The F King: A Bad Boy Romance(43)

“With what?”

“It feels like everybody around here has given up. Even her. They’re just counting down the days and I’m the only one fighting anymore. I love you, but I still probably couldn’t handle bringing you here if I didn’t know you were a fighter too. I need you here to fight with me.”

I reached out and gave his hand a squeeze. He squeezed back, and I could almost sense him trying to draw energy from me while he steered me down the hallways as if he knew them all too well.

Outside a room marked “Crewe,” he paused, took a few more deep breaths, and contorted his face into a cheerful mask before leading me around the corner into his mother’s room.

The clinical lines of the hospital had been disguised by what looked like the evidence of a long stay. The standard bedding was replaced by colorful covers, a huge flat-screen television on a stand made the one suspended from a bracket on the ceiling look like a toy, and flowers adorned a set of drawers next to a standalone wardrobe.

Sitting in the bed, propped up with pillows and wearing a bandana, was a woman who looked supremely tired. Though she was pale and thin with dark circles under her eyes, I could still see more than a spark of Ryan in them and she carried herself with a quiet dignity.

Those eyes found the energy to light up and I saw a flash of the beautiful woman under the illness when she saw Ryan and I walk in.

“Excuse me, Miss California, I’m looking for my mom, have you seen her?” Ryan asked.

“Shut up, sweetie. So this is her?”





Ryan





“What do you mean “her”?” I asked.

“The one you’ve been daydreaming about these last few visits. Come here, let me get a look at you.”

My mom held out her hands for Sarina, who let go of mine as she stepped forward. I brought a couple of chairs closer to the bed as they took each other in.

“Hi Ms. Crewe, I’m Sarina.”

“And do you have honorable intentions with my boy?” my mom asked.

Sarina stuttered over her response and I jerked my head to face them. “Mom!”

“Kidding! I’m kidding! Sorry, dear, I’ve had that joke pent up inside me ever since Ryan was born, but he never brought a girl home before.”

I put a chair down behind Sarina, who was chuckling with relief, and grabbed one for myself.

“Yeah, well, I still haven’t. This isn’t home, don’t even start thinking about it like that. You’re getting out of here,” I said.

“We’ll see.”

My mom spoke the words quietly, as if she was humoring me, and the chair felt all the heavier as I carried it over next to Sarina’s. The two of them were still clasping hands as I hugged my mom and sat down.

“Ryan and I thought it was really time for me to meet you, now that I’m pregnant,” said Sarina.

Sarina’s body was directly between my mother and me, but if my mom looked half as surprised as I imagined, then it was well worth the shock I felt before I realized Sarina was simply turning the tables on her. I heard spluttering from the opposite bed that were more than a little reminiscent of the way Sarina had sounded a few seconds ago, before I saw Sarina’s shoulders shaking as she put a giggly end to the charade.

“Oh! Oh you little… don’t do that to a poor sick old woman!”

Sarina moved a little so my mother could peer around her at me. “I like her. How did you two meet?”

“Just out on the town one night,” I said.

“I go to college at HU,” said Sarina.

“Let me guess, chemistry?” asked my mom.

“No, HR. Human Resources. Why chemistry?”

“Oh, I guess that’s just me living in the past. My Ryan was always so fascinated by chemistry, it confused me no end when he decided to study engineering.”

“I was just a kid, Mom, I grew out of it. I thought there were more jobs in engineering,” I said.

Sarina glanced at me with a slightly knitted brow, then back to my mom, who was reveling in this moment she’d supposedly been waiting for ever since I was born. It wouldn’t be long until she pulled the potty-training photo album out of nowhere.

“Just a kid, pfffft. You always got the best grades in chemistry all through high school. The last few times he visited me here, I knew he was daydreaming about something special. Or someone.” She squeezed Sarina’s hands. “I hadn’t seen him that preoccupied since the year he got a chemistry set for Christmas. I’m sure the neighbor’s Labrador is still a little purple to this very day.”

Sarina and my mom laughed, and neither of them looked likely to let go of the other’s hands. Clearly my mom was having a good day, perhaps made better by Sarina’s presence. I could only speak for myself, but my days were sure as fuck better when she was around.