Made To Love You - Megan Smith Page 0,2

no matter the kind. Hunter, in this moment, is thinking the worst. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen my brother cry. He walked around with a broken foot for a week and never once complained. He only found out because once mom finally got a look at it she took him to the doctor. When he was eleven he was riding his bike with Mason and Cooper and flipped over the handle bars. He came home with a huge gash under his chin and never made a peep about it, not even while he was getting it sewn up. So for him to be crying along with me means he’s just as scared as I am.

My tears have slowed but I’m still not ready to let go of my brother just yet. I honestly didn’t realize how much I’ve missed him over these last eight months. We still have a long way to go in healing our relationship but this turn of events makes it look really silly. We need to talk and get everything out in the open. Hunter lifts his head from my shoulder but continues to run his hand runs up and down my back a few more times. I give him one last squeeze before I lower my arms and face what our reality is now.

I glance around and find that it’s just the two of us standing in the hallway and I immediately miss the shield that Cooper provides me. I know he hasn’t gone far but I hate that he’s not standing beside me with open arms. I’ve always been the strong type, always independent, but now that I’ve got Cooper I like that I have someone to shelter me from whatever life throws my way. He’s my bulletproof shield protecting me from the world.

“So, uh…” I fold my arms over my chest. “Do you know any of the details?”

Hunter leans back up against the wall and takes a deep breath while rubbing the scruff on his face. “It’s lung cancer. I heard mom tell the doctors when we arrived in the emergency room. I don’t know any more than that. Once we were admitted and moved in the room,” Hunter nods towards mom’s room, “the uh…the doctor said he’d contact mom’s doctor, who happens to work here at the hospital, after mom told him about some tests she just recently had done.”

“I can’t believe she didn’t tell us.” I say staring at a gash of wood missing from the railing along the wall. “I guess it makes sense now why she insisted that she didn’t need to go back to the doctor for that damn cough.”

“Yeah, I guess so…” Hunter tilts his head towards the door. “I’m sure she’s awake if you want to go in.”

I nod my head but I have another question before I go in. “What happened to her to make you bring her here?”

Hunter scratches the back of his head. “CC and I were taking her home. We pulled up in front of the house and mom started having a coughing fit as soon as she got out of the car. She couldn’t even catch a breath and CC and I watched as she passed out right in front of our eyes.” He sighs. “She gave me a fucking heart attack. She was only out for a few seconds before she was alert again and looking around trying to figure out why she was lying in the snow.” He shakes his head. “She doesn’t remember even getting out of the car.”

Damn it, I knew I should have taken her home, should have spent the rest of Christmas with her.

Hunter taps his foot with mine and I glance up. “After the doctor walked out of the room, mom told me she was waiting until after Christmas and Mason and Hailey’s wedding on New Year’s Eve to tell us. You know how she is, she wouldn’t have wanted to put a damper on the holidays and their wedding.”

I huff. “That’s just like her, always putting everyone else before herself.” The anger starts to set in. “Why would she hide this from us? None of that other shit is as important as her health.”

I watch my brother’s huge shoulders shrug. “She’s scared.”

“It’s not an excuse.” My body starts to tremble with the anger that is beginning to radiate through my body. I’m pissed that she didn’t tell us the second she found out, pissed that she