Over and Again by Brooke Edwards

Author:Brooke Edwards [Edwards, Brooke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-22T16:00:00+00:00

Derek would like to never see the inside of a hospital ever again, so when his mother broaches the idea of he and James coming home with them, it sounds like the best idea he’s ever heard. “Yes,” he says instantly.

“There’s a nurse that would be coming to check up on you every day or so,” she says, and there are lines around her eyes and mouth that Derek thinks weren’t there six months ago. The fact that he can’t be sure, though, makes the cold dread creep in all over again, so he concentrates on not thinking about it. “And there’s a physiotherapist who will be helping James too. The house isn’t perfect, and we’ll have to help him for a while, but it’s better laid out than James’s. Everything he needs is on the ground floor, and the bathroom is bigger and safer. Away from the city, at least. We’d just feel so much better, sweetheart—”

“I said yes, Mom,” Derek says, and reaches out to put his hand over hers. “I don’t….” He swallows and takes a second to push the words past his teeth and tongue. “I don’t care, as long as it’s not here.”

Her eyes are bright with tears and Derek’s lungs tighten, a swirling mess of grief and guilt centered in his chest. He tugs at her hand until she leans forward, hugging him tightly. It’s nothing like the tentative, gentle way everyone has been touching him, and he slumps against her, ignoring the faint ache in his shoulders and neck to bury his face in the side of hers. The smell of her perfume is familiar and comforting, a deep enough memory that the fog doesn’t touch it.

“Please don’t ever make me live through something like that again, Derek.” Her voice wavers, right by his ear.

He knows, distantly, that he should promise her he won’t, but the words won’t come. Instead, he just hugs her back tighter and feels her tears against the back of his neck.

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