Textbook Approach

Chapter 1

Will

We had been here in the hospital for hours. It felt like this night would never end. The day had started off so good, but now…shit, when I ran into that barn and saw Natalie lying under that beam with Jack on his knees beside her, I thought for sure she was dead. And then I looked up to see Carly shoving a pitchfork through a guy’s throat. Talk about fucked up.

I was a damn history teacher. I liked baseball and having fun. This…this was not fun. This was so fucked up that I knew our little town would never be the same again. We all thought Josh going missing would be the worst thing that ever happened to our town. Now, with Natalie in the hospital, fighting for her life, I wasn’t sure that Jack would ever be the same.

I had been talking with Josh, trying to find out where his head was. Honestly, I was worried that he was going to bolt. I knew he was feeling guilty over all of this, but I couldn’t lose my brother again.

“Not a chance in the world,” he continued, picking up the conversation. “I can’t imagine my life without Carly, and we never would have had Alessa. After she was born, I knew I was going to have to give her up, and there was this time that it was just the three of us, and everything was perfect. But then I started to realize that our time was coming to an end, and I’d have to give her up. So, I stopped paying attention to her. I left everything up to Carly, thinking that I could somehow distance myself from Alessa, and then it wouldn’t hurt so bad when I had to give her up. But then Carly basically put me in my place on our last night. It killed me, knowing that I had to leave her with you guys. And when I got that back, when I knew that we were finally going to have a life together, everything we went through, getting to that point, made it all worth it. So, no, I wouldn’t have driven past her. I would have done it all the same way.”

I nodded and looked over to Jack. “Well, it’s nice to know where we stand.”

Josh huffed out a laugh at my jab. It was good to see him laugh. So much of his return was cloaked in darkness. And I had a feeling it wasn’t going to get any easier for him.

“Natalie Harding?”

I glanced up to see a woman in scrubs walk through the door. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a low bun, and the wisps that hung around her face made her look exhausted. The way she walked, the confidence she held in her body had me taking a second look at her. There was something about her that just seemed so damn special to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. 

I watched intently as her hand went up to her face and she brushed her hair behind her ear. There was nothing delicate about this woman from what I could see. She moved with purpose, everything about her suggesting that she always had an agenda to keep her moving forward. It was sexy in a way that I had never noticed in a woman before.

I always went for the obvious women, the ones that dressed to impress and threw themselves at me. Those women were usually beautiful and eager to impress, but they never held my attention. They never made me want more, but this woman…she made me look at her in a different way. I was dying to go up to her and ask her to go out for coffee or dinner. Anything to get inside her head and know what she was thinking, what was driving her forward.

She turned toward me and our eyes locked. In that one moment, I felt like my heart would actually stop. She was beautiful, absolutely stunning, and she looked like she didn’t care at all. Like beauty was truly only skin deep. This was a woman I could connect with. I felt it deep in my bones. And then she started walking toward us. My heart started thumping out of control and my palms grew sweaty, but as she approached, her face turned solemn, and I suddenly realized why she was here. She was the doctor that was working on Natalie.

Josh and I walked over to Jack, my heart sinking when I saw the stress lines on her face. There was no trace of hope there, only sadness.

“I’m Jack, her husband,” Jack croaked out.

“I’m Doctor Elwood. I’m sorry to tell you that your wife did not make it through surgery. We did everything we could, but her internal injuries were irreparable.”

I heard a choked gasp from Jack and saw the sadness increase on the doctor’s face. She looked truly devastated for Jack, even reached out to grasp his hand. She tried to comfort him, tell him that they did everything they could for her, but all I could focus on now was the fact that Natalie had died. Jack crumpled to the ground, his legs just giving out from beneath him. Eric was immediately there, trying to console Jack. I just stood there, still shocked by the news. I had no clue what to do for him. And then I looked to Josh and knew what he was thinking.

I pulled him to the side and shook my head. “Don’t you dare consider it.”

“This is my fault.”

“This is not your fault, and you’re not leaving us again.”

He shook his head, his jaw clenching hard. “Jack will hate me. Hell, he already does.”

“He needs time.”

“No, he needs me away from him. I can’t stay here, knowing that Carly and I caused this.”

“Hey,” I snapped. “We don’t blame Carly for you disappearing. You were gone for seven years and we all thought you might be dead, but you don’t see us cursing her. You did what you had to do, and Carly is not to blame for you running. It was a shitty deal, and so is this, but you didn’t make that psycho come back and hurt Natalie.”

He turned back to Jack, his eyes watching him intently. I could feel his indecision. I knew he wanted to run. That was what he had done for seven years, but the time for running was over and I had to convince him of that. 

“You have a business here. You’re building a life. Don’t you dare walk away when we’ve just gotten you back.”

“You son of a bitch!”

I felt myself being yanked to the side and then I saw Jack tackle Josh to the ground. I fell into the waiting room chairs, barely catching myself before I fell to the ground. I saw Jack pull back his fist and start pummeling Josh in the face. He wasn’t even fighting back. Eric and Robert rushed over, yanking at Jack, trying to pry him off Josh. But Jack’s rage was out of control. I hopped up and ran over, joining Andrew and Joe as they all grabbed at Jack. We finally pulled Jack off, and Eric and Robert held him back as I helped Josh stand. His face was dripping blood, but he didn’t even bother to wipe it off.

Turning back to Jack, I saw his face was bright red and shaking with anger. But the longer he stood there, the more his face fell and tears grew in his eyes. He shook his head and his lips started to quiver. 

“I’ll never forgive you for this. I-“ His head dropped and his whole body seemed to deflate. Natalie was gone, his wife, the one person that I had ever seen make Jack so completely happy. They were both our friends, but now that she was gone, I could see we were all losing Jack. 

He jerked his arms out of my brothers’ grasp and yanked on his jacket, straightening it out. “You’re dead to me. If I see you in town, you’d better walk the other way.”

“Jack,” Eric started. “This was a terrible-“

“Don’t you dare fucking defend him,” Jack spat. “My wife is dead because he brought those assholes to our town.”

I shook my head at Eric when he tried to speak again. Jack was hurting right now, and he didn’t need to hear any truths or excuses from us. What he needed was time, and his wife, but he wouldn’t be getting her back. 

With one final glare, Jack turned his back on all of us and followed the doctor out of the waiting room. We all stood in silence, none of us knowing what to say or do.

“I’m gonna go get Carly and head out,” Josh said, his head hung low. “Jack doesn’t need us in the same hospital as him. Hopefully we’ll be gone before he comes back out.”

He walked off without another word. Robert sighed, running a hand down his face. “Christ, this is…”

“Aw, shit,” Eric sighed. 

“What?” I asked, not sure what was wrong now. 

He looked at me with a pained expression. “Brody.”

The name dropped like a lead weight in my stomach. Jack and Natalie’s kid. He was still at the house and Jack was in no position right now to take his kid, but I was pretty sure that Jack didn’t want his kid around any of us right now. Still, he was at the house and he was better off there with people he knew than to be taken somewhere else for the night. 

“You guys head out,” I said. “I’ll stay here and wait for Jack to come out. I’ll find out what he wants, but I would assume that at this time of night, it would be best for the kid to stay put.”

“Are you sure? I can stay,” Eric said.

“No, you and Robert should go be with Kat and Anna. I can take it from here.”

They nodded and after glancing back at the doors that Jack had walked through, all my brothers left, leaving me alone in the waiting room. I had no idea how long I would be here. I took a seat in the waiting area, watching others come and go. About an hour later, Josh walked out with Carly tucked under his arm. She looked smaller than she usually did. She had been through a lot, and even though I knew she was tough as hell, I also could tell that Josh was super protective of her right now. 

I got up and walked over to them, smiling at Carly. “How are you feeling?”

She shrugged. “Not bad, but Josh tells me that they have me pumped up on drugs and I’ll feel it in the morning.”

“I’m sure he’ll keep the drugs coming, but I thought you were supposed to stay until morning?”

“I can’t stay,” Carly said, glancing up at Josh. “If-“

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I heard Jack growl from behind us. I turned and held up my hands to ward off his anger. 

“Jack, they’re just leaving.”

“They shouldn’t fucking be here. She should be laying dead in the morgue, not my Natalie,” Jack spat.

“Jack-“

“Don’t,” I interrupted Carly. I turned to Josh and nodded toward the doors. “Just go.”

He nodded and reluctantly started pulling Carly away. I could see the devastation in her eyes. She looked like she was on the brink of tears. I turned back to Jack and sighed.

“Jack, I’m so sorry about Natalie.”

His eyes flicked back to mine. They were red-rimmed and glassy. He looked like he was barely holding on. “She was such a good person,” he croaked. “She didn’t deserve that.”

“No one deserves that, Jack. What can I do?”

He shook his head slightly. He just looked so lost. “Nothing. There’s nothing anyone can do.”

“Jack, I know you have a lot to think about right now, but Brody’s back at Eric’s house. If you want, he can stay the night there. It’s late and moving him right now probably wouldn’t be a good idea.”

His eyes slid closed. “God, I forgot…How the hell am I going to tell him his mother is dead?”

“I don’t know, but you can come to me for anything. I’ll help out in any way I can.”

As if he suddenly remembered who I was, he turned to me with steely eyes and shook his head. “You can take me back to your brother’s house. I’ll grab my kid and then you can leave me the fuck alone.”

The pain I felt was nothing like what he was probably feeling. I wanted to help. I wanted to make this better, but there was nothing I could do for him. So, I nodded. “Alright, I’ll take you there.”

As I turned to walk out the door with him, I saw the doctor come out from behind the double doors, and she stopped and stared in our direction. Her eyes were sad and her shoulders sagged in defeat. I gave a nod and walked out the doors behind Jack.