I hadn’t checked the computer room. He could’ve been in there… But then the map guy turned around, and I recognized Diego.
I stopped short. “Hey.” Ice plunged into my veins.
The normally loud, happy, and vivacious Diego was not the guy in front of me. He had bags under his eyes and no spark in them either.
He rubbed his hands together. “Hey. Uh, I wasn’t sure if this was appropriate or not.”
“It’s fine.” I frowned. “What’s up?”
It was Caden. My heart raced. I knew it was Caden.
My voice dropped an octave. “Is he okay?”
“I think so, but I didn’t know who else to call.” He kept glancing away.
“It’s okay. Just tell me what it is.”
Please be okay. Please be okay.
“Caden was at the bar tonight when he got a call—”
“From who?”
He shook his head. “He didn’t say, but I know it’s about his brother.”
Marcus?
“Colton. He’s in the hospital.”
Oh. My frown deepened. Oh! “He’s at the hospital?”
“I know there’s another brother, but I don’t know his phone number. You’re the only person Caden’s brought to the bar, and I remembered that one girl said she was in the same dorm as you. She kept talking about you that night after you guys left, so the name was burned in my memory.” He grimaced, laughing softly. “I had the worst hangover the next morning with that girl’s voice on repeat—”
I’d stopped listening. I grabbed his arm, stopping him in mid-sentence. “Thank you, Diego.”
His hesitation slid away. His eyes warmed, and his hand covered mine. “I knew it was the right thing to come here. I told the girl your name. I didn’t know your last name, but she finally said she’d go see if you were even still awake. It took me ten minutes of arguing with her. I came down here because I didn’t want to risk getting thrown out.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
My insides clenched. Caden was hurting.
I started for the stairs. “I need to go.”
And when I got outside, I remembered I didn’t have a car.
Diego had followed me out. “I can give you a ride.”
I didn’t feel relief, thankful, or even grateful. I should’ve felt all of those things, said something to indicate how much I appreciated that, but nothing else mattered in that moment. Caden mattered. That was it.
All my usual niceties left me. Even my weird quirks disappeared, and I only uttered, “Yes, please.”
I just had to get to him.
I was an idiot.
After circling around all over the hospital and finding nothing, I was given directions to a second waiting lounge. That’s where Caden was, and once I saw him standing in the hallway, with his head down and his phone pressed against his ear, I knew how utterly and completely stupid I had been. He’d called a few times during the week, and I’d always made up an excuse. I was a dumbass. It’d been almost a week since I last saw him—a week too long. An invisible weight pressed down on my chest, and I had to stop to swallow a lump in my throat.
I went to him.
His back was turned to me, and he nodded his head as he spoke. “Yeah. I know. Yeah. Okay.” He paused. “If Marcus could come, that’d be good. He’s going to be moved there tomorrow morning.” Then he turned. He saw me, and he went still. “Uh, yeah. A seventy-two-hour hold… Mom, I gotta go. I’ll call you back.”
My hand ached from wanting to touch him.
He hung up, and his eyebrows lifted in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“Diego came to my dorm. He said you got a call about your brother, that you were here.”
He cocked his head to look behind me.
“He’s not with me. He just gave me a ride here.”
“Oh.” His Adam’s apple moved up and down as he swallowed, then a hardness came over him. “You should go.” He started past me.
I caught his arm. “Wait.”
“Summer, now’s not the time for your weird mind fucks. I’ve got serious shit to deal with here. My brother—” He lifted a hand to point behind me, but stopped. “My brother…”
“What?”
Please tell me. Please let me in, even though you have no reason to.
He looked down at my hand. So did I, and holding a breath, I moved it to his chest.
I asked, a tiny whisper even to my ears, “What happened to your brother? I’m here for you. I just want to be here for you.”
“Where’ve you been the last two weeks?”
“I—” Crap on a stick. I shook my head. “I’m here for you tonight.”
“Just tonight?”
That lump jumped back up in my throat. I had to swallow over it again. “And this weekend. For the trip.” And forever, if you want that.
He leaned back against the wall, folding his arms over his chest. His face was just as gorgeous as the last time I’d seen him, but it was exhausted, like Diego’s had been. No, that wasn’t true. Caden looked like he might be the definition of exhaustion. But over all of that, a hard mask came over his face. His jaw clenched, and I knew this was the no-bullshitting Caden.
“Just tonight and this weekend?” he asked.
I let out a small breath and glanced down to the floor. My hands twisted around the end of my shirt. “No, not just for then.” I looked back. “I can’t tell you why I’ve been avoiding you.”