Chapter 8

8

Her brother was finishing up his snack when she plopped into the chair at the same table. Gene looked horrible. But thank God he was alive there in front of her. She had been so certain he wouldn’t be… “Okay, she's still sleeping. That’s the best thing for her. I think you need to head home. Rest. See your son.”

"I'm not going anywhere until she wakes and I know one hundred percent, without a doubt, that she's going to be okay. And...she's going to want me to be there. I promised her I would be there when she woke, so she knew we were okay. I promised her, Gen. I’m keeping that promise. Calvin is safe at home with Grady and Gunn. I called him before bed.”

There was a look in her brother’s eyes Genny didn’t quite know how to interpret. But it broke her heart for him. “Chad is with her now. He’ll take care of her, Gene. She’s not your responsibility any longer.”

“Like he’s done such a good job so far.” And there was fury in his words now. Anger at what had happened, and the people around them—it was normal. She had seen it before time and time again in the trauma department. With the families.

It just felt a bit different when it was her family that was hurting.

“What do you mean?”

“She shouldn’t have kept her condition a secret from her family. And it pisses me off that she felt she had to, even though she had to be so scared. That she had to be the strong one for them all after Charlie’s son died. It wasn’t right. Who took care of her back then?”

“I did, and our friend Aubrey, that’s who. She really didn’t want to worry them. I tried to convince her to at least tell Chad and Charlie but Chantal was insistent. She can be a bit stubborn. And with Rory having such a difficult time during her pregnancy, and Charlotte—Chantal just didn’t want to add to the pain. I can understand that.” She studied her brother’s face for a moment. So handsome. Gene was classically ruggedly handsome in that way some men had.

All of her siblings were gorgeous, in her opinion.

It was tough being the ugly duckling in a family of swans. Genny understood that on the deepest level. And she suspected Chantal had felt the same—even though she was the real swan of the Fields family, in Genny’s opinion.

“Charlie and Chad—they are extremely intense people. So is Jane. I think… Chantal just got used to being the backbone, like her dad. The quiet one. The one who just took care of all of the little things for the ones she cares about—never realizing that she is the heart of them all. And with her dad getting older, she just wanted to protect them from the stress.”

Her brother nodded, but that look was back in his eyes again. The one that said something more was going on in his complicated head that he wasn’t letting out yet. He had always been one of her most intense brothers. He felt things intensely. He just tried to protect himself from hurt because of it.

That was something else Genny understood on a seriously deep level.

“I’m going back to her.” He stood. “You staying here all night?”

“Yes. This is rather my natural habitat, after all. They’ll take care of her here. I can promise that. Dr. Fisher is a good friend, one of my best, actually. And she’s an excellent doctor. Chantal is going to be okay. We’ll get her a new monitor and pump set, no matter what it costs or insurance says, and we’ll go back to the way life was.”

“I’m not certain that’s something we can do.” He looked down at her, then he leaned over and pulled her closer. Just held her for a minute. “I love you, Genny Hiller. Exactly as you are. You are perfect. The best of us. Don’t ever forget that. I appreciate everything you do for me, and for Calvin. I’m sorry if I’ve never said it before. The world, my world, our family’s world, is a better place because you are in it.”

She hugged her brother back, thankful she had the chance to again, though they weren’t super close and she didn’t even remember the last time they’d hugged. She was going to try to fix that.

As he walked away, it sank in what he’d said.

He’d called her Genny .

Something her brothers had never bothered doing before.