women are like.”
“Do I?” Angelo steps forward. I watch, captivated, both resenting him for rescuing me and loving him for it. “I think not. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
All around us, people are watching. Henrietta stands rooted to the spot, her hand to her mouth. The desk nurse is leaning over, eyes wide. It’s the way Angelo talks, deadly calm, as though it makes no difference to him whether he has to kill this man or not. As though he’d happily slaughter him with his bare hands for the mere crime of touching me.
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” the man says apologetically. His eyes are flitting everywhere, desperate to escape. “I didn’t … shit, man, I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Angelo turns to me, eyebrow raised. It’s like he’s asking me what to do with him. I feel a savage, twisted thrill. But that’s dangerous, I warn myself. Because what if I told Angelo to kick his ass and ditch him in an alleyway? Would he do it? If I said to kill him?
I shake my head. Angelo nods somberly at the man. “Looks like it’s your lucky day. Let’s leave it here.”
When the man walks away, I snap back to my senses. I grab Angelo by the arm and lead him off to the side. “You don’t have to ride in like a knight in—”
“Shitty armor?” he finishes, a callback to one of our old jokes. God, that feels like lifetimes ago.
A smile touches my lips. I wipe it away quickly. “What are you even doing here? Are you following me?”
“No, Dani. But I did want to see you.”
“Why?”
As he tries to speak, I can see how much it’s hurting him. The pain is written across his face, glinting in his dark eyes even as he tries to mask it. I raise my hand as if to place it on his shoulder.
This just got doubly more complicated.
Because there’s something I haven’t mentioned yet, even to Zora and Quinny:
I’m pregnant with Angelo’s baby.
I took the test last night after being hunched over the toilet for ten minutes, puking with no explanation as to why. Two tests, actually, and then a third just to be on the safe side. All of them were positive. I wonder if now would be the perfect moment to break the news. Or the worst.
He finally whispers, “I’m sorry, Dani. About Wyatt. About everything.”
He leans over me. I feel myself trembling.
His lips are almost on mine—and I’m leaning in, too, captivated by him—when Zora appears beside us. “Wyatt is awake,” she interrupts urgently. “He’s asking for you.”
I jerk back. Mention of my brother breaks the spell right away.
“You should go to him,” Angelo says.
I nod. I don’t trust myself to speak. He looks into my eyes, unblinking, serious and stoic and so fucking enigmatic that I don’t know where or how to place him in my life. Without thinking, I reach up and return an out-of-place strand of hair to its place, then smooth my hand over his face, feeling the stubble of beard there. I let my hand fall and quickly turn, striding away.
I wanted to hate this man, but it’s getting difficult, if not impossible.
I push that all aside as I walk into my little brother’s room. He’s smiling weakly as the doctors go about their checks.
Once they’re done, I sit at his bedside and take his hand. “Hey, Einstein,” I say as cheerily as I can manage while blinking back tears. “How’re you doing?”
“Oh, groovy, sis,” he says, laughing. “Wouldn’t mind some water, though.”
I get him some and, when I make as if to help him sip, he sits up and takes it from me, hand shaking as he sips it himself. “They said I’m fine now,” he says. “Just need to keep me in for observation. No harm done.”
That sets me off. “No harm done. Are you fucking kidding me, Wyatt?” I yell. “You could’ve died. Then what would I do? Oh, I’m sure I’d have a whale of a time visiting a three-plot gravesite; you, Mom, and Dad all lined up, side by side. How fun that would be, huh?” I’m gripping the bedrail, trembling. “Jesus, Wyatt! You promised me!”
“I know,” he mumbles quietly. He looks down in his lap, twiddling his thumbs. “I’d say sorry, but what would it mean now, right?”
I walk over to the window, drawing a shape in the condensation on the glass with my finger, and then wiping it away. With all that’s happened recently,