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“What made you suspect that he was high?” Her tone is bitter.
“I’ve lived it. Felt the effect it has on ya too many damn times. He was jittery, couldn’t shut his damn mouth. By the time we came up from underground, he was draggin’. I asked him if he was on anything, but he said he wasn’t. Just said he was tired ’cause he hadn’t been sleepin’.”
“Colton, I’m trying really hard to be sympathetic to the fact that you are laid up in this hospital bed injured, but it’s really hard. Why the hell didn’t you order a drug screening then? All of this pain and suffering you’re enduring could have been avoided. All of this worry that you put me and your family through is literally your damn fault.”
Carly Jo is anything but sympathetic at the moment. Her face is boiling red, and she’s done crossed her arms over her chest. She is raging mad like a pissed off hornet, and I’m the jackass who rattled the hornet nest.
“Baby, he told me he was clean. I believed him. I was just tryin’ to save you the stress of hirin’ another man.”
“Save me the stress? You have to be the dumbest asshole on the planet. I can hire any damn redneck to run a piece of equipment. I can replace those damn miners, but I can’t replace you! If this accident would have been more severe, Kylee Jo could have lost her daddy; don’t you understand that?!”
“You’re overreactin’. Damn it, I know I screwed up. I should have come to ya then and told ya what was up, but I didn’t. I thought I had it under control,” I bark at her, but she’s so pissed she ain’t scared by the bite. She bites back.
“Did you even think that maybe, just maybe, an accident could have been so tragic that not only could it have cost me the love of my life, but it could have cost me Daddy’s business? Damn it, Colton, you could have stripped everything from me. I trusted you. You’re my right-hand man at the mines, and if I can’t trust you to make a call as simple as the one you obviously were too stupid to make, what can I trust you with?”
“I trusted him, Carly Jo, and it screwed me over. Big John caught me snortin’ pills at the mines once. He didn’t fire my ass; hell he didn’t even piss me. He told me to get clean before I screwed the hell up. There ain’t no changin’ my mistake. I put myself here. What else do you want me to say?” The tension between us is at a maximum level, and the madder I get, the more intense my damn arm throbs. Carly Jo drops her face to her hands, shakin’ her head from side to side.
“I’m so damn stupid. I knew I couldn’t trust you, but I still let you in. I knew you’d end up screwing something up, but I still caved and exposed my heart. Damn, you’d think I’d done figured this all out by now.” She’s talkin’ in circles, and I ain’t got a damn clue what she’s sayin’ or what she means. Before I have the chance to say a word, she starts up again. “I’m done. I can’t do this. It’s been nothing but a damn cat and mouse game with you since I came back to Kentucky. You’ll be answering to Mack from this point on. You’re no longer the superintendent. I’m not sure what position you’ll be given, and to be honest, that’s if you even have a position to come back to. You are just as much at fault for this incident as Dave or Eric. So now, I have MSHA breathing down my neck. I have enough damn stress laid at my feet, and I can’t deal with you and your bullshit any longer.”
She spits her venomous words at me, and her expression is cold and heartless. I can’t believe what she’s saying. There ain’t no damn way I’m letting my woman turn around and walk away from me after the fight I’ve put up to have her back in my arms.
“Damn it, Carly Jo, you’re full of shit if you think I’m gonna let you walk out that door just like that over this shit.” She bites the bottom of her lip and takes a deep breath, before taking a step toward me.
“I’m done. Don’t call me; don’t come to my house. Don’t even walk in my damn office at the mines. Get in touch with Mack to get your leave of absence paperwork.”
The sour words slide from her tongue and lash at me, cutting my wounds deeper. Releasing a deep breath, she turns on her heels and walks out of the hospital room, and out of my life, once again.
Chapter 32
Carly
I slam the heavy wooden door behind me and stalk through the bland white halls in search of an elevator. The anger building in my gut is so fierce I simply can’t control it. When I get to the lobby, I realize that it’s late at night.
Wait. How the hell did I get here? Shit. I flash back through the events of the day, and remember riding to the hospital with Bill. I was in such a rush when he came over to tell me about the accident, I didn’t even have time grab a jacket or my purse. So how the hell am I gonna get home?
I pull my cell phone from my back pocket and thumb through the contacts. Damn, I’m so pathetic. Aside from company contacts, I have Colton, his parents’ house phone number— sorta awkward to call and ask for a ride home, after breaking their son’s heart. Savannah, who by this hour is already in bed, and Luke. Shit, shit, shit. I stare at the phone in my hand and press send. The phone rings twice, before my ear is filled with Luke’s deep husky tone.
“Carly? Are ya okay, honey?”
“Luke, hey. I’m okay. I’m stuck at the hospital with no way home. Can you come get me, please?”
“Be there in five.” And the phone goes dead. I make my way to the stiff chairs and wait for Luke to pull up. As promised, it isn’t more than five minutes before he’s stomping through the entrance of the hospital looking everywhere for me. I walk to him, and when his eyes meet mine, it looks like years of worry have been erased from his face. He pulls me tight into his arms before looking me over from head to toe.
“Luke, I’m okay, really. I just need a ride home.”
“Sorry, but for you to ring my phone this late at night, I knew something was wrong. Scared the shit outta me. What are you doin’ here, beauts?” he asks, draping his jacket around my shoulders and pulling me close to his side as he leads me out to his truck.
“Sorry, I’m not in the mood for talking tonight. It’s been a long day, and I just wanna go home and go to bed.”
Luke doesn’t push. He nods, then lifts me inside the cab of the truck. He hops inside and pulls away from the hospital. The ride to my house is quiet, and for the first time today my mind is closing down. The thoughts have quietened, and I feel like the tension is slowly rising from my shoulders. I push the emotion that has haunted me all day away. I curl into his warm, Luke-scented jacket and fall away from the world.
When I wake up, Luke has me tangled up in his arms, carrying me inside my house. My eyes meet his, and his piercing blue gaze captures the depths of my heartache, and I immediately feel that electrifying pull to him. He carries me inside and sets me on the couch. Squatting in front of me, he tucks my hair behind my ear, then trails his finger down the side of my cheek. He kisses me gently on the cheek before whispering, “Sleep well, doll face.” He stands and walks toward the front door.
“Luke.” I pause, trying to find the strength to let him in. “Don’t go.” He turns around slowly, looking at me with that intense gaze that warms me all over.
“You sure?” he asks, because he knows that I’m as careful as he is to not let many people too close.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
