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“Stop it,” my sister says, eyeing me. She knows me too well. “This wasn’t your fault.”
“I know,” I mumble. “It was an accident.” I look up at her. “Can you call Chelcie, and ask her to stay the night with Zu? I don’t know what time I’ll be leaving here.”
Maddy nods. “Of course.” She disappears around a corner as she pulls her phone out of her purse to call my babysitter, and Gabe falls into step with me as I pace. His big body dwarfs mine, the skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his bicep reading death before dishonor.
“You don’t have to babysit me,” I tell him. “I’m fine.”
“I’m not babysitting,” he protests. “I’m pacing. I like to pace.”
He stays in step with me for a few minutes more before he speaks again.
“He’s going to be fine, Mila.”
I nod, because there’s no way he’ll be anything else. Pax is strong, he’s a fighter. He’s overcome so much already.
The policeman clears his throat, and I had almost forgotten he was here.
“If you are contacted by anyone, by the girl you stopped to help, for example, will you let us know?’
He offers me his card and I take it, and I’m confused.
“Wait. You haven’t spoken with the girl?”
The policeman eyes me. “No. As I mentioned earlier, she left the scene.”
I don’t remember that at all. “I’m sorry,” I tell him. “I’m a bit flustered.”
He nods. “It’s perfectly understandable. Just let us know if, for some reason, she tries to contact you.”
“Ok.”
He leaves, and Gabe and I pace together for a few more minutes. Finally, I’m too tired to pace, and I collapse into a chair. Maddy comes back, and holds my hand, and I’m just closing my eyes to rest them when the surgeon emerges from the door.
I know it’s the surgeon because he’s wearing one of those caps that you see on ER shows, and he looks exhausted.
“Your husband is going to be ok,” he tells me quietly. Gabe, Maddy and I exhale collectively, a mass release of pent-up anxiety. “His spleen was ruptured in the impact, but we’ve removed it and stopped the internal bleeding. His knee was hyper-extended, as well. He’ll be sore, but he’s going to make it.”
If I weren’t already sitting, I would collapse from relief. My knees feel numb.
“Can I see him?” I ask quickly.
“Yes. I’ll have a nurse come get you when he’s wheeled to a room.” He disappears back through the doors and Maddy hugs me tightly.
“See? I told you.”
I nod, and I’m still numb. “Yeah.”
It’s not very long until a nurse comes to get me, and takes me to Pax.
I pause at the door, looking at the man in the bed.
He’s paler than he should be, he’s got tubes hooked up to his hand, and he’s got muscles and tattoos. He’s mine, although being here, reminds me of a night when he wasn’t mine yet. The night I first met him.
He’d overdosed on the beach, and I’d found him in a pool of vomit. I’d given him CPR and called an ambulance, and then had come to see him the next day in the hospital. I might’ve fallen in love with him that very day.
His hazel eyes open now, slowly, but they brighten when he sees me.
“Hey, Red,” he says softly. “What took you so long?”
