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“I’ve got pneumonia?”
“Yeah,” he says. “They’ve pumped you full of antibiotics and some steroids, a lot of fluids too. You’re going to be okay, but it’s…well, it’s lucky they found you when they did.”
His words trigger a memory. Of my name being called, of panic in her voice, and her hands on me before they were snatched away.
“Laney?” I blurt out, sitting up. I’m immediately hit with a coughing fit, my dad standing, his hand moving to my back as I work through it. When I finally get it under control, I fall back against my pillow, turning to him. “Where’s Laney?”
“The girl who was with you?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say with a nod. “Is she, did they—”
“She’s here, Alex, she’s safe,” he says, taking my hand again. “They brought her in after you and they’re just checking her out. You’re both dehydrated and have mild exposure so they want to make sure she’s okay.”
“Can I see her?”
Dad smiles, a brow raised in question. “You like this girl, huh?”
“I lo—” I stop, not wanting to voice my true feelings to anyone but Delaney. “Yeah,” I eventually admit, my cheeks heating.
Dad chuckles now and it’s at once so familiar and so foreign. It feels like forever since I’ve seen him smile or laugh or show anything resembling happiness, especially when it comes to me. “Was this a thing before the avalanche?”
He’s teasing me now and once again, the whole thing feels so fucking familiar and so foreign all at the same time. The last time I remember Dad giving me shit like this was back when I admitted to him that I was crushing on Jessica Steinman.
It had been embarrassing as hell, but he’d pretty much worked it out anyway and of course, he’d been there, giving me advice and shit on what to do about my crush and how to ask her out. And it had worked and she’d said yes to being my girlfriend. At least as much as anyone can be someone’s girlfriend at fifteen years of age.
But I’d also thought my dad was a legend.
And he was.
Until my mom died.
“It was complicated before,” I eventually breathe out, this whole conversation and situation fucking surreal. “How long are you in town for?” I now asking, needing to change the subject.
“As long as you need me to be,” he says without hesitation.
I swallow hard. “What?”
“Alex,” he says softly, his hand resting on my arm. “I know I have a lot to make up for and I’m truly sorry that it’s ever gotten to this point. But I’m not—”
The rest of his words are cut off by a knock on the door, before it opens and a tall guy in a dark suit walks in, smiling first at me and then at my dad. I have no idea who he is, but clearly my dad does as he squeezes my arm once before standing and meeting this guy halfway across the room.
I watch as they shake hands and exchange a few quiet words before my dad turns back to me and this guy walks over toward the bed.
“Alex,” he says, holding out a hand. “Ethan Morrison, it’s really great to finally meet you.”
For a second it feels like time literally stands still. And then like an idiot, I blurt out, “You’re Ethan Morrison?” I don’t even bother to shake his hand, which is now hanging between us.
He chuckles, turning his hand palm up and shrugging as if to saywhateverbefore saying, “I am and let me say, it is really great to meet you.”
I stare up at this guy who seriously cannot be any more than like ten years older than me. I mean how the hell can he be my boss? How the fuck can he own Badger Creek Lodge?
“How are you feeling?” he now asks. “Is there anything you need?”
“Jesus, you’re actually real,” I continue, the pneumonia apparently having turned my brain to stupid.
Ethan lets out a low chuckle, a brow raised in question as he says, “You thought I wasn’t?”
With a laugh, I shake my head, still unable to process what the fuck is happening right now, let alone the fact I actually just asked my boss if he was real. To his face.
