Next

I woke up a few hours later with Tyler cuddled in next to me in my bed. “What’s going on,” I muttered, trying to wake myself up.

“Hey, baby. Freddy called me.”

“Freddy? Why?” And just like that everything the police told me came rushing back. Jeremy and my mother were dead. Savannah was in the hospital. I started crying silently and fighting my way out of bed. “I need to get to Savannah,” I said quickly, moving towards the closet to grab a duffel bag.

Tyler quickly came up behind me, grabbed my shoulders and turned me around. “Riley. Babe,” he said, looking right into my eyes. “Savannah is good. She’s stable and Addy’s mom is there with her. You need to take a few minutes to process what’s going on.”

I paused for a minute before I started really crying. Tyler pulled me closer to him and kissed my head. “I’m so sorry, baby,” he said quietly. “I can’t even imagine.”

I sniffled a little bit before looking up at him. “I just need to get to her,” I said quietly. “I’ll go through the rest later. I just need to figure out how the hell I’m getting to Portland right now.”

“I’ll bring you,” he responded without hesitation.

I stared at him in awe for a minute before shaking my head. “You have a game, Tyler. You can’t bring me. Addy will bring me. I’m sure she wants to go anyway.”

“I don’t care about my game, Riley! You need me right now!”

“I care about your game, okay! That’s what’s important! Your career is important. You aren’t jeopardizing YOUR career because my life just went fucking crazy. We barely know each other. You aren’t screwing anything up just for me!”

“I hate that you would even say that. I’m comfortable enough to say that we know each other. We are together. At least, to me we are. And I’m going to help you through this. WE are what’s important.”

I started crying a little again. “I understand that. We are together. 100% I’m in this. But Tyler – there’s no us if YOU aren’t in Boston! If I jeopardize your career to the point that you get traded than that’s it! I don’t have the ability to just follow wherever you go. You need to go to your game and play amazing and establish yourself here. THAT is what’s good for this relationship. You’ll help me through this once I sort my shit out and come back. Between now and then, we have phones. Portland is two hours away and you have a full 3 days off after Sunday. We can see each other then. But you need to stay here and be focused until then, okay?”

Tyler stared at me for a few minutes before shaking his head. “I understand and I respect where you’re coming from but it doesn’t mean I’m going to be okay with it,” he said quietly. “I hate the thought of you being in that town without me. How am I supposed to be comfortable with that! After what happened how am I supposed to have peace of mind and know you’re safe?”

“Is that what this is about?!” I exclaimed, grabbing his hands. “Tyler, look at me.” He finally met my eyes and I forced myself to smile a little. “I’ll be safe. My dad has been arrested. You know that. They caught him and he admitted everything and he is not a threat to anyone anymore, okay? I’m going to be at the hospital or Addy’s house anyway. That’s all.”

Tyler nodded a little before pulling me closer to him again. A few seconds later Addy came into the room, eyes red and puffy. “How are you?” she asked quietly. I slowly broke away from Tyler and went over to her.

“Honestly? Numb. I just wanna get to Savannah. Can you drive me there?”

She nodded and pulled me in for a hug. “That’s why I’m here. I’m going home for the weekend too to be with you. Ellie’s coming too. We’re ready to go whenever you are.”

“I just need to throw some stuff together. Give me 20 minutes? I’ll text you when I’m ready.”

“Okay.” She gave a slight nod to Tyler then left the room. I went over and sat on my bed, looking up at Tyler.

“I’m 20 years old,” I said quietly. I watched as he nodded. “How am I supposed to handle all this? Savannah is 10. What the hell is going to happen to her?”

“She’s 10. She has an incredibly strong big sister who’s going to make sure that whatever happens to her, she’s going to be perfectly safe and okay. You don’t need to figure any of that out alone. I’m a phone call away. I’ll see you on Monday and whatever you need help with – I’m there. Okay?”

I nodded before standing up and giving him a quick kiss. “I need to pack.”

He leaned over and grabbed a bag from under my desk. “Already done,” he said sheepishly. “You were out for hours and I figured this is how this would go.”

“You know you’re the best, right?” I asked, smiling a little. “God this is gonna suck. Promise you’ll come Monday?”

“First thing. Maybe Sunday night depending on how the game goes. You’re not alone in this, got it?”

“Got it. I’ll call you when I get there.”

“Take your time and drive safe,” he said, kissing me long and hard. “God, promise me you’ll stay safe.”

“You have my word,” I replied, texting Addy to tell her I was ready. “I’ll see you soon.”

Before I knew it, we were on the road. We managed to drive the full way without saying a word and as we pulled up to the hospital I could feel my panic starting to rise. “I don’t know what to do from here,” I said, finally breaking the silence.

“We go in, we see your sister, and we figure out the next step from there,” Addy said, grabbing my hand. “Together. My mom is already in there.”