“Who’s Frank?” Matson asked, and we all laughed.
“Frank is Ryan’s brother,” Claudia said as Jess walked over.
“Hi, Matson. I’m Jess. I’m Nick’s girlfriend.”
Matson’s face scrunched up. “Who’s Nick?”
More laughter. “Nick is Ryan’s other brother.”
“You sure have a lot of brothers,” Matson said, giving me a disgruntled look. “I don’t have any.”
Honest to God, I had to bite my tongue. It took everything in me to not tell him that I could fix that.
Sofia’s dad joined us and I made quick introductions. Everyone started chatting at once as if they were old friends. And just when I thought my heart couldn’t expand any more, my parents walked through the doors.
Frank saw my surprise. “I called them.”
Dad grabbed me first and tried to squeeze the life out of me. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t know what we’d do if we lost any of you boys.” His voice broke, which surprised me. I’d rarely seen him so choked up.
The second he let go of me, my mom swooped in. “Ryan, are you okay? Frank told us what happened. You almost died?”
Mom’s voice was loud and I tried to shush her, but it was too late. Sofia’s mom was at our side in an instant.
“Almost died? Ryan, I need to know everything that happened. Right now.” Mira’s fierce expression softened and she stopped to look at my mom. “Hi, I’m Mira. Sofia’s mom.”
“I’ve heard all about your daughter, but I haven’t had the pleasure yet, I’m sorry to say,” my mom said with a genuine smile, and Mira smiled in return.
“Well, I only met Ryan for the first time about,” Mira looked at her watch, “ten minutes ago?”
“Kids these days.” Mom rolled her eyes, and Mira chuckled.
“Ryan, can I steal you?” Mira glanced at Matson, who was currently bouncing between Claudia and Jess’s laps, eating up all the attention and looking like he was having the time of his life.
We walked outside, and once the doors closed behind us, I filled Sofia’s mom in on everything that I knew, all the way up until Sofia’s accident and Derek’s shooting. She didn’t interrupt, taking in every one of my words, her hand firmly placed over her mouth the entire time.
By the time I’d finished, her eyes were wide with horror. “I can’t believe I didn’t know any of this was going on.”
“She didn’t want to worry you,” I said, standing up for my sweet girl.
“She could have been killed. You could have been killed.”
Mira started to cry, and even though I wanted to comfort her by insisting that wasn’t true, I couldn’t lie to her. Instead, I patted her shoulder awkwardly until she sniffed back her tears and tried to smile at me.
“Thank you, Ryan. Thank you for saving my baby girl.”
“She saved me too.”
I meant it in more ways than one. Aside from selflessly dumping me to keep me alive, Sofia had saved me from myself, from the lonely life I was living before she and Matson became a part of it.
She gave me things I never knew I needed, things I now refused to live without.
Nurse Ryan
Sofia
My eyes refused to open. My brain gave the orders to do so, yet they refused, feeling like they were glued shut. Forcing myself to relax, I sucked in a few calming breaths before I attempted to open them again.
This time they did, and my blurred vision slowly cleared. Ryan sat sleeping in a chair I didn’t recognize with Matson asleep in his arms. I focused on that scene, wondering if I was dreaming. No, this isn’t a dream, I told myself as I stared at the man I wanted to share my heart with as he held the little boy who already owned it.