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The boy looked up at me with trust in his eyes. His good arm reached around me as he cuddled in close.
Noah held my gaze and then smiled. “I’ll be right back.”
They left me alone with the two boys. These were Damon’s sons. I’d heard something about his wife taking off on him. The thought made my heart hurt, but I had to focus on Trent right now. “What happened?”
Tears trickled down his face. “I fell.”
Carefully, I started tapping his arm, moving down the shoulder and into the elbow area, where he flinched. “Where did you fall from?” I asked him.
Trent looked at his brother, who stepped over and took his hand. “We were in the tree house when he fell,” he explained. He wouldn’t look at me.
Judging by the exchange between these two brothers, the older brother was probably responsible for this. I eyed him. “What is your name?”
“Jason.”
“Can you tell me what happened to your brother? How did he fall?”
Jason didn’t speak for a minute. His gaze was fixed on the floor.
“I just jumped,” Trent said insistently. “That’s all.”
“Is that what happened?” I gave Jason a pointed look.
He shrugged. “Yeah.”
Damon burst in. “Trent.” He hurried to his son and gently hugged him.
I was touched again by the affection the Armstrong brothers had for their children. It must have been hard for Damon when his wife left him. Small towns came with small-town gossip constantly reporting on things that happened to other people.
Dr. Hoffman strode in with Noah trailing behind him, and the boys recounted the story of jumping out of the tree house. The whole time, I looked back and forth between Trent and Jason, growing surer about the truth. In some way, this was Jason’s fault. Trent was covering for him.
The doctor and Mercy led Damon and Trent down the hallway to do an X-ray. That left me with Noah and Jason. Noah held his nephew close to him and stared at me. That familiar intensity flared up between us. I was torn between my role as a nurse and my need to deal with our history.
Of course, I had to pick the role of nurse right now. “What can I get for you guys?” I wished that I had insisted on going to help with the X-ray. This was probably Mercy’s idea.
Noah looked uneasy. “I guess you weren’t expecting to see me today.”
I nodded. “You’re the last person I expected to see today.”
Jason frowned. “Do you have any candy?”
“No candy right now,” Noah said sternly.
“I’d say yes to candy right now,” I cut in. “We have a vending machine, and I bet he’s hungry. I bet you are too.”
Noah looked unsure for a second, then moved toward me. “Let’s all get candy, then. Because I don’t think we can get breakfast yet, and we all are hungry.”
We bustled together down the hallway. Noah held Jason’s hand, and Jason stayed right next to him, still looking guilty.
Once we reached the vending machine, Noah pulled out a card and asked Jason what he, Trent, and their dad would want. He asked me too, but I waved him off. It was such a normal interaction, and that made everything feel weirder.
Noah punched in his orders and retrieved the snacks as they fell. The last thing was a bag of Sun Chips, which he handed over to me.
I didn’t know what to say. “Thank you.” That was all I could manage. He’d remembered.
We all walked back toward the room. “That’s what you still like, right?” Noah asked.
I felt awkward with the chip bag crinkling in my hands, but I didn’t want to make a scene in front of Jason. In fact, I needed to tell Noah my suspicions. “Uh, yeah. Noah, can we talk?”
