Overcome (24 page)

Chapter 50

Parker

“A slight concussion,” the doctor said to Amy. Parker stared at Carly still sleeping. Her curls were sprawled over the pillow, her face pale. Amy tried to talk him into going to their house and sleeping last night. He couldn’t leave her.

“Is it … will she be all right?” His voice was soft as he interrupted the conversation.

“Yes, she’s going to be tired, have a headache and she might have a hard time remembering things. But I’m confident that with plenty of rest, she’ll recover just fine.”

“Thank you.” Amy said.

“As soon as she wakes again, I’ll release her.”

Amy lowered herself into the chair across from Parker as soon as the doctor was gone. She smiled at him and placed her hand over his.

“She’ll be okay. We’re a football family, remember. Concussions aren’t foreign to us.”

Parker nodded briefly at her before looking back at Carly.

He’d been relieved when she woke last night only to come back after speaking with Bree and find she’d fallen back to sleep.

****

He was almost asleep again himself when the nurse came in. “How is she, Amy?”

“Tammy.” Amy shot out of her chair and Parker turned toward the commotion.  Amy and the nurse were embracing like long lost friends. Amy stepped away and looked back toward Carly. “Just a slight concussion.”

Tammy nodded, standing a few inches taller than Amy. Her dirty blond hair was in a sleek ponytail. She wore bright pink scrubs and her skin was sun kissed like she’d spent a lot of time outside. “It scared me when I saw her name on my rounds.” Tammy held her hand to her chest. “These kids have been through way too much.”

“Yeah,” Amy frowned and stared back at Carly. “How’re you holding up?”

Parker found this odd considering that Amy was the one whose child was on the hospital bed.

Tammy shuffled toward Carly and picked up her wrist. “There are days it still doesn’t seem real. Like when I come home from work … Colten should be there.” Tammy stared at her watch as she held onto Carly’s limp arm.

Wait … did she say Colten? Parker tilted his head toward the nurse. He didn’t mean to stare. There were so many things going through his mind. As if she sensed him watching she glanced down and smiled. “Hi,” she said before jotting into the notepad she’d pulled from the front pocket of her shirt.

“H … hi.” He removed his hand from the bed and folded it with his other in between his knees.

“Tammy, this is Parker.”

He swallowed air, thankful that Amy didn’t call him Carly’s boyfriend, though technically he wasn’t.

“Nice to meet you, Parker.” The friendliness in her tone surprised him.

“You too … Tammy?”

She shuffled around the other side of Carly and turned back to Amy. “Do you need me to get you anything while you wait?” Then she glanced back at Parker.

Parker shook his head, "No thanks."

Tammy swiped something over Carly’s forehead and squinted at it as she held it up to her face.

"
You look tired. Sure you don't want a coffee?" She smiled at him again as she shook the thermometer.

"Yeah I'm ... I'm okay." Parker’s heart hammered in his chest as he spoke.

"I've been trying to get him to go to my house with Hudson, but he won’t leave her side." Amy was beside him again. She placed her dainty hand on his shoulder, reminding him of his mom.

Tammy’s head tilted from her note pad. "Carly’s a sweetheart. I understand why you don’t want to leave her."

Parker looked down at his hands. His knee bounced. He wasn’t sure what to say.

“Her vitals look good. Let me know when she’s up so we can get her discharge started,” Tammy said. Amy thanked her before she was gone.

“That was Colten’s mom.” Amy stared at Carly as she spoke like Parker hadn’t already figured it out.  “Colten was … Carly was dating Colten when he was shot and killed at school last winter.”

“She said something about that.” He watched Carly’s chest rise and fall with each slow breath. It seemed like forever before the silence was broken.

“She … I probably should have been more worried about her than I have been.” She finally sighed. Parker glanced at Amy. A hand was resting on her stomach. Her eyes were distant, staring at Carly. Parker wasn’t sure she was looking, or if she was spacing out. “Her grades … and the amount of boys constantly showing up at the house.” A sound came out of Amy’s mouth that sounded like it was supposed to be a laugh, but it wasn’t. “I never thought I’d be gaining any mother-of-the-year awards, but I didn’t think I was
that
bad.”

“You’re not,” Parker was quick to respond.

She finally turned toward him. Her eyelashes fluttered over her eyes. Her brow furrowed and he thought he saw her lip quiver, but if it did, it was too fast for him to be sure. “I’m the reason she’s in here. If only I worked less. If only I’d left her father, if only …”

“If only can be said about anything, Amy. Did you abandon Carly? Did you abandon Hudson?” When he thought about Mindy and what she’d done, it only made him angrier.

“But I did abandon her. I was there when she was little. Once she was old enough to take care of herself … I should have been there for her. She was hurting and I didn’t know how to talk to her.”

“Mom,” Carly’s groggy voice turned their attention to her.

“Hi sweetie,” Amy responded in a soft motherly voice that tugged at his heart.

Carly blinked as if she was trying to get her eyes to focus. She stared at her mom for a second before turning toward Parker. A smile stretched across her face when her eyes landed on his.

His heart bounced.

“Peter.” His name came out raspy.

He smirked, “Snarly.”

Chapter 51

Carly

“Tammy?” Carly asked.

“Yeah, Tammy Bailey’s your nurse today.” Her mom said glancing over her shoulder. “What are the odds of that?”

Carly attempted to pull her bottom lip in her mouth, but it still burned.  “Very odd.”
Maybe a little awkward, too.

The light laughter coming from the hall diverted Carly’s attention to her door. Parker and Tammy waltzed in like they’d known each other forever.

“How you feeling?” Tammy’s face turned from Parker to Carly.

Carly squinted. “My head hurts a little.”

It didn’t take long for Parker to be at her side again.

Tammy … Carly watched as she strode around the room. “I was worried about you.”

Carly blinked. Her eyes still foggy trying to process everything.

“I have your discharge papers and you need to take it easy at home, okay?” Tammy said.

“Okay.” She glanced at Parker, who was smiling at her. Only then did she remember how much she missed that smile.

Tammy handed Amy a clipboard. “I need you to sign here and initial here.” She pointed to the paper. “Her prescriptions are on the bottom.”

“You scared me,” Parker whispered to her. She didn’t pull away when he wrapped his hand around hers.

“I thought you hated me,” she whispered back, tightening her fingers around his.

His lips twitched into a smile. Even though she knew he’d been there all night, she could smell that faint woodsy scent on him. There was a trace of stubble starting to appear on his chin.

"I can't hate you." He glanced down at their joined hands. His thumb grazed the back of hers. "I love you." His voice was scratchy and almost too quiet for Carly to hear.

Her heart clenched. She didn't mean to hurt him.

"And I don't care if you don't love me back, or if you don't want me to. I do." His tongue poked out of his mouth and slid across his bottom lip and he continued to look down at their hands.

At first she didn't speak. She let his words hang in the air. Her mother and Tammy's voices were just a low rumble in the background talking about medicine and rest.

"I ... I love you, too," she whispered and her eyes stung with tears. She didn't even know if she could say those three words to someone again after Colten.

Parker's face flipped up toward hers. His long lashes rushed over his eyes.

"I'm sorry ..." Her attention adjusted when she noticed bodies moving by the door. Her mother and Tammy were walking out, now talking football and college and Hudson's plans.

"What are you sorry for?" He let out a small laugh, staring in her eyes.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "I was scared..." She shook her head and had to look away from him. "And you know about Colten ..."

"Carly, I'm not trying-"

"Just listen." She cut him off and turned back to him. "I thought I was in love with Colten. It hurt ... so much ... when he ..."

Parker watched her. His brow wrinkled and his eyes squinty.

"And I've buried it. I didn't want to hurt." Her voice cracked. "Then you came ... what I feel for you. It's so much more than what it was with Colten." Tears spilled out and she felt like she was betraying Colten by what she was speaking. "I did love him ... but I don't think I was in love with him." She stared up at Parker, into his brown eyes. His fingers clenched as she spoke. "But I'm ..." She paused making sure he was looking right at her when she spoke. "I'm in love with you."

His lips stretched into another smile, he leaned forward, over the bed railing. His mouth pressed against hers. As much as she loved kissing him again, her cracked lips stung against his.

Carly flinched and Parker pulled back, his rough hand slid over her cheek. “Are you all right?”

She wrung her hands together and blinked up at him, “My lips … they kind of hurt.”

With his palm resting against her jaw, he ran his thumb back and forth over her cheekbone. “I don’t want to hurt you.” His voice was quiet and scratchy and he sat on the edge of the bed as he spoke to her.

She attempted a giggle, but it didn’t come out easy. “Can I get some water?”

Carly was thankful Parker’s arms were long enough to reach her water without moving from her side.

“Good news, you’re free to go home, bad news, the clothes you came in are soaked.” Amy shuffled back into the room. “I signed you out, and am going to go get your prescriptions filled.” Amy shoved the papers in her purse then looked at Parker. “Hudson’s going to bring some dry clothes.”

Carly could only imagine what her big brother would bring for her.

“Don’t worry, Khloe’s there with him,” her mom said as if she could read her mind.

“Khloe?” Carly wrinkled her brow. She had a foggy memory of Khloe being there earlier … was that?

“Hudson’s seeing her. She’s been sweet through all this. Her and Hudson walked in …” Amy blinked and twisted her lips sideways. She looked down at her phone then back up at Carly. “How much do you remember?”

Carly’s floating heart crashed when it was brought to her memory again. “Dad …” she tried not to let her voice crack. “What’s going to happen?”

“Children’s Services want to talk to you. But he’s moved out, so you don’t have to worry about seeing him.”

Worry about seeing him? Regardless of what he did, he still was her dad. What she was worried about was
why
he did this to her. She was supposed to be his little girl. Dads are supposed to protect and take care of their daughters. 

“I don’t …”

“You don’t have to today if you don’t feel like it, but they’ll want to talk to you soon.” Amy pushed the few strands of blond hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear. “I’m going to go now.” She glanced over at Parker. “Can you bring her home?”

“Of course,” he nodded.

“Thanks.” She turned to Carly. “I’ll be there when you get home or shortly after.”

Carly nodded as she sipped the big bendy straw. “Can you get me something for my lips?”

“Parker, I told you not to be kissing her in her sleep.” Tammy’s light laughter filled the room. Carly felt her face flush.

Evidently her mom found this funny as well. She joined in the laughter. Parker’s face was a nice shade of pink, and though she was embarrassed herself, she thought it was cute he was, too.

“I’ll see you later, Tammy.” Amy stood.

“Yeah, see you,” Tammy said, before turning back toward Carly. “I’ll go get you something for those lips.” She motioned toward her mouth before looking at Parker. “You go easy on them.”

“Okay.” There was slight laughter in his voice even though his neck was still red.

Tammy giggled and waltzed back out the door.

Parker’s hand was still clasped around Carly’s. “I really don’t want to leave you. But I need coffee.”

“Go.” Carly smirked, though quickly regretted it when her lip split. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“I promise. I’ll be back in two seconds.”

“No you don’t,” she giggled. “You can’t be back here in two seconds.”

“Well, as soon as possible.”

“I need to be resting anyway.”

He hesitated for a second before leaving. Carly let her eyes slip shut. This was the first she actually was able to think about what happened. She didn’t have the best relationship with her dad, but she never thought he’d physically hurt her. Obviously her mom never thought that either. Her mom must have assumed that he’d be content using her and Hudson as a punching bag.

Carly’s head throbbed again. She fought falling back to sleep. She’d be going home soon, she could sleep then. She opened her eyes back up when she heard rustling.

“I didn’t want to wake you,” Tammy whispered. She was leaned over the tray beside Carly’s bed, sitting down a tube of lip balm.

“I wasn’t sleeping.” Carly curled her hands around the white sheets, suddenly feeling a little awkward being alone with Colten’s mom.

“Where’s Parker?” Tammy asked like they were old buddies.

“Isn’t it a little strange for you, me with a boyfriend?” Carly couldn’t look at her as she whispered.

The room was silent as she waited for Tammy to reply.

“No, Carly, you’re only sixteen. It wasn’t like you were married to Colten. You need to move on with your life.” Tammy’s voice came out soft and soothing, just like a loving mother’s.

Her cracked lips pressed together as she listened, staring at the white sheet across her lap. “But …” Carly couldn’t get the word out audibly. It was like something was blocking her voice box.

“Parker’s a good guy. Colten would be happy to know you have someone who cares about you as much as he did.” Carly blinked as she forced herself to turn her face up to Tammy. “I still have days when I lose it. Days I wait to hear his truck pull in after ball practice. Days I start toward his room to remind him to wake up.” Her eyes fluttered as her mouth curled downward the first frown Carly had seen on her since the funeral.

“But we need to keep moving. We can’t let it paralyze us from living. If all we’re doing is concentrating on how much we miss Colten, we miss out on all the wonderful people that are still here. I believe I’ll see him again one day, but until then I need to embrace the people I see now.”

“Your strength amazes me, Tammy,” Carly whispered, not sure that Tammy even heard.

Tammy took in a deep breath and looked Carly the eyes. “My strength comes from Jesus. I don’t think ….” She tilted her head back and pushed her blond ponytail off her shoulder. “No …” She shook her head, “I
know
that without Him … I could never get through it.”

With her heart plummeting into her stomach, she thought about Bree and Garrett and even Miley … the changes she’d seen in all of them since they said they found God or whatever they did. They really had changed. Though it was great for them, Carly never thought it was something for
her
.