Page 120 of Trust Me

“No,” I said immediately. “Don’t apologize for anything. Will you tell me what happened?”

His nostrils flared. “My dad fell.”

The way his voice cracked was enough for me to jump into action. I threw my arms around his neck and held him tightly as his shoulders shook.

“He got out of his wheelchair to shut the curtains,” he explained. “He’s unconscious at the hospital, but my mom thinks he was having one of his migraines and probably lost his balance.”

“Is he . . . going to be okay?” I pressed my lips to his neck while I waited for his response. I may have been a decent communicator, but I’d never dealt with family issues before. Remi didn’t have one either, so any crises he had were different.

“They said his scans look okay. But with his TBI, it’s riskier for him. Even something small . . .”

“But he’s okay.” I ran my fingers through his hair and kissed behind his ear. “We’ll just have to wait to hear more, right?”

“My mom told me not to come. I don’t think I could even if I wanted to, with the tickets and my job.”

Shaking his head, he pulled back. Reluctantly, I loosened my grip on him but kept my arms around his neck.

“I need to call my brother,” he said.

“Okay. I’ll get your stuff.”

He nodded and looked down at his phone. It was too difficult to let him go, but I had to. I took a few steps back, battling with myself over leaving him alone. When he offered me a tight smile, I swallowed and turned around.

Brooks and Tilian were both in the pool when I got back. They looked at me, their light expressions shifting to concern.

“What happened?” Tilian asked.

“His dad had an accident.”

“Shit. Is he—”

“He’s fine,” I interrupted.

Picking up Dean’s shirt, I held it to my chest silently. My eyes followed the ripples in the water as worst-case scenarios riddled my mind. When my knees felt weak, I crouched and hung my head, trying to calm the way my heart was racing.

“Hey,” Tilian said. I heard him get out of the water, then his hand was on my shoulder. “Is it that bad?”

I shook my head back and forth. “I don’t know what to do. This isn’t . . . I don’t have a family. What does someone do when this happens?”

“Uh, just be there for him? I don’t really know. When bad things happen in my family, I become a nuisance until everyone starts acting right, but that’s different.”

“Spring break is in a couple days,” Brooks pointed out. “He should go home.”

“His mom told him not to,” I said.

“Who cares? He’s not in football right now. What’s stopping him?”

Tilian scolded him softly, but I didn’t hear what he was saying. While I sat there, I tried to come up with a way to fix this. I might be able to scrounge up the money to get him a plane ticket. There were some pieces on my shelf that would sell for a decent amount. I just didn’t think it would be quick enough to do any good.

If I got him a shitty ticket, I probably had enough on one of my credit cards. I’d paid it down the other day because Dean had marked it in red on my spreadsheet, which meant it was ‘of critical importance.’

God, he’d put in so much effort for me, yet I couldn’t even return the gesture. There was nothing I could do.

“Ah, beans,” Brooks muttered. He nudged my foot, so I looked up at him. He jerked his chin toward the locker room, and not knowing what else to do, I followed him.

There was some fancy fingerprint lock on one of the lockers. He opened it and pulled out his phone and wallet. Flipping it open, he slid out a black card.

“What . . .” I trailed off when he held it out to me.