“What’s up?” my oldest brother Damon asked as I strode into the kitchen at my parents’ house.

“Same ole, same ole.” I gave Mana a kiss on her cheek and hugged Pop.

“Where’s Ian?” He was the only one not there, and I was starving.

“He’s on his way,” Mana answered as she set the table. “How’s the girl?”

I punched Tristan in the arm, “Really, asshole?”

You did not mention a girl in front of a Greek mother who had four bachelor sons.

The four of us boys—Damon, Tristan, Ian, and me—were only six years apart.

“What’s her name? Have you gone up to see her? Have you talked to her?”

Mana continued, obviously having heard the question. There was no point in trying to answer because she wasn’t out of breath, yet. Plus, if I waited, I would only have to answer the last question.

“Is she Greek? Have her parents been to the station? What exactly happened?”

“Mana, one question at a time. We all want to hear Kayson’s answers,” Tristan said as he raised one eyebrow.

“Fuck you,” I mouthed. That was one word I wouldn’t say in front of her.

“Is she a good girl, Kayson?” Damon jumped into the conversation before placing his folded hands under his chin and batting his eyelashes. It looked just as dumb when he did it as it had when the girl at the mall did.

Fuck it; they weren’t going to let this go.

“No. Nothing like that,” I ground out.

“She isn’t a good girl?” Damon asked a little too innocently.

“Shut the hell up. I don’t know whether she is a good girl.” The last part I said using air quotes. “Tristan is just causing shit.”

“You have a picture?” Mana asked hopefully. “Can I meet her?”

“Will all of you please stop?”

“What are we stopping?” Ian asked as he walked in.

“We’re talking about whether or not Kayson found a good girl,” Damon said.

“Oh, is this the one in the hospital?” Ian asked.

Tristan and Damon gave each other high fives and burst out laughing.

“Grow up.” I stood. “I’m heading home.”

“Sit.” That was all Pop had to say to have me taking my seat again. “You’re not going anywhere. Your mother worked all day to make this meal. The least you can do is show some respect and answer her questions. She has put up with the five of us guys for all these years. If she wants some girls, then you four best get on it, cause I already have one. The best of them all.” Pop leaned and planted a giant kiss on my mother’s lips.

When Pop spoke, we listened. The man had a temper, and the four of us had brought it out in him many times. But when it came to my mother, he was whooped. She knew how to work him.

I admired my parents, their marriage, and even though I got aggravated at my family, I wanted this. Family dinners around a giant table, children that grew up fighting but were still the best of friends, and a woman that I was madly in love with after forty years.

“Mana, don’t listen to Tristan. I haven’t even met her, not really. She was in an accident, and I was the first one on the scene. That’s all.”

I glared at my brothers, daring them to continue. I may be the baby in the family, but I could make their lives hell and sometimes needed to remind them.

“When’s the last time any of you got a speeding ticket? I bet you’d hate to have to spend a day in court over some silly ticket that some pissed-off deputy wrote you. I’m sure he could add some more shit to those tickets like not coming to a complete stop or failing to signal.”

Mana waved my threat away and kept on with her questions. “Accident? Is she going to be okay?”

I looked to Tristan, who just smirked and gestured for me to answer.

“She should be. She’s still in the hospital.”

“When does she go home?” Concern crinkled Mana’s forehead.

“Not sure.”

Mana looked at Tristan, expecting him to answer the question. “I work in NICU, that’s babies. I’m not her doctor, and even if I were, I couldn’t talk to you about her, not without her permission.”

“Where does she live?” Her eyes landed back on me.

“Just up the road.” Satisfaction flashed in her eyes and I bit back a groan. Yes, yes, I knew where the girl lived. I had her driver’s license for crying out loud. No one at the table would believe that was the only reason, though.

Sometimes, I considered skipping family meals, but it wasn’t as if I could use distance as an excuse. My parents lived just around the corner from me. And it wasn’t exactly a hardship, either, because I always went home with tons of leftovers. Even when they picked on me, which seemed to be more often than not lately. I was the youngest, and sometimes I needed to remind myself that I loved my family even when they did stupid shit like this.

After dinner, Tristan pulled me to the side. “Hey, I wanted to talk with you about Ariel. I spoke with her today. She looks good, well considering everything she’s been through.”

“Is she going to be okay? Does she remember anything?” For some screwy reason, I wanted to see her, I’d never visited any of the accident victims I’d helped, but she was unique.

“Yeah, from everything I can tell, she’s going to be okay. I don’t know what she remembers. I’m sure by now the hospital has called the detective in charge of her case and informed him that she’s awake. You’ll be able to find out that information faster than I will.”

“I’ll put a call in tomorrow and see what I can find out.”

“I did ask her about you coming up to visit . . .”

“And? Fuck, don’t keep me in suspense here.” I was pacing a small corner of my parents’ living room, torn between standing and listening to everything Tristan said and rushing off to the hospital to see for myself that she was awake and going to be okay.

“She wants to see you, too.” Tristan let out a laugh as I pulled my keys out of my pocket. “Hold up there, Kayson. You need to relax, it’s past visiting hours. She’s being monitored due to head injury, and you aren’t family. They aren’t going to let you see her right now. You can go up tomorrow.”

“Right. I’ll get some flowers.”

“Still going to try to claim she’s just another call?”

I heaved a sigh and turned to face my brother.

“Not a word to Mana.”

“Not a word,” he agreed, and I nodded.

“Thanks.” I leaned in and gave him a quick one-arm hug for getting the information for me.

* * *

I tossed and turned all night, anxious at the thought of seeing her. Were her eyes really that vibrant of a green, or was it a figment of my imagination? My adrenaline was pumped that night, so maybe I had imagined the whole thing—that whole instant connection.

Just before lunch, I headed over to the hospital, my heart pounding the entire time I stood in the gift shop trying to pick out a bouquet of flowers. Roses were no good, so I ended up grabbing some poofy things in bright colors instead. The elevator ride up was a test of restraint, and when the doors opened, I had to fight to keep my steps casual. They fought to match the rhythm of my heart. The nurses situated behind the desk waved as I passed, but when I got to her room, I stopped. She wasn’t alone.

“Ariel. Darling.”

I wasn’t sure what else he said because the words were drowned out from the beating in my head that had been in my chest just moments ago. Ariel had a boyfriend, or maybe he was her fiancé, which wasn’t something I had considered. For some stupid reason, I only remembered how I felt when our eyes locked.

Turning around, my feet heavier and my gait slower than it had been, I moved back toward the elevators, dropped the flowers in the trashcan, and pressed the button for the elevator to come back and get me.