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“Hey,” Sander soothes from beside me, reaching out and squeezing my shoulder affectionately. “Are you all right?”
“No,” I sniffle softly, wiping away the traitorous tear before it can fall from my face.
“Do I need to take you to the emergency room?”
“What? No,” I wave off his concern, “it’s not that. I think I’m in shock or something.”
“Everything is going to be okay. Did you get his insurance information?” Sander’s calm voice washes over me like a balm, and I forget momentarily how awkward things just were with him.
“Yeah, he gave me a copy.”
“I can help you call and make a claim first thing in the morning if you want.” His offer is kind, but I also feel like if I continue accepting his help, he’s going to take it as something more.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine. I’ll get up early and give them a call,” I say.
“Well, if you change your mind…”
“I have your number,” I finish for him, and he smiles warmly. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss his smile. Sander always had a way of making things better.
There was just something about tonight that kept gnawing at my conscience.
“Hey, San?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you know I was in an accident tonight?”
“Oh,” his eyebrows raise, like it just dawned on him to explain that part to me. “I got an alert when the officer back there ran your name through the system.”
“An alert?”
“Yeah,” he pulls up to a stoplight, the red of the lamp above us washing over the cab of his truck. “I have you and your mom’s names flagged in our system. So, if for any reason either of your names are run through the system, I get an alert sent to my work email, which I have connected to my cell.”
“Oh,” I say, not sure how to respond to that little tidbit.
“Yeah, it’s just in case. I did it after Eli left.”
“Oh, okay.”
I’m silent for a moment before Sander glances in my direction. “Does that bother you?”
I think about that for a moment and decide that no, it doesn’t bother me, but I’m not sure how I feel about him essentially having tabs on me like that.
“No, I just didn’t know you did that.”
“I had brought it up to your mom once, and she said it would be a good idea, so I went ahead and did it. I’m sorry. I should have talked to you about it first.”
Well, great, now I feel like an asshole. I know that he is just trying to look out for us while my brother is gone. Sander has always been there to keep me out of trouble, and I see that he was only doing exactly what I would have done for him if the roles were reversed.
“No, no,” I wave my hands in front of me, “it’s totally fine. I guess I was just surprised when you showed up.”
He chuckles softly, slowing down and taking the exit into town.
“I was honestly about to lose my shit before you showed up,” I admit.
“Why?” his quizzical brows pinch together in question.
I bark out a sarcastic laugh, reaching up and scrubbing my hands through my wild hair.
