No Good Deed - Marie Sexton Page 0,77

years, but the people who’d known her were mostly gone. If he stayed where he was, people would keep knocking on his door, asking for help. And although part of him hated giving that up, the other part of him thought it might be time. It was like Warren said—he had a husband now. He liked helping people, but he could do that without risking jail time. A new house in a new neighborhood would allow him to do that.

His abuela wouldn’t have wanted him to stay tied to the past forever. He knew that. He’d always known that. In the past, he’d had no reason to move. Staying put had been simple. But if all his friends were ready to pack it up and move to the suburbs, maybe he was ready too.

“I’ll need a big kitchen,” he said, drawing their attention back to the matter at hand.

“Big enough to keep baking cookies,” Phil said.

“Big enough for all eight of us,” Warren added.

“Big enough for Abuela’s dining room table,” Gray said. “That’s what matters.”

“Yes, it is.” Charlie looked around at his friends—Gray, who had been by his side for more than two decades. Warren, who after all these years, smiled more than he scowled. Phil, who had always seemed distant, but had been the first one to call and check on Charlie, and the one to buy rings for his wedding.

His friends, who had all come to the hospital to wait with him, even though they had their own lives.

Charlie’s heart swelled. No matter what else happened, he could depend on them.

“I’m in, if you are,” he said to them.

Phil laughed. Gray and Warren cheered. And although others in the waiting room might have wondered why four grown men suddenly jumped to their feet to hug each other as if this were a football game rather than a hospital, Charlie, Gray, Warren, and Phil did it just the same.

Chapter 23

The first thing Jonas became aware of as he woke was Charlie holding his hand. The rest of Jonas’s body felt distant and somehow detached from his brain, but the warmth of Charlie’s hand on his was wonderful.

“Thank you,” he said before even opening his eyes.

Charlie brushed his fingers through Jonas’s hair. “It’s all over, and you did great.”

“Great” seemed like a bit of an exaggeration considering the vomiting and how close he’d come to falling apart, but it didn’t matter. He’d done it. He’d given his kidney to somebody who needed it. He’d honored Shelly in the best way he could think of, and his heart felt lighter for it.

He was moved to a hospital room. Once there, Charlie presented him with a bracelet.

“I know medical alert bracelets aren’t exactly sexy,” Charlie told him as he latched it around Jonas’s wrist. “But having only one kidney is something paramedics or doctors need to know.”

Jonas liked it. Sexy didn’t mean a thing to him. In his mind, it was a badge of honor, even more so than the green ribbon the nurses hung on the door of his room.

He stayed two nights in the hospital. Charlie barely left, although Jonas did convince him to at least go home long enough to sleep in his own bed. Warren and Taylor visited, as did River and Phil. Gray and Avery sent flowers.

“They came by, but I think they’re still figuring out where the boundaries are,” Charlie told him.

Jonas didn’t have enough energy to care. All he could do was sleep. It took every bit of energy to swallow the broth and Jell-O the nurses brought him. On the second day, after Jonas had proved he could at least walk to the bathroom and urinate on his own, they let Charlie take him home.

Still, Jonas slept. Charlie brought him food and his meds. On one hand, he didn’t need the heavy painkillers after the first day home. He was able to make do with Tylenol. But he couldn’t believe how awful he felt. Just shuffling into the kitchen wore him out. He had no idea what he would have done without Charlie taking care of him.

On the fourth night home, when Jonas was too tired to get out of bed, he dissolved into tears. He’d expected to feel a little better each day, but he didn’t. He still felt as lousy as he had that very first day. For the first time, he wondered if he’d made a mistake. There was a reason people had two kidneys. He obviously wasn’t meant to live