“Yeah. Your mom and dad were still arguing on their way out. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a long night for them. And Ember and Ally told me to give you their love and call at any time.” A ghost of a smile pulled at the corner of his lips. “They’ll all be back first thing in the morning. You should get some rest.”
She opened her mouth to tell him he could go home, but closed it again. There was something reassuring about having him here, only the two of them and Nick in the dark, silent hospital. It made her feel less alone. “You want to get a coffee?” she asked him. “The café’s open twenty-four hours a day.”
“Is it okay to leave Nick?”
“Yeah, for a few minutes. I’ll ask the nurse to keep an eye on him. He won’t wake until morning. Not after everything that’s happened tonight.” And coffee sounded heavenly. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had liquids. Her thoughts turned to the gala before she turned them resolutely away again. She wasn’t sure she had the energy to dwell on that.
After a brief discussion with the nurse, they rode the elevator in silence, both of them too stuck in their own thoughts to say much.
The café was deserted, apart from a couple of nurses taking their break in the far corner. The barista took their order, and methodically filled up the espresso machine with coffee beans, pulling handles and moving cups until he slid their two mugs of latte across the counter. Aiden grabbed them both, leading her over to a table next to a window, looking out across the night time bay, the darkness occasionally broken by flashing beacons flooding light across the surface of the ocean.
Brooke took the chair opposite Aiden’s. Lifting the cup to her lips, she took a sip, then baulked at the heat searing at her tongue. “Ouch.” She grimaced, putting the cup back down.
“Too hot?”
“Way too hot.”
When she lifted her gaze she saw him staring right at her with those warm, whiskey eyes that saw right inside her.
“I’m sorry,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “None of this should have happened.”
He clearly wasn’t talking about the burning coffee, even though her tongue was still stinging from the onslaught. Her fingers were trembling, like leaves fluttering in a breeze. The shock of tonight’s events made everything seem hazy – like an old movie she could barely recall.
“I don’t think I can talk about this now,” she told him. Her voice cracked at the end of her sentence. “I’m so tired and scared, and part of me is still pissed about everything that happened tonight. I can’t go there right now.”
“I understand.” Aiden pulled his gaze from hers, swallowing hard as he looked out of the huge window. She watched as his chest lifted and dipped with his breaths. How easy it would be to walk over to him, to let him hold her, console her, tell her it was all going to be okay.
But she couldn’t. That was something the old Brooke would have done; sought out comfort where it was offered, given up her own need for control to somebody else. For so long she’d doubted herself and her decisions – and yes, some of them had been absolutely terrible – but some of them had been amazing, too. To sweep tonight under the carpet would be to disrespect herself and the woman she was becoming.
She couldn’t let people make her decisions anymore. They were hers, and hers alone to make.
“Can I tell you one thing?” Aiden asked her. His voice was deep. Caressing.
She nodded.
“Jamie’s gone. He’s left town.”
She slowly licked her lips. Her tongue was still hurting, but the nagging of her thirst overrode the pain. Taking another sip of the coffee – this time thankfully cooler – she let the liquid coat her mouth.
“Okay.”
“He left of his own free will. I didn’t ask him to leave and I didn’t ask him to stay. I realized a little too late it’s not my place to make those calls.”
The sadness in his tone made her heart clench. She had no idea what to say to him. She was torn between trying to make everything better and somehow standing up for herself.
“What happens next is between you and him. And Nick, I guess.” He ran the tip of his finger around the rim of his coffee cup. “There’s a lot more I want to say, but this isn’t the time or the place.”
“I guess not…”
“I’d still like to see Nick if that’s okay.”
She looked up, surprised at his words. He wasn’t going to fight for her. Brooke wasn’
t sure how to feel about that. Part of her was disappointed, wanting to see him beg and plead and show her how much she meant to him. The other was relieved – she hadn’t lied about being too tired to talk about this stuff tonight.
“Of course you can still see him. He loves you. I’d never take him away from you, no matter what.”
“Thank you.”