Page 78 of Forever Mine
As soon as the doors open, he quickly pushes me out.
“I’m going to add that to your playlist. Good running music.”
“Add that to my iPod and suffer the consequences,” he replies and turns right. “Ry and Jay are in the waiting room up ahead. And fair warning, Meredith is a talker.”
“Who’s Meredith?”
“Liz’s friend from her study group. Hold up.”
He stops us in the hall when a man approaches from the nurses’ station. He’s not a doctor. Wrong clothes. This must be Daniel. The family resemblance between him and Liz is also a tell. He’s almost the spitting image of Liz’s dad, John. I met John a few times. Went to see one of his shows when his band played at the state fair. Liz inherited her musical ability from him.
“How is she?” Julien asks.
“They just moved her into a room. Visiting hours are over, but I pulled some strings.”
Julien releases me to shake his hand. “Thank you. This is my boyfriend, Elijah.”
Daniel transfers his handshake to me. His grip is firm but warm when I take it, and there’s a quiet strength in his eyes. “Nice to meet you, Elijah. Liz often speaks of you, Julien, Ryder, and Jayson. Good to finally have faces to go with the names.”
He motions for us to follow him to the waiting room. “She wants to see everyone but would like to speak with Ryder first, if that’s alright.”
“Of course,” Julien replies.
We share a look. Jayson isn’t going to like that one bit.
The waiting room is partially filled with people, some in quiet conversations, others staring blankly at the muted television in the corner. My gaze lands on Ryder and Jayson first. They’re sitting a few chairs apart. Deliberate distance. Jayson’s knuckles are white from gripping the edge of his seat, while Ryder leans forward, elbows on his knees, eyes blank and unseeing. The strained tension between them is palpable, like a rubber band pulled taut, ready to snap.
Sitting next to Ryder is a petite girl with dark hair cut in a short bob. Her hands move almost as fast as her mouth while she animatedly talks to the tall guy standing next to her. I do a double take. Blond hair and blue eyes. He’s so strikingly similar to Fallon that he could be Fallon’s doppelgänger.
“Help me keep a leash on Jay. No repeats of last time.”
Last time being after Liz was attacked. Jayson and Ryder got into a fight, which led to all of us being barred from the hospital. The next day, she was gone.
Ryder’s red-rimmed eyes lift, and he’s bounding out of his chair in an instant. So is Jayson.
“She’d like to see you. I’ll take you to her room,” Daniel informs Ryder.
The angry outburst I expected from Jayson never comes. With dejected, hunched shoulders, he sits back down and averts his gaze toward the floor.
“Elizabeth wasn’t kidding about the twin thing,” Meredith says, hopping around us with barely contained energy. “She talks about you all the time. Well, she talks about everyone all the time, but you especially. You, too,” she says to me.
Trevor grabs her shoulders to hold her in place. “Forgive her. It’s like trying to control a hyperactive chihuahua.”
Meredith jabs him in the stomach with her elbow. “I’m standing right here.”
“Sorry that we’re meeting under these circumstances—excuse me for a sec.” Julien peels away to check on his brother.
Trevor cocks his head when I look at him. Another thing Fallon does.
“You look so much like my friend. The resemblance is uncanny. Fallon Montgomery. Do you know him?”
Trevor’s expression hardens to stone, and I bite back anything else I was going to say.
“I’m going to grab something from the vending machines. You want anything?” he asks Meredith.
Seeming to pick up on the mood change, she grabs his arm. “I’ll come with you. I need to stretch my legs. Want anything?”
I’m not hungry but could do with something to drink. “A soda would be nice. Anything caffeinated.”
