“I’m okay,” I rasp.
His expression says he doesn’t believe me for a second.
“You’re still here,” I manage to rasp. I didn’t expect him to stay.
His mouth twitches like he wants to smile.
“Yeah.”
The nurse passes him my backpack without hesitation, like obviously the giant firefighter waiting outside the hospital belongs to me. Or maybe I belong to him. Either possibility sends warmth creeping into my cheeks.
Simon swings the bag over one shoulder and reaches for the handles of my wheelchair.
“I’ve got it.”
“I can walk,” I protest weakly.
“I know, but I watched you nearly die today.”
I sink back against the chair, suitably chastened. Fair enough. He starts pushing my wheelchair toward the truck, his boots crunching on the pavement in the parking lot.
“Gloria called a few times,” he says. “She wanted updates on your condition.”
“I worried everyone,” I mutter.
“She also asked if I planned on kidnapping you.”
I laugh quietly, as if the man who went above and beyond to treat, stabilize, and comfort me would lock me up against my will.
At the truck he opens the passenger door with one hand and steadies me with the other. My legs feel shaky beneath mebut moving helps. Simon takes my bag and buckles it into the backseat before sliding behind the wheel.
“It’s not fragile,” I tell him with a raised eyebrow.
Simon glances into the backseat.
“It has expensive camera equipment.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And your things.”
Something warm and soft unfolds in my chest.
“Oh.”
He clears his throat and shifts his weight like he regrets saying it out loud.
“Gloria’s husband, Shawn, drove my truck down while I stayed at the hospital.”
My pulse flutters as we leave the parking lot. He didn’t go back to Crescent Ridge, he stayed.
While I slept through observation and steroid injections and nurses checking my vitals every twenty minutes.
“You didn’t have to stay,” I say softly. “I could’ve called a cab.”
“I know.”
Darkness gathers along the mountain roads as Simon drives with one hand on the wheel. The dashboard glows soft amber across his forearms. Pine trees blur past in black silhouettes against the fading violet sky.
