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But instead she answered, “Your dad and I. Who else?”
Paige blinked. “My dad?”
“Yeah. He’s busy driving right now, but he says to tell you he loves you and we’ll be there soon.”
A tear dripped down Paige’s cheek as she nodded. “Okay,” she whispered, unable to speak any louder than that. “Hurry.” Knowing that support was on its way made her nearly dizzy with relief. She’d been so preoccupied just holding herself together through most of the day, the thought of not having to do so any longer actually drained her.
“I love you guys.”
“We love you too. See you soon.” When Kayla hung up, Paige stood, frozen in her shoes. When the dial tone blared in her ear, she quickly punched in her dorm r
oom.
Bailey answered as quickly as Kayla had. “Where the hell are you?”
After another five minutes of getting lectured at by Bailey and then Tess for scaring the life out of them, they spent another five minutes telling her how much they loved her and were glad she was safe. If officials weren’t sequestering everyone on campus to their dormitories, she had a feeling her suitemates would be on their way to sit with her at the hospital as well.
By the time she hung up with them, she was a watering pot. She was wiping her soggy cheeks when Logan’s family rushed down the hall. His parents and two brothers skidded to a halt when they spotted her.
Taking in Paige’s wet, red eyes, Mrs. Xander pressed a hand to her heart and hiccupped a sound of agony. “We’re too late.”
“No.” Paige shook her head. “Actually, I don’t know. I haven’t gotten an update yet.”
His mother blew out a breath and nodded, though she looked scared spitless. Logan’s family entire family looked shell-shocked.
Logan’s father went to the nurses’ desk, demanding answers just as the doctor appeared in the hall, striding toward them.
“Logan Xander family?” he asked.
Mrs. Xander reached out and clutched Paige’s hand, and Paige held on to her for dear life as she whispered, “Yes.”
Paige held her hands against her chest as she cautiously trailed Logan’s parents and brothers down the hall to his recovery room. The doctor might have told them he’d come out of surgery very well and was awake and cognizant, but she couldn’t actually believe it until she saw him.
Holding back as his parents, then his brothers, went in first, she remained just outside the doorway, eager to catch a glimpse of him.
When his mother whispered his name as she crept close, the figure lying on the hospital bed moved his head to the side and opened his eyes.
“Mom?”
Tears flooded Paige’s cheeks as she watched his mother grasp his hands and weep over him. “We were so worried. We’d thought we’d lost you for good, that it was too late.”
His dad and brother corralled around his bed, chipping in their own greetings of deep regret, and then thanksgiving that he was alive.
Pressing her back against the hall wall inches from the doorway, Paige listened to the family reunion, so very glad they’d found their way back together. The Xanders didn’t do a whole lot of clarifying as to why they’d suddenly let Logan back into the fold, and Logan didn’t demand an explanation. All that would no doubt come later, after the shock had worn off. For now, they simply seemed happy to be together again, and Paige was happy they were happy.
“So how many stitches do you have?” one of the brothers asked a couple minutes later.
“Actually, I don’t know if they’re staples or stitches,” Logan said, “and I didn’t ask how many. I don’t think I want to know.”
Paige grinned, thinking that sounded like the perfect Logan answer. Relieved she could listen to his voice and hear him give a Logan kind of response, she closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her heart, sending up a prayer of thanks. She’d come so close to losing him forever.
“I didn’t think puncture wounds like a gunshot needed stitches,” Mr. Xander mused aloud.
Logan gave a weak chuckle. “Yeah. Well, I guess they had to open me up a little more to operate on a couple things that had gotten nicked.”
“Nicked?” Paige echoed aloud. More worried than concerned about privacy and family time, she whirled from the hallway to gape at him through the threshold. “Where did you get nicked?”
Was it serious? An important organ he could never use again? Would he have lasting damage, or could it get worse later on?
