Chapter 43
Cade
THE SUMMER is almost over, which totally blows. It feels like I’ve lived at the hospital all summer long. I wish we’d stayed longer in Cannon Beach, but oh well.
With only one weekend left before school starts, Mom and Dad decided they need to finally take their date for the winner of their first week of the Winner’s Game—apparently Dad gave Mom more than a hundred kisses on the cheek right before they counted the scores, so he’s the winner, though Mom says she secretly won.
“What sounds good to you?” Dad asks my mom as they put on their jackets.
“Chinese.”
“Mexican it is,” he jokes. “Kids, don’t wait up. We might be very late.”
“Oh, one more thing,” says Mom. “Ann, a little bird told me that a guest might stop by later. So if the doorbell rings, I suggest you answer it.”
They aren’t gone thirty minutes when a car pulls into the driveway.
I’m dying to know who it is, but Mom said Ann should answer it, so I stay parked in front of the TV. When I see who is standing on the front porch, I quickly turn down the volume.
“Look at you,” says Tanner. “As good as new.” He pauses, focusing on her head. “Did you color your hair?”
“Yeah,” she says, grinning from ear to ear. “Just a few highlights. It was on my bucket list. But what are you doing here?”
He smiles. “I have two very important things for you.” He holds out a familiar notebook. Its tiny pen is still tucked inside the spiral binding. “It was Bree’s. It was next to her on the street, and it got left there when they took her away.”
Now I turn the TV completely off.
“Wow,” she says softly, as though she’s holding something sacred. “I can’t believe it. We all thought this was lost.” She flips to the first page, smiles, and then asks, “What’s the other thing?”
Without waiting, or asking, or anything, he leans in and gives her a kiss. Not on the cheek. I’m talking a kiss.
Ann is totally blushing by the time it is over. Heck, I’m probably blushing too.
Don’t they know I’m right here watching?
A second later her head snaps around and we stare at each other for several moments, both of us feeling a little embarrassed. Then she turns back to Tanner. “What was that for?”
“For Bree. Right before the accident she made me promise that I would give you your first kiss.”
Ann places her hands on her hips. “Well, it’s been over a month. What makes you think somebody else didn’t beat you to it?”
His face drops instantly. “Did they?”
“No,” she says with a giggle. “You got the first. And if you’re lucky, you might get the second.”
This time she reaches up and kisses him!
This time I have to close my eyes.
When I open them, Bree is crossing the room in her wheelchair with a giant smile on her face. “Ha!” she says. “B-t-dubs, I’m totally going to win now. That was way more than a one-point kiss. I should get like a bazillion.”
“Two bazillion,” says Ann, “because that was our second kiss.”
“Oh man, I missed the first one? Why didn’t someone tell me? I was stuck in the bathroom trying to get my sweats up over this stupid cast.”
“It’s probably better that you didn’t see,” Ann tells her. “This way you’ll have more to look forward to with your own first kiss…in, like, six or seven years.”
“Six or—? Try, like, one year. Or less.” That earns a good laugh from everyone.
Tanner can’t stay long, but he does come in and hang out for a bit. One of the first things he comments on is Bree’s fuzzy pink slippers. “Those are nice,” he says, pointing at her feet on the wheelchair. “Are they new?”
“Yeah,” says Bree. “I just got them the other day when I finally came home from the hospital. My best friend has a pair just like them, and she picked them out for me.” She glances at Ann and smiles.
Bree doesn’t bother telling Tanner that not only did Ann pick out the slippers but she paid for them herself.
When I see my sisters smiling at each other, it’s hard to believe that our family is still, like,…complete. One night we left the hospital not knowing what was going to happen to Bree, and the next morning, very early, my parents got a call that she was starting to wake up. They yanked me out of bed, and off we went to be with her. Because she still needed a lot of medical attention, they took her out of Ann’s room and moved her to a place where they could have lots of doctors and stuff without bothering Ann.