She sucked in a breath before continuing.
“Everything that could go wrong, did. There was a whole big lawsuit afterward. The train was automated, but some sensor to detect obstructions on the track was faulty. The manual override failed so the conductor couldn’t take over. Drew was in the process of dragging my unconscious dad out of the car when the train… When it got there. He threw my dad out of the way. But Drew didn’t make it out of the way fast enough and he lost his leg.”
Silent tears streamed down her face, and I wiped the corners of my eyes as well.
“It’s a miracle everyone survived,” I said.
“This is all pieced together from police reports and court documents from the lawsuit. My friend who works in the sheriff’s office, she helped me request records. Drew and I have never spoken about it. Every time I’ve ever tried to thank him, he’s dodged me or shut me down, telling me it’s not necessary. But there’s this look in his eyes.” She paused. “I don’t expect him to relive the accident in detail for my benefit. That would be awful. But the way no one in this town talks about it… I need him to hear my thank-you. Just once. Then I think I could—”
Our heads both turned at the sound of the top stair creaking.
Drew lumbered down the stairs, eyes dark and hair disheveled. “I can smell the muffins, but I’m going to need the day to my—” The words died in his throat once he got far enough to clock Ivy sitting in his house.
I knew how that sentence was going to end. He’d told me last night he needed the day to himself today. That was all he’d said, and I didn’t dig. I figured it was the universe’s way of telling me I should take the day to myself for remembrance.
Never in a million years would I have imagined we both had life-changing experiences on the exact same day.
Drew looked at us like he’d encountered a couple of wild badgers in his home. Not the mother of a child he saved, and a woman he’d spent the night curled up next to.
He ventured a few feet from the base of the stairs, a hard expression on his face. “Ivy.” He gave her a single nod, then stared past us out the front window, as if he was willing us both to teleport to where his gaze landed outside the house.
He wasn’t going to make this easy. But deep down, I knew it would do him good. Even in his broody, reclusive state, Drew was a giver. Someone who took care of others. If he could accept the gratitude from this woman for the ultimate gift he’d given her—her child’s life—maybe it would help him move past whatever other dark emotions he was still holding on to about the accident.
“I should go,” Ivy said.
“Nonsense,” I told her before I looked back at him. “Ivy dropped off a pie as I was leaving, so I invited her in for coffee. We had a nice chat.” I stood to offer him my seat.
His arms hung slack at his sides, his right fist slowly clenching and unclenching.
I pushed on. “She’d love to take a few minutes to sit down with you and—”
“Nope.”
“I’m going to go.” Ivy stood up.
“Excuse me?” I asked him, ignoring Ivy’s pleading stare.
“Not today, Sadie.” The look he gave me made my throat tighten. His eyes were a stone wall. No stormy annoyance or blazing anger. Just unrelenting emptiness. “No offense, Ivy, but now is not the time.”
“Yup.” She scurried toward the door and showed herself out without another word.
“What the hell, Drew?”
“You should go too.”
“You couldn’t spare five minutes to talk to the woman? All she wants is to thank you.”
“I know what she wants, and like I said, not today.”
“If not today, then when?”
“When what?”
“When are you going to let that woman actually thank you for what you did?”
“I’m not doing this with you.” He walked past me and opened the front door. He stared off into the distance like he couldn’t look at me. But he made it clear he expected me to leave.
“Really?” I crossed my arms and stood my ground.