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Palmer
We arrive at the ski resort and there’s an ambulance out front, putting a guy on a stretcher inside.
I open the door of Harper’s car before she can fully stop, running toward the ambulance.
“Hudson! Wait!” I scream. Damn, I really need to start exercising more.
Both men stop and stare at me in confusion. It’s not Hudson on the stretcher. It’s some guy with a broken arm and a bandage around his head.
“Never mind. I thought you were someone else,” I say.
“The guy from the tree well?” the patient asks.
“Yeah.” I look at him expectantly.
“These guys were talking about that when they arrived. I ran into some lady on the hill. Guess first-time skiers really should stick to the basic runs.” He shifts and moves his arm a bit and cringes.
“Where is he?”
A helicopter circles the area above, and I glance at Harper’s car. She and my parents are staring at the helicopter. No. That’s not for Hudson. It can’t be.
I run down the path, unsure where to go.
“Come on.” My dad catches up to me and takes my hand.
He drags me in the direction of the landing helicopter, where there’s a crowd of people.
“Excuse me,” I say, pushing through the throngs of onlookers, needing to reach Hudson who must be waiting for the life flight. I can’t process the nightmares running through my head. “Dad?”
“It’s fine, honey. I’m sure it’s nothing serious.”
I burst through the last layer of people, and a crowd of medical professionals surround the stretcher on the ground. My heart sinks into the depths of my stomach.
“Ma’am, you have to back up,” the security guard says. “Let them do their work.”
“But it’s my…boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” The security guard looks at me as though I have three heads.
“Yes, he was caught in a tree well. Please. I need to go with him.” All I can see is them moving the stretcher toward the helicopter, and I panic, pushing against the security guard’s chest as he blocks me. “Let me go. I have to see him.”
“Please, sir, they have a daughter. Let her see him,” my dad says.
The security guard shakes his head. “I’m not sure?—”
“Palmer?”
I stop pushing the security guard and whip around. I must be hearing things because…it can’t be true. Hudson stands behind me, looking confused.
I run to him, bulldozing into him. He catches me, and I cling to him like a koala bear.
“What’s going on?” he asks. “What are you doing here?”
Tears run down my face and all the anxiety inside releases from having him in my arms again.
“Jamison, what’s going on?” Hudson asks.
“We thought that was you on the stretcher,” my dad answers since I can’t.
