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“Let me call the nurse.”
“No.” I needed to talk to her first, before the pain meds knocked me out. I might never have an opportunity like this again. “Marigold, wait.”
“She’ll be here in a second. Just hang in there.”
I had to tell her. I could have died and she never would have known. “No, Mari—”
“Oh good, he’s awake.” A nurse dressed in blue scrubs came around the curtain. She had gray in her hair and a motherly smile.
My vision was clearing but my head wasn’t. Everything was still too fuzzy.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Hurts,” I said. “But—”
“Don’t worry, honey, I can take care of that.” She started doing something with the IV. “They’re going to admit you, so we’ll move you to another room once it’s ready for you. My guess is, you’ll go home tomorrow. You have some burns and you’ll be sore from the fall, but you got very lucky. Your injuries could have been much worse.”
To my increasingly hazy brain, that sounded like a good thing. I could feel the drugs start to course through me. It felt great, erasing the pain like it had never been there.
But I still needed to talk to Marigold. I needed to tell her. “I love you.”
The nurse laughed. “That’s what they all say. This will help you rest and we should be able to wean you off by morning. For now, just get some sleep.”
“No.” My voice sounded far away, like someone else was speaking, and I realized I’d closed my eyes. I forced them open, trying to find Marigold. “Love you. Always you.”
“You are a cutie,” the nurse said. “This is going to make him really drowsy, so don’t worry if he just sleeps. He’ll be fine.”
There were more voices. Talking. I couldn’t make it out. Too tired. I wanted to stay awake, but my body wouldn’t cooperate.
I sank into the depths of pain-free bliss, hoping Marigold would be there when I woke up.
CHAPTER 4
Zachary
When I woke up the next morning, Marigold was long gone. I had a vague memory of her touching my face and telling me to get better, but that could have been a dream. It was hard to tell. Soreness set in as the pain medication wore off, but I wanted a clear head, so I refused more.
The fall had messed me up more than the shock. I had minor burns, but I’d gotten lucky. Those could have been a lot worse. Fortunately, I hadn’t broken any bones, but I was bruised and beat up. I felt like I’d been run over by a truck. Repeatedly.
My head was also a mess, but it wasn’t from the shock or the fall. It was Marigold.
I could still hear her voice, like a seductive whisper. Stay with me, Zachary.
For a moment, when electricity had been coursing through me, I’d thought I was going to die. And who had I thought about? My parents, my brothers, my sister, my nieces and nephews, my friends?
Nope. Marigold Martin.
What the hell was I supposed to do with that?
I couldn’t go back to pretending she didn’t exist. She very much did exist. And of all the regrets I had in this life, the way I’d treated her was the one that hurt the most when I’d thought it might be the end.
That was huge.
I had to face reality. I had a thing for Marigold and it was never, ever going away.
It wasn’t because she felt unattainable, although she did. And it wasn’t because her friendship with my sister made her off limits. Hell, if Annika had ever said I couldn’t go for Marigold, I’d have married her by now just because she told me not to.
No, I was crazy about Marigold because of who she was. Because she was smart, and sweet, and drop-dead gorgeous. Because she was the type of woman who’d follow an ambulance to the hospital and sit with a guy who’d spent more than fifteen years ignoring her. That was just who she was.
