“Right, yes, right,” I whispered, lifting up my phone.

Boone’s hand curled around my thigh and didn’t let go.

“Hey, sugarsnap,” Mom greeted.

“Mom—” My voice cracked.

Boone’s fingers tensed.

“Ryn,” Mom whispered. “Are you okay, baby?”

“He’s okay. They’re releasing him. But Brian had an accident. Boone’s taking me to Swedish right now.”

“I’m on my way,” she said.

“Mom,” I swallowed. “He’d been drinking. He’s been arrested. They’re taking him into custody when he’s released.”

“Okay, Kathryn. All right, honey. I hear you. Let’s just see if your brother is all right first. Meet you there at the front. All right?”

“Yeah, Mom.”

“You said Boone’s driving?”

“Yes,” I pushed out.

“Okay. Good,” she said.

“Um, his parents are with us. You remember I told you? They’re in town.”

Mom didn’t say anything at first, I was sure because she still wasn’t a big fan that I met them before he met her, especially, it was worth a repeat, when they lived states away, and she did not.

Now, she was probably less of a fan because of the way she’d be meeting all of them.

“Okay, well, it’ll be lovely to meet them,” she said. “Boone too, finally.”

I barked out a laugh that was entirely unamused.

Boone’s fingers squeezed tighter.

“Ryn, it’s going to be okay,” Mom told me.

“Yeah,” I lied.

“See you soon.”

“Yeah,” I repeated.

“’Bye, sugarsnap.”

“’Bye, Mom. Love you.”

“Love you too, my Kathryn.”

Man.

My mom.

We hung up.

I dropped my phone hand.

“Rynnie, you with me?” Boone asked tenderly.

“Yeah,” I muttered, looking out the window, thinking Brian couldn’t pick a weekend when Boone’s parents weren’t in town to scare his family shitless and fuck up his life even more.

“Ryn, hey,” Boone shook my thigh. “Stick with me.”

I looked forward.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“Okay,” Boone said, took his hand off my thigh and turned it face up. “Hand,” he demanded.

I put my hand in his.

He closed his fingers around it tight, pulled it his way, and rested it on his thigh.

For once, this contact with Boone, this indication of how awesome he was, did not make me feel better.

* * *

So, a girl has a variety of terrifying thoughts about meeting a guy’s parents, him meeting her parents, and everyone meeting each other, and just how bad all that could go.

But even in my wildest imaginings, the way it went in the lobby of Swedish Medical Center was worse than maybe anyone could possibly imagine.

Luckily, Mom had it going on, so did the Sadlers (all three of them), so the awkwardness only hit the danger zone, not the stratosphere.

And maybe it was weak, but I didn’t care.

When we got outside Brian’s room where a uniform cop was hanging, I asked Boone to go in with me.

Angelica said he was torn up, and if he looked bad, I needed Boone.

And Brian hadn’t been all that nice to me lately, so if he kept up that bent, I needed Boone.

Mom didn’t make a peep, and neither did Porter or Anne-Marie. The Sadlers said they’d go get us coffees and be in the waiting room.

Boone, being Boone, said one word.

“Absolutely.”

Boone talked to the cop to gain entry.

Mom went in first, and Boone held my hand when we went in after her.

And Brian was torn up.

Obviously, there’d been some shattered glass because he had little cuts all over his face. The array of the worst of it seemed to come down from, my guess, the biggest wound. The one under the bandage that was smack in the middle of his forehead. And his arm was in a sling.

So yeah, there was that head wound and how it looked and how it made clear how incredibly worse it could have been.

He also looked pale, but green around the gills, the first his health and predicament, the last a hangover.

Oh yeah, one last thing.

He was handcuffed to the bed.

I noted he looked sheepish when he saw Mom.

He looked angry when he saw me.

He got enraged when he saw Boone.

“Are you serious with this fuckin’ guy?”

Those were his first words to us.

“Brian, this is Boone, your sister’s boyfriend, and—” Mom began.

“So now you’re fuckin’ him?” Brian asked me.

I sucked in breath.

Boone went perfectly still.

Incidentally, Brian had also been at that party at Lottie and Mo’s that Mom went to.

There were a lot of people there, I didn’t think he’d met Boone either.

But he obviously knew who he was.

“Probably can get him to get all sorts of shitty stuff for you to hold over family and friends, you let him bang you,” Brian went on.

“Brian, I can imagine you’d prefer not to focus on your current situation,” Mom stated. “But at no time is it all right to speak to your sister like that.”

Boone’s hand started pumping mine.

“Mom, stop talking to me like I’m a child,” Brian bit out.

“Then stop acting like one,” she returned.

Brian looked again to Boone and me.

“You know, I don’t need Ryn to bring her A-Team asshole in to get up in my shit. How many reps you do to get biceps like that, bro? Fuck, you’re a joke.”

“Brian, stop talking,” Mom snapped.

Boone abruptly turned to me and urgently bit out, “Ryn!”

But that was it.

All went black and I was out.

* * *

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck me? Christ, your sister just passed out in your hospital room, holding her breath because she can’t deal with watching the brother she loves destroy his goddamn life at the same time listen to him hurl vile shit at her. A room a cop is outside to take you into custody because you can’t get out of a world where you think it revolves around you. It’s not that you’ve fucked up her day. You’ve fucked up the last few years of her life after she took care of your ass for the first ones.”

“Saint Kathryn.”

“Yeah, seems to me.”

“It would, since she’s sucking your cock.”

“Jesus. You’d know a joke, Brian, seein’ how big a goddamn one you are.”

I opened my eyes.

I was in a chair in the corner of Brian’s hospital room, Mom sitting on the arm, holding my hand.

I was a bit slouched, but hearing Boone and Brian talk to each other like that, I sat up, whispering, “Mom.”

She shook her head and whispered back, “Let it happen.”

I shook my head too and repeated, “Mom.”

“He needs to hear this.”

“I—”

“Quiet, Kathryn.”

I looked beyond her, and I could tell just by the line of Boone’s body how insanely pissed he was.