AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve had dreams on and off since the accident.”
“What accident?” He’d never mentioned anything about an accident to her before.
Behind her back his fingers played with her hair. He took an audible breath. “My parents were killed in a car crash fourteen years ago.”
“Oh, my god…I didn’t know…I can’t imagine how…” Katie stammered and hugged him tighter. “I’m so sorry, Brendan.”
That was the last thing she expected to hear. He’d never even mentioned his parents. She was stunned, and the words she spewed sounded so trite, but she didn’t know what else to say.
“Fourteen years ago you were only…”
“Eighteen,” he whispered.
The same age she was now. Katie didn’t want to think about how horrific that must have been for him. She’d never experienced the death of a loved one. Your parents are supposed to be with you until they’re very old and you’ve given them a bunch of grandchildren to spoil and fuss over. Just the thought of losing her parents crippled her, yet he’d lived it.
“It was raining. Semi missed the stop sign.”
Katie squeezed her eyes shut.
“They were going to dinner, and I, uh…” He sniffed. “Told my mom I had to study, but the truth was I didn’t feel like going. She called me from the car to see what I wanted her to get for me to bring back. I heard everything…then nothing.”
The fingers playing with her hair tugged at the long strands. “Sometimes, I still hear it. Uncle Charley—Kyan and Dillon’s dad—lived upstairs from us at the time. We got in his car and headed to the restaurant they were going to. It’s the only time I can ever remember praying. But as soon as I saw the flares, I knew.”
She did the only thing she knew to do. Katie gripped his neck and held him tight while he held onto her hair like it was his lifeline.
“Cops had the road blocked off, but my uncle talked to them and they let us through. No one had to tell us they didn’t survive. All I could smell was metal and blood and gasoline. We stood there in the rain until they cut them out of the wreckage and…”
Jesus.
His fingers stopped moving. “I was supposed to be with them. I shouldn’t even be here.”
She opened her eyes because she didn’t want to imagine the horror of it all. Katie felt warm liquid stinging her cheeks. She quickly swiped at her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder. “Tell me about them. Your mom and dad.”
“They would have loved you.” She felt his smile in the dark.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He kissed her forehead. “My dad, his name was James, came here from Dublin to go to college—Uni he called it.”
She laughed. “Ohh, that explains it.”
“Explains what?” He squeezed her in his arms.
“That trace of an accent you have.” She nodded.
“It’s easy to pick up. Just wait until you meet my aunt Colleen—Jesse’s mom. She’s my mom’s younger sister. She lives in Ireland.”
His voice was lighter now, the abject horror momentarily forgotten, as Brendan remembered his parents as they were, instead of how they tragically died. “Anyway, my mom and dad met at school. Bumped into her in the library. Love at first sight, my dad said. They got married a year later and I came along a year after that.”
“That’s so romantic.”
“Yeah.” He brushed the hair out of her face. “Just like us.”
“We didn’t meet at school, Bren.”
“The other part, sweet girl.”
Then he smiled and he kissed her.
