Get You Good (18 page)

S
ydney paced the entryway inside the front door as she waited. It had taken her a week, but she had finally gotten the nerve to call Hayden. Their discussion had been brief and had consisted mainly of him agreeing to come over after he got done with his two-o'clock client. He had suggested they meet for lunch instead, but Sydney had made up some excuse about having to work. The conflict, however, had little to do with her working and more to do with her ability to be in the same room with Hayden for an extended period of time. She had not seen or spoken to him since the day at the hospital, and she wasn't sure how she would feel when she finally saw him, especially given the conversation they were about to have.

The sound of tires crunching gravel alerted Sydney to his arrival.

“He's here,” Lissandra said, coming out of the kitchen.

“Thanks.” Sydney didn't try to hide the sarcasm. “I know. Why are
you
here again?”

“Moral support.” Lissandra threw the door open before Hayden could even get his hand on it.

“Hey, Hayden,” Lissandra said, beckoning him inside. “Long time no see.”

“Back at you.” Even though his response was for Lissandra, his eyes locked on Sydney and stayed there.

“Hey.” Sydney's eyes drank in his tall handsome form. She could tell he hadn't shaved that morning, from the shadow on his jaw. She longed to reach out and touch it, rub her thumb across his full lips. It had just been one week, but it felt like forever since she had been in his arms. When had she gotten so attached to him?

“Hey, yourself,” he said with half a smile. “Thanks for calling.”

“Thanks for coming.”

Sydney heard a throat clear and realized that Lissandra was still there.

“Uh, why don't you have a seat.” Sydney motioned to the living room. “I'll be right with you.”

Hayden seemed to weigh the option of declining, but then nodded and made his way to the couch.

“I'll be in the back,” Lissandra said, lowering her voice for Sydney's ears only. “Don't punk out.”

Sydney watched her sister disappear down the hallway, then made her way into the living room where Hayden sat waiting on the couch.

She chose the chair opposite him, on the other side of the coffee table.

“So,” she began. She spun her watch on her wrist as she tried to think of what to say next.

Hayden watched her before shaking his head and sitting back.

“Wow. This is awkward.”

She sighed. “I know. And that's my fault. I shouldn't have gone off on you at the hospital like that.”

He shrugged. “It's OK. How is Dean?”

“Still in the coma,” Sydney said, her eyes dropping to the floor. “The doctors say his lower-body injuries seem to be healing well. But until he wakes up, they won't know about his brain functioning.”

“I've been praying for you all. My dad and the family have been, too,” he said. “I'm sorry you all had to go through this.”

“Yeah,” Sydney said. “It's only been a few months since Dean's been back home, and already so much has happened.”

Hayden let out a deep breath. “I'm sorry about Sheree, too. I just can't believe she would do something like this.” He shook his head. “I don't know what happened to her.”

Sydney began spinning her watch again.

“Have you spoken to her?” Sydney asked.

Hayden looked down and shook his head.

“I tried calling our mother, to see if she had seen or heard from her. But she hasn't spoken to Sheree in over a year. She didn't even know she was married.”

Hayden put his head in his hands.

“How could she do something like this?” Sydney asked, an edge stealing into her voice. “What kind of person does that?”

“She wasn't always this way,” he said, shaking his head. “Things have just been hard for her, that's all. And I'm not saying that makes what she did right, but that's the only way I can try and explain it.”

“That's not good enough.” Tears sprung to Sydney's eyes. “Because if my brother . . .”

She covered her mouth as unexpected sobs stole her voice.

“If my brother dies,” she sobbed, “it would be her fault.”

She closed her eyes as the hot tears slid down her cheeks. She hadn't allowed herself to think that way until that very moment. But it was a very real possibility that Dean would not recover. The doctors were hesitant to say it, but Sydney could see it in their eyes. And the longer he stayed unconscious, the more unlikely a full and complete recovery seemed.

She felt arms around her and she realized that Hayden was kneeling in front of her, pulling her close. She let him cocoon her in his arms as she pressed her face against his chest and cried the tears for her brother that she thought she had been done crying.

“He's not going to die,” he whispered to her as his hand traced soothing circles on her back. “God is going to heal Dean. I believe that, and you have to believe that, too.”

Sydney wanted to believe, but it was hard. She had prayed for God to heal her dad and he hadn't. In her mind she knew that her father had already been living in pain because of his first stroke, and that God had his reasons for doing what he did, but in her heart that hadn't made it hurt any less.

When she finally pulled away, she found Hayden's coffee-colored eyes staring at her with concern. Could eyes like that lie to her? If he knew where Sheree was, would he tell her?

“Look, I know I can't make up for what my sister's done,” he began. “But if there's any way I can help . . . If you need help with Dean's medical bills, anything . . .”

“No,” Sydney shook her head. “We're fine. But thanks.”

“OK,” he said. “But if that changes . . .”

“I'll let you know,” she said.

He gently wiped the tears from her face with his fingers.

“How about you?” he asked. “How are you dealing with this?”

She knew what he was asking. They both knew her last few interactions with Dean hadn't been the most positive.

She took a deep breath. “I'm fine. I don't care about the shop or anything. I just want Dean to be better.”

He nodded, then pulled her closer, kissing both her eyelids.

“You know I'm here for you,” he said softly, his forehead resting against hers. “If you need anything, or you just want to talk, or you need to get away, I'm here.”

Sydney closed her eyes. He was making it hard for her to not trust him.

“OK,” she said with a sigh. “Just promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“If you hear from Sheree, you'll tell me.”

“Sydney, forget about her for now. Right now, you need to focus on Dean. . . .”

“Hayden, promise me.”

He sighed and kissed her forehead. “If I hear anything major, I'll let you know.”

“Thank you.”

She slipped her arms around his shoulders and he stood, lifting her off the ground as his strong steady arms returned her embrace. Yes, she had definitely missed being close to him.

“I have to get back to the shop,” she said, when they finally let go of each other.

“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “I have to get back to the clinic, too.”

She nodded and followed him to the door.

“So we're good?” he asked.

She nodded. “We're good.”

“Great,” he stepped closer. “'Cause baby, I've really missed you.”

His lips found hers briefly, but it was enough to make Sydney wish she could blow off the rest of her afternoon. Minus the blip at the hospital, it had been more than two weeks since she'd last seen him.

“Later?” she breathed against his lips.

“Definitely.”

“Leaving already?” Lissandra asked, appearing at the doorway with them.

“Duty calls.” Hayden glanced at Sydney affectionately. “But I'll be back.”

“Well, thanks so much for coming by,” Lissandra said, throwing her arms around Hayden in a hug. “I know it meant a lot to Sydney.”

“Uh, no problem.” Hayden patted her back awkwardly as he shot Sydney a questioning look.

“OK.” Lissandra stepped back. “Take care.”

Sydney eyed her sister suspiciously as Lissandra watched Hayden make his way to his car.

Sydney folded her arms. “What was that about?”

“What?” Lissandra's eyes were still outside, where Hayden was starting his car.

“You don't even hug your own brother.” She narrowed her eyes at her sister. “What's with the sudden affection toward my boyfriend?”

“Because”—Lissandra waited until Hayden had driven off before closing the door—“I needed this.”

She held open her hand with Hayden's cell phone in it.

“You lifted his cell phone!”

“Hell yes,” Lissandra said. “Once you went all weepy, I knew your little lovesick behind wouldn't get anything from him.”

“I'm lovesick because I get emotional over my brother in a coma in the hospital?”

“Save the dramatics.” Lissandra headed to the living room. “I just need to see if there's anything on this phone about Sheree.”

“Well, you won't get anything. It's password protected.” Sydney followed her sister into the living room. She sank into the couch. “I can't believe you stole his cell phone. Where did you learn to do that?”

“What's the password?”

Sydney let out a laugh. “You must be smoking more than just cigarettes if you think I'm going to help you break into his phone.”

“Come on, Sydney,” Lissandra said in frustration. “All we need to see is if there's a number for Sheree, or a record of a last call, or a text message from her.”

“He said he hasn't heard from her.”

“And you believe him?” Lissandra asked in disbelief. “If the tables were turned, would you rat out Dean?”

Sydney bit her lip. “Maybe.”

Lissandra threw her a knowing look.

“OK, I don't know,” Sydney admitted.

“Exactly.” Lissandra's eyes went back to the screen as she tried different combinations. “Look, the worst that could happen is we find nothing, you can say I told you so, and you have an excuse to have him come back over here.”

Sydney bit her lip. Lissandra did have a point. Plus she liked the thought of having Hayden come back. Somehow being with him made everything else bearable.

“OK, fine,” Sydney said. “But we don't look at anything unless I say it's OK.”

“Whatever,” Lissandra said, moving over to where Sydney was sitting and squeezing in beside her. “Let's just get this done before he figures out it's missing.”

“OK, so what have you tried?”

“Your birthday, your first name, and your middle name, the date of the NBA party where he first ran into you again . . .”

“Try his graduation date, 062000.”

“Nope.”

“Try 200607, that's when he won MVP.”

“Keep going.”

“Sheree's birthday?”

“Which one?”

“Try both.

“Nope,” Lissandra said. “How about his birthday.”

“Too easy.”

They kept tossing out options, but each one turned out wrong. Suddenly Sydney sat forward.

“What?” Lissandra asked, curious.

“Try 050708.”

Lissandra sat forward. “That's it!” She turned to look at Sydney. “What's that?”

Sydney closed her eyes. “The first day of the rest of his life.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.” Sydney shook off the sense of guilt that settled around her. “Let's just get this done.”

Sydney felt awkward going through Hayden's phone. She had never been an insecure girlfriend. Even though she knew that Hayden got a lot of attention from women, it never bothered her. But going through something as private as his cell phone was different. All it took was one text message out of context to change things.

It wasn't long before they found Sheree's number in the address book. It was the same as the one they found in Dean's phone, so it didn't help much. The call history showed that Hayden had been in touch with his sister quite a bit, but nothing past the week she went missing. Same with text messages.

“See? I told you,” Sydney said. “He's not a liar.”

“Whoa, not so fast,” Lissandra said. “There's a missed call, from her.”

“What? Where?” Sydney asked, pulling Lissandra's hand with the phone closer.

Lissandra scrolled through the list until Sheree's name and number showed up again.

“It's from a week ago,” said Lissandra.

“Look at this, though,” Sydney said. “One minute before, there's another missed call from another number. Maybe she called from that number first, he didn't pick up, then she called back from her number, thinking he would recognize it and answer.”

“Only one way to find out.” Lissandra pressed the green call button for the unknown number and put the phone on speaker. It rang twice before a cheery female voice came over the line.

“Welcome to Best Western Mississauga, how can I help you?”

Lissandra and Sydney looked at each other.

“Hello?”

Lissandra ended the call.

“Call Essie,” Sydney said, taking Hayden's phone from Lissandra and getting up. “Tell her we'll be there in ten minutes.”