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“Sorry, Amelia, I should have called you back. We’re at Seattle General.”
“Is she okay?”
“She was awake and alert when I saw her, just before they loaded her into the ambulance. But they haven’t let me back to see her since we arrived at the hospital.”
“Awake and alert is the best-case scenario,” Amelia assures me. “They’ll get her oxygen levels stabilized and give her some breathing treatments and then let her go home.”
“I need to have her car picked up.”
“Wyatt’s all over that,” Lia says. “Don’t worry about it. Let me know if you need anything, and please ask her to call me later.”
“I will. Thanks, Amelia.”
“There he is.”
I turn, relieved when I see my siblings hurry toward me.
“How is she?” Maeve asks.
“I don’t know. They haven’t let me go back with her yet.”
“I’m so sorry.” Maggie’s face is ashen and full of distress. “I’m so, so sorry. Kane, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Is there a Kane O’Callaghan out here?”
I whirl at my name and raise my hand. “That’s me. Can I go back with her?”
“She’s asking for you,” the nurse confirms.
“We’ll be here,” Keegan assures me. “Give her our best.”
“And please let me come back to apologize,” Maggie adds.
I follow the petite nurse to the back of the ER, the same room Anastasia was in when she dislocated her shoulder.
“We have to stop meeting this way,” she says with a weak smile as I walk in the door. She’s holding a tube, and puts it up to her lips, breathing deeply in and out.
“You scared the bloody life out of me.” I yank her against me, holding on tightly as my heart threatens to beat out of my chest. “I don’t know that I’ve ever been that frightened, and you’ve given me a few scares in our short time together.”
She doesn’t say anything for a long moment, just breathes in and out. Finally, when a machine beeps, she takes the tube away from her lips.
“This one scared me, too. If I’d had an inhaler with me, it wouldn’t have escalated this far.”
“Why didn’t you have a bloody inhaler?”
“I used the one in my purse this morning and forgot it at your house. The weather’s been bugging my lungs. And I don’t know why I didn’t have one in the glove box.”
I pull mine out of my pocket so she can see it. Tears form in her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me you’d given up one of your dreams for me?” she asks.
“Anastasia—”
“No, I need to know, because that’s not who we are, Kane. We support each other’s wishes and goals. I’m so damn proud of you. Hell, I’ve been proud of you since before I knew you. So why would you keep something like that from me?”
“I told you before, I didn’t keep anything from you. At least, not on purpose.” I kiss her fingers, relieved that she’s sitting here, whole and well, and able to dress me down with her words. “The gallery owner from the beach owns another in Galway. He wanted to feature me in a show, but he wants exclusive pieces. By Christmas. It’s impossible, Anastasia.”
“Still, you should have told me.”
“If I recall correctly, I was too busy with my nerves over asking you to marry me to think about telling you about the show. I turned it down, and that settled it. At least, for me.”
“But you told your family,” she says. “Which tells me that you asked them for guidance, or at least bounced the idea off them. That’s what I’m for. As your partner. I’m not saying you shouldn’t talk to them, I was just blindsided, and it was frankly embarrassing, especially with everything else that happened with Maggie. If the shoe was on the other foot—”
“I’d be angry,” I finish for her as I press the palm of her hand to my cheek. “You’re right, I would be angry, mo ghrá. It got lost in the shuffle of the past week’s events, and that’s the truth of it, but I apologize for forgetting to tell you about it.”
“I hate the thought of you missing out on something that means so much to you.”
“There will be other shows.”
“But in Ireland?”
I shrug a shoulder. “I’ve been invited before, but it’s usually Dublin, and while I love that city, I’d like my first Irish showing to be closer to home so it’s easier for my grandparents to travel to it.”
“I’m sure they would love that, too. Maybe you can talk to Trevor about a spring exhibit?”
“We’ll work it out. Don’t worry over it. Just breathe deeply so we can get you out of here and back home where you belong. My siblings are waiting out in the waiting room. Maggie’d like to come back to apologize.”
“I know she’s hurt,” Anastasia whispers. Her lip trembles, and it breaks my heart. “And I know she’s angry. But I don’t think I’m ready for that conversation right now.”
