Colorado Skies

Chapter 13 {Drink a Beer}

30 minutes later.

The wait was always the worst part. Not knowing was a close second. Krew was sitting with Charlotte, an unreadable look on his face, while Cody was sitting with her head rested on the chair. I saw Krew get up from his seat and I saw the doctor walk in. I sent a look to Charlotte telling her to distract Cody while I followed Krew over to the doctor.

"How is he?"Krew asked. I knew that face. The news the doctor was about to give us wasn't good. "I'm sorry, he didn't make it. His heart stopped and we tried for 15 minutes to restart it before calling of time of death at 1:32 this morning." I turned to Krew and he pulled me into a tight hug. I let the tears fall, before pulling my car keys out of his back pocket. I pulled away from the hug. "Don't wait up for me." I walked past Charlotte and Cody and out to my truck.

Krew's Pov

I watched Brynlee walk out the door. I knew she was taking this hard all she knows how to do when things get hard is run, she did the exact same thing when our mom died. I walked over to Charlotte and Cody. I gently shook my head no so that Charlotte knew he didn't make it. "Dad's with mom now, isn't he?" Cody asked gently. I nodded and pulled her into a hug, letting her cry into my shoulder. Charlotte gave me a soft smile from over her shoulder.

"She asleep?" I asked Charlotte. When we got home Charlotte made sure to bring Cody up to bed. "I think so, she might have been pretending just to get me out of the room though." I set the hat I had in my hands down on the table. It was my dads. Charlotte took notice to that. "You don't have to hide in front of me baby, don't put on a brave face, you just lost your dad. It's okay to cry." I stared at her beautiful eyes. She was right, she always is but just like Brynlee runs when things get hard I put on the brave face to reassure everyone that things would be okay. "Can I have your car keys?" "Why?" "I'm going to look for Brynlee." "Krew, no. Let her be. Everyone has a different way of coping and if hers is running away from her problems until she can't feel them anymore let her. She'll come back." I nodded. "I'm gonna go check on Cody."

After knocking on the door and not getting a response I walked in anyway. Cody was sitting on her bed hugging a teddy bear that my dad won for her at a fair last year. "You okay kid?" "Eventually I will be, what about you?" She asked looking up from her bear. "I will be." "What about Brynlee?" "You remember when mom died, and Brynlee disappeared for four days?" She nodded. "That's what she's doing now, I'm gonna text Riley and see if he can convince her to come home." "Brynlee's stubborn, you and I both know that." "That's why I'm gonna send Riley after her instead of me going after her." She nodded. "You should get some sleep, it's gonna be a long day tomorrow." "Alright, night Krew. I love you." "I love you too Cody."

Riley's Pov

When Krew texted me the first thing I did was call Brynlee. She sent me straight to voicemail the first two times, and the third time she let it ring but still didn't pick up, so I put my jeans back on, along with a sweatshirt, and boots. I still had her location on my phone from when she sent it to me the other day so I followed that up to the mountains where she had a couple tree stands. I knew where she was. The last day of archery we went hunting up there, and she took me to a place she called "her spot to think". It was a part of the mountain that overlooked the city. I got back in my truck and drove out there, sure enough her truck was parked and she was sitting on the edge. I parked behind her truck and started walking over to her. I could hear music softly playing from her radio. When I got over there I saw she actually had her legs hanging over the mountain. A beer can in her hand and empty ones sitting next to her.

"Hey." She looked up at me before looking back out at the city. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, you could tell she had been crying. "If your here to tell me that God does everything for a reason, please leave." I sat down next to her. "That's not why I'm here sweetheart." "Then why are you here?" "Because I love you, and I had to make sure that your okay." "You love me?" She asked her voice cracking from her crying. "Of course I love you Brynlee. You make me a better man, and I hate that we hated each other for so long." We hadn't told each other that we loved each other yet but it felt right, I loved her. "I love you too." I smiled at her before giving her a kiss. Her lips were salty, tasting like tears. "Your not okay." I said getting up, while trying to pull her up with me. "Ry, I'm okay." "You just lost your dad Brynlee, I know your not okay." "Yeah, well I lost both of my parents before I was 21. If you lost Brooke and Blake would you be okay?" I didn't say anything and let her continue. "Exactly. If you love me, then you would let me figure this out on my own." "Fine, please text me when you get home so that I know your okay." "I will. I love you." "I love you too."

Authors Note- I love this chapter because it shows how each of the kids handles loss. Brynlee runs away from her problems and drinks away her pain until she can't feel it anymore. Krew bottles it up and pretends he's okay and Cody lets it all out. Hope you all are enjoying the story, feedback is appreciated :)