“I’m not hungry,” Jason protested.

“You guys need to eat,” I countered. This was something else which was familiar to me. Whether it was family members or friends of the victims, those close to the situation rarely took care of themselves.

“It’s just me,” Jason admitted. Those three words sounded so somber I wished I was next to him so I could give him a hug. And maybe make sure he wasn’t about to dive head first into a bottle again. The last time I’d heard him sound this lost and defeated was in the months after I showed up on Jason’s doorstep to give him some of his dead lover’s belongings. We’d been deployed together and he’d given me a list of things to make sure Jason got if anything should happen to him. It was as if he’d known he wasn’t going to come back home. Jason must have realized how his response sounded, because he quickly added, “Cam had an audition for a cooking show yesterday. He made it, but that meant he had to fly out to New York late last night. He has no clue what’s going on.”

Shit. Now Jason’s exhaustion made sense. Not only was he trying to be there for his teammate, but knowing how loyal he was, he was trying to do everything for Drew that Cam would have done if he was there. “Well, in that case, you really need someone to take care of you. Are you alone up there with him?”

“I’m fine, Bryce. Eric is on his way back up with Drew’s parents. He’d been refusing to leave, but I convinced all of them to get out of here for a while when Drew was sleeping.” The bile rose in my throat again. I didn’t know who Eric was or how he fit into the puzzle, but he and Drew had to be close if he was keeping vigil at his bedside. This was no time for me to allow my jealousy to get the better of me. I needed to be happy for Drew if he’d found someone decent to stand by him through whatever recovery he was going to face.

“Okay, well then both of you need to eat something.” I chuckled, remembering how Drew talked about the way Cam was always trying to feed everyone. I realized that was one thing the two of us had in common. Whenever anyone was going through any sort of traumatic event when I was a child, my mom used to swear the answer was a homemade casserole. I wasn’t about to go to those lengths, but there had to be a donut shop between here and whatever hospital they were at. “Text me the address and I’ll be there as soon as I can with the biggest, blackest cup of coffee I can find.”

Jason let out a ragged breath, likely trying to decide whether or not to argue with me. If he hadn’t been able to best me when he was trying to drink himself to death, he sure as hell wasn’t going to win today. “Look, I know you mean well, but the room’s already going to be bursting at the seams once Eric and Drew’s parents get back up here. Why don’t I text you once I know what’s going on and you can meet us at the house?”

“That’s fine,” I lied. Even though what Jason said made sense, I couldn’t help but feel as though I was being dismissed. There wasn’t room for me, and I wasn’t sure if that held true outside Drew’s hospital room.

“I’ll call you when there’s more to tell.” Jason paused as if there was something he was trying to not say. With another long sigh, he added, “Don’t tell him I told you this, but Drew’s going to need you.”

“I’ll be there for him as long as he wants me around,” I responded, mostly as a reminder to myself that nothing was guaranteed. Despite Jason’s reassurance, I knew Drew could just as easily tell me to get the hell out of his house and never come back.

“Why didn’t you tell me the two of you had been talking?” Jason asked, his voice low enough that I could barely hear him. “Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great but I was surprised to see your name on his phone this morning.”

“There’s nothing to tell, really,” I admitted. “We went out the night I stopped by your apartment, since you and Cam ditched the two of us so you could make up. Since then, it’s just been a few calls and texts back and forth. We’d talked about getting together if I was in the area, so I figured I’d try getting in touch with him today since you guys lost last night.”

“Yeah, about that...” Jason’s voice became muffled and I realized he was talking to someone else. Someone who hadn’t been told to not come to the hospital. “When you talk to Drew, try to come up with a different reason for why you texted him today. He’s still not dealing well with the outcome of the game.”

“Why? It’s not like it was his fault,” I scoffed. “The other guy was an idiot to try running when he did.”

“Well, it seems everyone in the world sees it that way with the exception of Drew and Mark,” Jason said. “If I were you, I’d also refrain from bringing up your opinion on the play. Maybe after all of this blows over, we’ll be able to convince him that no one hates him.”

Jason asked me why I was in town and I told him about the center. He seemed disturbed by the grim outlook and asked if there was anything he could do to help. Before I could answer him, he cut the call short telling me again that he’d call once he knew what time Drew would be going home.

I tried to go back to analyzing the figures from the center, but none of them made sense. I hoped it was my headspace causing the issue, because otherwise we had major problems.

Chapter 5

I pushed the button to lower the bed when Jason left the room, but my peace and quiet was short-lived when I heard my dad’s voice booming through the halls. He didn’t seem pissed off, but he definitely wasn’t happy about something. I rolled to my side as best as I could and listened as he berated someone for not being able to give him any answers. “Look, you’ve already talked to him and he told you everything he knows. You also questioned this good man for over an hour, and he told you what he saw. Now, I suggest you figure out what you can do with that to find the asshole who put my son in that hospital bed.”

He was telling the cops how to do their job. Lovely. Knowing him, he’d be hounding their supervisor daily until whoever did this was caught. That was going to be difficult, seeing as I didn’t see my attacker. The only hope was that Eric gave them something concrete to go on.

The argument in the hall faded and I could almost see my dad following the cop into the elevator, forcing him to listen until he’d fully spoken his mind. I pinched the bridge of my nose, knowing that it wasn’t going to do anything for the headache that was returning as the pain medication wore off.

“Oh honey.” Mom rushed to the side of the bed and stroked her hand over my hair. I wished she wouldn’t since even that slight touch hurt like hell, but I wasn’t foolish enough to tell her as much.

“Hi Mom,” I greeted her. I opened my eyes, knowing that I’d once again lost an opportunity to sleep. It was as if no one understood that I needed to sleep in order to get better. Wasn’t that what she always told me when I was sick as a kid and didn’t want to be stuck in my bed? “Do you need some more medicine? Something to drink? Eric, could you be a dear and close the blinds so that sun isn’t beating down on his face? Let me go get the nurse.”

I reached out and clamped my hand around Mom’s wrist. The woman was exhausting to listen to. “Mom, sit.”

“No, you need something for the pain,” she insisted as she tried wiggling out of my grip. “I’ll be back, just let me get the nurse in here first.”

“Mom, I’m fine,” I argued. I began praying that Dad would come in and see that I was okay and he’d be ready to head back to Belmont. This might be the first time in my life I was grateful for his obsessive need to be in charge at the farm. “I’m sure it’ll only be a few minutes before the nurses are in here taking my blood pressure, poking me, and all the other shit they do to make sure the patients don’t get any sleep.”