I was the only child, and my parents had me in their forties. I was never supposed to be born because my mother was told she couldn’t have kids. They loved me and cared for me until they died around ten years ago. I don’t have anyone else. And then I met Kendrick, so I have lost the sense of what family is supposed to be like.
As I see them all getting into the truck, Heaven hobbling with his broken leg and Owen climbing into the driver’s seat to drive, I know this is what happens when people love one another.
Jaxon slides into the backseat, along with Heaven and Grayson. Sebastian and I sit up front. I am in the middle, squeezed between Owen and Sebastian.
Quinn cries in the back seat, and Jaxon pets her hair, whispering something in her ear that is private, but I know it has to be words full of love. Heaven rubs her back, and Grayson massage her calves.
She is like a sister to them.
Would that happen with me and Sebastian? Would I become part of this family, or does Sebastian want me to leave eventually? We haven’t done much talking. We have too much ‘catching up’ to do, so where does that leave us now?
Owen slams the truck in reverse, and once he is out of the garage, Sebastian clicks the garage door shut. The tires skid against the pavement as he speed away. The Cliff House is nestled in a corner, away from the main road and the driveway is long, venturing into the woods before it breaks out to the highway. Owen jerks the wheel right, and Sebastian flips on the hazard lights.
The night turns into a tunnel as we barrel through it. The tall redwood trees on either side of us are eerie at night. The trees are encroaching, the branches are long arms ready to grab whoever dares enter the forest. I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
Not everything in life is a nightmare.
I grip Sebastian’s hand tighter and do my best to tune out the sound of Quinn’s painful sobs. I am scared for her. From what I understand, Jaxon and Quinn have a past too, and they finally got their happily ever after. I don’t want them to have it ripped away from them. It isn’t fair.
How much agony does someone have to go through to finally reach never ending happiness? I don’t understand life sometimes, the cruelty behind it, the reasoning for bad things to happen to good people; it leaves me baffled.
“How far is the hospital?” I ask, hoping that we will get there in time.
“Another five minutes,” Owen says, glancing in the rearview mirror. I don’t like the look on his face. There isn’t much hope. He doesn’t seem like a hopeful guy, though. I don’t blame him. I’m not either. It is better to be prepared for the worst than hope for the best.
It’s the cold, hard truth. Expectations are a bitch, and they aren’t afraid to show their ugly colors when the time presents itself.
“We’re here.” Owen turns into the parking lot, running over the rose bushes by the sign, and the truck crawls over the curb with no problem. He slams on the brakes in front of the emergency room, and Jaxon is out of the truck before it stops moving. He swings Quinn up in his arm and rushes inside the building.
“I’ll go with them. You park the truck,” Grayson says.
Owen pulls away and finds the closest parking spot. He lets the truck idle for a minute, worry thick in the air. I’m not even sure a knife could cut it. “What do you think it is?” I ask, staring at Owen’s profile. He is a handsome man, brooding. He sees darkness in everything. It explains his demeanor. Men like him are dangerous if they aren’t careful.
“It could be a few things,” he says, tilting his head back as he exhales a heavy breath. “I just hope it isn’t any of those things. I’m not sure if they can come back from it. Jaxon and Quinn, they were a long time in the making. Kids were the next logical step.”
“Could it just be pain?”
“Sure. Pain is normal. I’m not sure what it is like with twins.”
“So, you are a doctor?” I remember my question from earlier.
“Something like that,” he answers the same way he did before. “Come on, let’s go. Jaxon is probably going out of his mind.” Then he pauses getting out of the truck. He looks like he has something further to say, but he rolls his shoulders and shuts the door.
Sebastian helps me out of the truck and starts to walk away when there is a knock on the back window. “Hey! Remember me? Your assholes need to help me out. I could climb in, but I can’t climb out,” Heaven’s eyes are round, and he places his palm on the window, pouting his lip.
“He’s so fucking dramatic,” Owen says with more fondness than I thought he possessed. He stomps toward the truck, opens the back door, and reaches inside the cab.
“Hey, new shirt!” Heaven would have rolled out of the truck if it wasn’t for Owen supporting him.
“Get your crippled ass in gear. Jaxon needs us.”
“Hey, I wouldn’t have had to bang on the window, like a forgotten dog or something if you guys would have remembered me.” He hobbles in front of us, and I don’t know him well enough to know if he is kidding or not.
“Don’t be like that, Heaven,” Owen groans.
“Nope, talk to the hand.” Heaven tries to hurry away, he really does, but his cast is too heavy. He drags it along the road and before I can warn him, it slams against a tire of another truck we are passing. Heaven falls backward and Sebastian tries to catch him, but it is too late. Heaven falls and his head hits against the pavement so hard, he is immediately unconscious.
“Heaven!” I yell for him, but he doesn’t move.
“At least we are at the hospital. And he isn’t yapping. Thank god for small favors,” Owen slings Heaven over his shoulder and marched to the entrance of the emergency room.
“He’s kidding, right? Heaven is bleeding!” I point to Owen’s whistling form walking away, and Sebastian places his hand in the middle of my shoulder blades, silently telling me to move forward.
“Kind of. Let’s just get to Jaxon. Heaven will be fine.”
“Okay.” After a few seconds of walking, I turn to Sebastian. His jaw seems sharper, more defined in the dark. He must be the only man or thing in existence that doesn’t scare me in the dark.
I hate the dark.
Horrible, treacherous, heinous things happen in the dark. Things that can’t be seen, but are never forgotten. The dark is tricky like that, keeps your hackles on the rise, and feeds off your anxiety.
Like right now.
It is pitch black out. Only the emergency room light illuminates red onto the parking lot and a few street-lamps flicker on and off in the distance. While I am at the safest place I can be, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I look around, seeing nothing but cars, but the feeling is there; my instincts scream at me that someone is watching me.
Chapter Nineteen
SEBASTIAN
What a fucking night.
Jaxon is at the hospital with Quinn. So far, everything was fine with her, but they wanted to keep her for observation. The pain she was experiencing was normal, but some people handle pain differently, and the fact that she was hungry and dehydrated didn’t help matters any. It wasn’t often we went out in public like that. We don’t like showing our faces just in case anyone recognizes us, and we want to avoid as much drama as possible.