Risky Rockstar: A Hero Club Novel, стр. 52
Kade reaches for her hand and squeezes it. “Good luck for tomorrow. We’ll all be thinking about you.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Amy gushes as we reach the door. “Oh my God, this is the best day ever!”
I turn to smile at my niece. She’s facing what might possibly be the most grueling time of her life, and yet she’s living her best day. She isn’t stressed about tomorrow and what might follow on. She’s living for the now. Perhaps I should start doing that too.
Chapter 24
Kade
Hayley stands at the window, her arms hugging her waist. It looks like her worst nightmare is playing out in front of her unseeing eyes.
Over the last six months, I’ve learned just how much Hayley loves the people she’s close to, how she gives every part of herself for them.
It’s fucking tragic that after everything she’s gone through, her family needs to go through this. But I won’t let her do it alone. They’re prepping Amy for the bone marrow biopsy, and it’s plain to see that if Hayley had a choice, she’d trade places with her niece in a heartbeat. It’s a sight to behold how brave Hayley is. When she’s with her niece, she’s all jokes and trying to lighten the moment, but now that she’s alone, I can see this is crushing her.
I walk over to the window, two cups of steaming coffee in my hands. “Here, maybe this will help.” It’s not gonna fucking help. The only thing that will help is if this wasn’t happening in the first place. “Are you okay?” I inwardly cringe. “Stupid fucking question. Of course you’re not okay.”
Hayley takes the coffee I offered. “Thank you. I’m standing here and all I can think about is how terrified I am when I’m not the one getting a needle shoved into my hip. I’m so selfish.”
I stir my coffee to stop myself from reaching out and rubbing Hayley’s back. I’ve held her or touched her at every available opportunity, and it’s getting harder and harder not to kiss the tears away. I don’t want to take advantage of her when she is vulnerable like I did at the pier. And the more I’m with her, the more distracted I am by wanting things between us to be more. And I can’t afford the distraction right now. Not when she needs me the most. “I don’t think you’re selfish at all. Sometimes watching someone suffer is worse than suffering yourself.”
“She’s already been through all this. Why does she have to go through it again?” Hayley turns back to the near-empty parking lot. It’s 6:00 a.m. and we’ve been here all night with hardly any sleep, and in less than an hour, they’ll be performing the bone biopsy.
I don’t know if now is the best time to be doing this, but I need to see something other than sadness on Hayley’s face. I place the coffee cup on the windowsill and whip out my phone and send off an email. Her phone beeps, and she pulls out her own phone.
She looks at me, her head tilted. “Did you just send me an email?”
“I did.”
She looks back at her phone, and as she reads, her face brightens with a smile that makes me damn near fall to my knees.
She turns that smile on me, and fuuuck, I am wrecked by that smile.
“You got me tickets to a book signing?”
I shove my hands in my pockets. Fuck, I’m nervous. What if she doesn’t like it? “Yeah, I did.”
“Lesley Peppers, my favorite author, is going to be there.”
“I know. It’s why I did it.”
Hayley launches herself into my arms and I wrap them around her. She feels so right pressed against me. Her onyx eyes shimmer with excitement. “How did you know who my favorite author is?”
My smile is shy. “Bridget told me. She was in the cafeteria when I went for the coffee. I may or may not have asked her what I could do to cheer you up. It didn’t take much convincing for her to show me where to get the tickets. She loves you.”
Hayley beams at me. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Well, there are two tickets.”
“You want to come with me?”
“I’d love to go with you.” I’d spend a day watching paint dry if it meant I could be with Hayley, but I don’t tell her that.
She bites her lip. “You realize this signing is for romance readers.”
I smile. “I figured.”
“And you’ll go anyway? Do you even read?” she teases.
“Not since my teens. I got a little obsessed with music, and everything else took a back seat.”
She smiles. “I can understand that. I haven’t been doing much reading lately. I plan to change that though. Do you have a favorite book from when you did read?”
I smile sheepishly. “Not exactly from when I read, but my mom used to read The Velveteen Rabbit to me, and it’s always stuck as my favorite book.”
“That’s really special—”
“Hayley, they’re ready for you.” Lisa, Hayley’s sister-in-law, calls from the door of the waiting room as she hurries past to head for her daughter’s room.
Nerves replace the excitement in Hayley’s eyes, and she swallows deeply. I can’t resist and pull her in for a final hug. “Tell Amy good luck from me. I’ll be here, reading romance novels. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” I tease.
She catches me by surprise when her lips press against mine. I don’t hesitate. My hands cup her face, and I sweep my tongue into her mouth like a man dying of thirst and she’s a fresh glass of water. I pull her flush against me, taking what I’ve craved since the first time I tasted her mouth.
Hayley taps my cheek, her fingers a reminder that we’re in a public place but the flush on her face telling me she was just as lost as I was. She walks over to the chair her bag is sitting on and