Why was he still talking to me? Where was Knox? He should have showed up with a late lunch from my mom by now. And it was his turn to go sit with Crawford before my scheduled time in three hours. Knox needed to get here and this guy needed to move on along.

“Jesus, you’re high-strung,” he muttered, and I jerked my gaze back to his. Again with that amused smile.

“Aren’t you here to see your uncle?” I asked, hoping to get rid of him.

He laughed this time. The real kind. It was pleasant. Maybe more than pleasant. Until I remembered he was laughing in that attractive way because of me. Then it annoyed me.

“I am. Just thought I’d try and give you something to do other than stare at the wall. It makes me sad when I see you here all alone. My mistake. You’re obviously alone because you like it that way.”

I would not rise to the bait. He wanted me to bite back, but I wasn’t going to do it. He wasn’t worth my anger or the energy it would take to get angry.

“Slate, what are you doing out here? Your uncle was just asking about you.” The young female nurse was seriously batting her eyelashes and sticking out her chest as she spoke to … Slate—apparently that was his name.

He turned his gaze to meet hers and I was almost positive he winked. Her cheeks began to glow and her eyes went all sultry. Jesus. I had seen enough of this. If I wanted to watch a soap opera, I’d turn on the television in the corner.

“Tell the old man I’m coming,” he said.

She giggled like that was hilarious and gave me a brief glance before turning to walk away. The swing in her hips was exaggerated—any girl who actually walked like that would need to get her hips adjusted at the chiropractor weekly.

“You enjoy yourself, Miss…” He trailed off, as if waiting on me to give him my name. He would be waiting forever.

“Your fan club needs you,” I replied with a disgusted tone, and went back to staring at the wall. Just like I did every day. Thinking. About life and my future, our future. Mine and Crawford’s.

“Yeah, it does.” He chuckled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him shake his head before turning and walking away. It wasn’t a walk, really. More of a saunter. If guys actually sauntered. Maybe a swagger?

Oh, who cared? He was gone.

I reached into my canvas tote bag and pulled out my phone. There were five texts and two calls from my mother, a text from each of my four brothers, two from my oldest brother’s wife, and the last three from my dad. They did this every day. Checking on me, asking me to come to dinner, a movie, shopping, to play basketball … anything to try to get me out of this hospital.

None of them understood. Crawford was in a coma.

That was all that mattered. I couldn’t just continue to live as if he weren’t lying in that bed, unmoving. I had to be here when he woke up. Because he would. He had to. We had a future we’d been planning since childhood.

I opened my text messages and did what any good girl would do: I began replying to them. My mother’s offer to take me shopping for a new bathing suit—as if I were going to the beach anytime soon. Then her attempt to guilt me into a family dinner. My nieces missed me. I did feel slightly guilty about Maddy and Malyn, my oldest brother’s twin girls. They were only two, and Aunt Vale not being around probably confused them.

Before the accident, I babysat them every Tuesday and Thursday night while Catherine, my sister-in-law, worked late shifts at the nursing home. My mom kept them now. I wouldn’t leave the hospital each day until I had to. When Crawford’s mother came back at seven every evening, I told him good night, kissed his cheek, then cried the whole way home. When I woke up at seven every morning, I got dressed, packed my bag with books and snacks, and headed to the hospital. It was my routine. It was all I had left.

My brothers were getting together tonight after family dinner to play basketball at the house. Jonah was in the military and currently on assignment. So I was the even number four. They didn’t really need me. My dad would be there to fill in. But each of them acted like they couldn’t play without me.

I was the baby of the five and the only girl. That being said, I was also overprotected and worried about too much. They all thought it was their job to make sure I was okay. Because I loved them each for it, and because Jonah texted me even while he was off serving our country, I replied to all of them that I’d be at the basketball game if they’d wait until seven thirty. It wasn’t what I wanted to do when I got home. But it was what they needed me to do.

So I’d do it.

CHAPTER TWO

KNOX ARRIVED, FINALLY. He held a blue polka-dot lunchbox that I knew would be filled with a hot meal. This was how my mother kept her sanity with my staying up here all day—she kept me fed.

“Here you go, Princess.” Knox handed over the lunchbox and sank down into the chair next to me. “How’s it going?”

He usually stayed and talked to me while I ate. It was something I looked forward to. Knox was only two years older than me and we were the closest out of the five of us.

He had my dark hair and blue eyes. Everyone said we could have been twins.

“Same. Just waiting,” I replied. “How’s the home front?”

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Dad’s fighting with the plumber over the price of the new tub Momma wants, Momma is making your favorite cake in hopes she can lure you home for dinner, and Maddy refuses to use the big-girl potty because Aunt Vale isn’t there to sing the potty song to her.”

He wasn’t trying to make me feel guilty. That wasn’t Knox’s style. He was just being honest.

“Can’t Mom sing the song to her? She’s the one who taught it to me.” I pulled out a container of broccoli casserole. It was still nice and warm.

He shrugged. “She tried. Maddy said it wasn’t like yours.”

I had to find time to see my nieces. “I wish Mom would bring them here to see me.”

Knox turned his head to look at me. “Why? You’re not in a hospital bed. You can walk out anytime you want and do other things. Crawford would want you to.”

Again, he wasn’t being cruel. But Knox’s honesty was sometimes brutal.

“When he opens his eyes I want to be here,” I said for the hundredth time. It was something they all knew, but I kept having to repeat it.

“He could wake up in the middle of the night. You’re not here then.”

I knew that. I hated it. But I wasn’t allowed to sleep in the waiting room. When visiting hours were over I had to leave. Hospital rules. I’d tried it already. They’d kicked me out.

“Just let me do this my way,” I said, then took a bite of my lunch. I was hungry. My breakfast of dry cereal and goldfish crackers was long gone and I needed something other than stale coffee.

“Knox McKinley,” a now-familiar male voice said, and I almost choked on my casserole, which made me want to cuss. Did that asshole have to know my brother?

“Slate,” Knox replied with a smile in his voice that was real. He liked this guy. Go figure. “What are you doing here?”

“I was about to ask you the same. I see you made more headway with that one than I did. She would rather stare at the wall than speak to me.”

I felt Knox turn to look at me, but I ignored them both and took a bite of my food. This was not how I’d hoped to enjoy my meal.