AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But Eduardo didn’t chew him out. He didn’t try to throw his weight around. He no longer wanted to rule this town. He wanted to fit in. He was suddenly desperate to be part of Callie’s world, if only she would let him.
He didn’t go completely unnoticed. At the car rental counter, the female clerk looked at his face, then his credit card. Her jaw fell open, and her gum almost fell out of her mouth.
“Eduardo Cruz?” she said faintly. “The Eduardo Cruz? The owner of Cruz Oil?”
“Don’t hold it against me.” Impatient as he was to find Callie, he gave her his best attempt at a grin. “I, um, seem to have lost my phone. Do you happen to know the way to the Woodville farm? Walter and Jane Woodville’s place?”
“Of course I know it.” The young woman chewed her gum thoughtfully. “At the corner of Rural Route 12 and Old County Road. I went to school with their daughter.” Her eyes darkened. “I saw her driving around in the Rolls-Royce yesterday….”
“Thank you. She’s the one I came to see—”
“But she’s not at home,” she said. “I’m sorry to tell you this if you’re a friend, but she was in an accident. A car accident.”
Eduardo nearly staggered back. “What?”
“That car was smashed right up,” she said sadly.
Car accident. Memories went through him of when he’d heard of his mother’s death in a smash-up on a treacherous road on the Costa del Sol. An icicle of stark fear went down his spine. “You are mistaken,” he said faintly. “That car is very safe….”
“Some kids were riding bi
cycles in the middle of the road. Her fiancé swerved, and the car smashed straight into a telephone pole. She’s in critical condition at County General …”
Eduardo reached across the counter, his eyes wild. “Who’s her fiancé? Who is he?”
“Brandon McLinn …”
He didn’t wait to hear more. He grabbed a map off the counter.
“Mr. Cruz, I really am sorry—”
Running to his rental car, he drove for the hospital, racing down the highway at a hundred miles an hour. If he got pulled over by a policeman, he knew he’d go to jail. But he didn’t give a damn.
He couldn’t lose her. Not now …
Anguish gripped his throat. He could have been with her all this time. He could have been chasing her the last two months, trying to make her forgive him, trying to be the man she deserved. Instead he’d let her go. Why couldn’t he have just treated her right from the beginning? Why had he wasted so much time trying to control their lives? Control was the illusion, not love. There was no such thing as perfect safety. No such thing as perfect control. You couldn’t make someone love you. And even if you did, you couldn’t make it last forever.
People left. People died.
But love endured. He could choose to love Callie with all his heart and strength, love her with full knowledge of both her flaws and his own; love her with every ounce of his being until the day he died. That was his choice.
He’d once told her that love changed nothing. It was wrong. It changed everything.
Clutching the steering wheel, he prayed he’d reach her in time. Callie had to be all right. His daughter couldn’t grow up without a mother. He couldn’t live without his wife.
The afternoon sunlight cast the waving fields in a golden glow beneath the wide blue skies. He increased his speed to a hundred and twenty, as fast as the little rental car would go along the empty highway.
Don’t leave me, Eduardo begged soundlessly. Don’t leave me.
CHAPTER TWELVE
IT HAD been a horrible night. And a very long day.
Callie rose achingly from the chair by her sister’s hospital bed. She needed coffee or fresh air. She was still wearing the same purple sweatpants and T-shirt from yesterday, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. They’d all been awake through the night, and now, in late afternoon, everyone had collapsed with exhaustion. Brandon was curled up in a chair on the other side of Sami’s bed, and Jane and Walter had fallen asleep on the couch, her mother’s head on her father’s shoulder, and baby Marisol snoring loudly against her grandpa’s chest.
Callie quietly left the hospital room. Once she was safely in the hallway, she took a deep breath and sagged back against the door, covering her face with her hands. It was all her fault. If she hadn’t given them the car they wouldn’t have taken the detour through town. They wouldn’t have been in the accident.
Tears burned Callie’s eyes. But the crisis was past. Her sister would recover.
