychain to open the gate.

Driving through, he pulled into one of Steve’s reserved spots next to Steve’s prized Jaguar on the second deck, then shut off the ignition. “Grace.”

“He was helping someone. He was doing the right thing. How does something like this happen when you’re doing the right thing?”

“I don’t know.” He released his seat belt, then hers, doing his best to pull her against him with the console between them, feeling her body trembling as she held herself rigid.

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