Where the Road Takes Me by Jay McLean Read Free Book Online

take control. He pressed his body into mine; I followed his lead and moved forward. I felt us turning around. Feeling it was safe enough, I opened my eyes. A low laugh bubbled out of me. “It feels like we’re flying.” I tilted my head up and looked at him.
    “Yeah,” he replied, “it really does.” He smiled, but his eyes were distant. Lost in another world.
    Then the music cut off. Blake’s foot screeched against the floor, and he came to an abrupt stop. But the skateboard and I didn’t. “Shit!” we yelled at the same time. Then I was airborne. He gripped my waist more firmly and pulled me back, my legs flailing up in the air for a moment as the skateboard rolled on. I was just catching my balance when I looked up and noticed Josh behind the desk.
    “What’s up?” Josh’s voice echoed. He was on his phone. “I’m on my way,” he said, a note of panic clearly detectable in his voice. He looked over at us. Blake’s hands were still on my waist.
    “Hunter, man . . . I gotta jet. Tommy’s in the emergency room.”
    Blake dropped his hands. “Dude, go!”
    Then Josh was off, searching his pockets as he ran to the exit. “Fuck.” He stopped and turned back to us. “I skated here.” His voice broke, as though he was on the verge of tears.
    “I’ll take you,” Blake told him. It was instant. He didn’t even think twice. He turned to me and asked, “You coming?”
    I didn’t know why he asked me to go, but I wasn’t going to say no.
    Josh switched the lights on as he waited by the door. “Get your shit,” Blake said. “We’ll meet you at the front door.”
    I started toward the storeroom. “What about the cleanup?” I shouted over my shoulder.
    “I got it,” he answered with the phone already to his ear.
    What would normally have been a fifteen-minute drive took five. Josh had the car door open and jumped out before we even came to a complete stop. After finding a parking spot and turning the car off, Blake turned to me. “Tommy is Josh’s son.”

CHAPTER SIX
    Chloe
    Josh was pacing back and forth in the waiting room when we walked in. He paused for a moment when he saw us but then continued. “They won’t let me see him,” he shouted to no one in particular.
    Blake approached him but gave him his space. “What do you mean?” he asked cautiously.
    “I mean that bitch didn’t put my name on Tommy’s birth certificate, so I have no fucking right to see my own son. Where the fuck is she, Blake? I’m here, so where the fuck is she when our son’s in there?” He pointed at the swinging doors next to the nurses’ station. “He’s my fucking son!” he shouted again, this time for their benefit.
    Blake took a brave step forward and put his arm around Josh’s shoulders. As they headed out the door, Blake spoke quietly, with his head bent, his words meant for only Josh.
    I took a seat and waited. Honestly, I felt a little out of place. And hospitals—particularly this one—weren’t filled with good memories.
    A few minutes later, they came back in. Josh looked a little calmer as he slumped down on the seat opposite me. Blake sat next to me. His arm rested along the back of my chair. “You okay?” he asked quietly.
    “Uh-huh.” I nodded. My eyes stayed on Josh. “Josh?” I asked. He looked up from the floor. He seemed to have aged a decade in the half hour since I’d watched him skateboarding so freely in the bowling alley. Then it clicked—why I had had that feeling when I was watching him. That was his escape. His hideaway from reality, where he could just be a kid again, instead of raising one. “Who’s here with Tommy?”
    “His grandparents. Tommy’s mom’s parents. I can’t get hold of them to let them know I’m here.”
    Well, at least there was that. At least Tommy had someone.
    A doctor walked in, holding a clipboard. Josh was up and out of his seat instantly. “Is he okay?”
    The doctor looked up at Josh, then Blake and me. His eyes fixed on me, and I