Gentleman Nine

Feeling weakness throughout my entire body, I said, “I don’t feel so well, Annabelle. I feel like I can’t even stand up.”

“It’s stress. It will always catch up with you.”

“Maybe. It feels like more than that, though. I don’t know.”

“What does it feel like?”

The answer to that question came easy. “Honestly? It feels like I’m dying from a broken heart.”CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE* * *CHANNINGMaybe I was being too harsh on her. After all, she didn’t have to admit anything. Amber was being honest, and I’d basically punished her for it.

But I couldn’t help my reaction. It downright pissed me off that she’d kissed Rory. It made me jealous as all hell. While I could accept giving her this time to sort things out, I sure as fuck didn’t have to be happy about it.

It had been four days since I hung up on her. I was being a dick. And I never called her back. She hadn’t called me either, though, so I had to wonder if I was losing this war.

On top of worrying about Amber, I had a lot to handle at home. While Mom was stable, I was spending my days figuring out a daytime situation for her. It no longer seemed feasible to have her all alone while I worked, so I was looking into hiring someone to look after her even if just for parts of the day.

I ended up moving back into the house I grew up in to care for her but kept my apartment for the time being. My life in Chicago looked nothing like it used to and suddenly came with a tremendous amount of responsibility.

But this was my mother—the only family I had left. If it was the last thing I did, I was going to make sure she was safe and well-cared for. No one was going to do that better than I could. No one loved her like I did.

Mom was still sleeping when my cell phone rang on this particular morning. It was Amber’s friend, Annabelle. Her number had been programmed into my phone from that one time I asked for her assistance in hand delivering Amber’s Christmas box.

But it was odd that she’d be calling me.

I answered, “Annabelle?”

“Channing, hi.” Her tone was melancholy.

“What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

“Amber doesn’t know I’m calling you, but I thought you should know that she was admitted to the hospital a couple of days ago.”

“What? What happened?”

“She has pneumonia and severe dehydration. I think she was so stressed out that she stopped taking care of herself…caught something. I’d gone to her condo to check on her after she stopped answering my calls, and she was in bad shape. She told me she felt like she was dying, so I drove her to Mass General. Anyway, she’s been here ever since. They’re pumping her with antibiotics and steroids, and they’re not letting her go until her lungs have cleared. I just thought you should know.”

My heartbeat was out of control, and a rush of adrenaline shot through me. I suddenly felt helpless. “Fuck…I obviously had no idea. We…hadn’t been speaking.”

“I know. She was really messed up over that. She’d kill me if she knew I was calling you right now, but I felt that it was the right thing to do. I figured you’d want to know.”

“You said…Mass General?”

“Yes. Room 805 if by some chance you can fly out here.”***I couldn’t believe that I had no idea she was so sick. That was proof that I’d let my anger go too far. Were it not for Annabelle calling me, I would’ve still been in the dark for God knows how long. If something had happened to Amber when we weren’t speaking, I’d never forgive myself.

I ended up driving my mother over to her sister’s house, which was nearly two hours away from Chicago so that I could head to Boston.

I didn’t even know whether Amber was going to want me there; I just knew I needed to be there.

The ride from the airport to the hospital was a blur. With only a small backpack, I had no idea how long I’d be staying or what was going to happen.

When the Uber dropped me off in front of Mass General, I rushed to the eighth floor as fast as I could.

It shouldn’t have shocked me to see him standing right outside of her hospital room door. But it did. I hadn’t expected to have to run into Rory at that moment.

My body went rigid, and my fists instinctively tightened. My guard was fully up when he turned around and noticed me.

“How is she?” I asked.

Rory tossed his empty cup of coffee almost violently into a nearby trashcan.

Nice to see you, too.

“She’s sleeping. In fact, she just fell asleep. I would wait to go in there. You’ll wake her up, and she needs her rest.”