“You did. She’s going to be okay. Her family’s with her now.”
“But you didn’t go back with them?” he asked the obvious, staring at me as if to say, why didn’t you go back?
I shrugged.
“You forgave her, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
He sighed. “Then I don’t see what the issue is here.”
Grinding my teeth, I grabbed the vinyl cushions under me. “He went after her because of me. She almost died tonight, Pick. She—”
“But she didn’t.”
His calm words earned a glare from me. “But she could’ve,” I bit out. Then I fell back in my seat and clutched my head, hard. “Jesus, what the hell am I still even doing here? I should be a hundred miles away from here, so she’ll at least be safe. I don’t know why I’m even trying. I know shit about love and relationships. My own fucking parents couldn’t even like me, let alone love me. Why did I hope—”
“Hey.” Pick squeezed the back of my neck and then forced me to lean toward him and press our foreheads together. “Don’t let that shit your dad said get into your head like this.”
“What?” I asked, my voice going hoarse. “The abortion part? Hell, that wasn’t news to me. My mother told me about how she tried to kill me plenty of times. She hated me. Hated that I was his son, hated that I wasn’t you, the baby she always regretted leaving, hated me just because I was there. And you want to know the real kicker?” I glanced up into Pick’s brown eyes. “I really loved her. I’d listen to her talk about you and your dad with such devotion and awe, and I always wanted her to talk to me that way, to look at me and just—”
“You want to know what I think,” Pick cut in. “I think our mother was a disturbed young woman who never really learned the true meaning of love, and that she had no reason bringing children into this world. But here we are, anyway, and I’m so glad and honored to have found you and learned you are my brother.”
My throat felt a little choked up, so I had to clear it and glance away as Pick kept talking.
“It doesn’t matter where we came from. We both rose above it and came into our own...on our own. And I am so damn proud of the man you’ve turned yourself into. There is nothing and no reason you shouldn’t have a full, content life with the people you care for most in it. I love you, brother. You’re a good person, and you deserve happiness.” He let go of my neck to thump me on the back. “Now, go get it.”
I came awake to the soft strum of a guitar. In the background, a hospital monitor beeped and air packs around my ankles hissed out a sound as they released pressure.
Turning my face to the melody of the guitar, I blinked Asher into focus as he sat to my right, playing for me. My lashes felt gritty and my throat raw, reminding me what had happened.
The chocolates, I realized. Someone had given me chocolates with some kind of peanuts hidden in them. But I wasn’t too concerned about that now. I was awake, un-swollen, and breathing again, so I guessed things were bien.
For the moment, I just wanted to listen to Asher play to me. The tune was unusual, reminding me a lot of “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s...and yet a little different. I didn’t think I’d heard it before.
And then he began to sing.
I wake up early with your breath
falling on the pillow next to mine.
Another night spent in your arms
and I know this day’s just fine.
Yes, it is.
‘Cause there’s this promise in your smile
that no matter what tomorrow brings,
I’ll make it through the mile,
with you there, right by my side.
Oh...I can do anything with you there, right by my side.
Sometimes I hold back the words
that I want to say to you,
because this thing that we’ve started
is way too fresh and too new.
Oh...oh, oh, oh, oh. Right by my side.
But there’s this promise in your smile
that no matter what tomorrow brings,
I’ll make it through the mile
With you there, right by my side.
I can do anything, anything at all, when I know
You’ll be there on the morrow
Standing at my side.
You’ve already taught me how to love,
To laugh, and listen to your heart.
Oh, baby, I can’t wait to learn some more
so we’ll never truly be apart.
This time it’s good.
We can do anything.
Just me and you.
Right by your side.
A grin lit my face as he strummed the last of the melody, and tears filled my eyes. “That’s my song.”
Asher glanced up, and his green eyes warmed. “I know. Sorry, I changed the rhythm a little. It seemed like it needed a gentler tune than the one Fish ’N’ Dicks’s used.”
“No. This one is fine. It’s perfect. Hermosa. Exactly the kind of tone I had in mind when I wrote it.” I shook my head in wonder. “How did you know?”
“That they were your lyrics?” A grin lit his face. “It wasn’t too hard to figure out.”