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“Sure. Of course.” I turned away before I finished the promise, and joined the EMTs and Colin outside. They tried to tell me I needed to meet them at the hospital. Fuck that. “I’m his partner.”
I braced myself for Colin to contradict me, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention.
The EMT shrugged and pointed me to the passenger seat. I’d take it. The trip took the longest fifteen minutes of my entire life. Would Colin be okay? What if his injuries had been worse? What if I’d never gotten the chance to tell him—
I drew in a shaky breath. That wasn’t the case here, but it might have been. I was almost willing to let him walk out of my life because I was too much of a coward to admit I loved him. That I wasinlove with him.
At the hospital, I explained again what happened, and they wheeled Colin away for examination. Filling out paperwork and giving them his information kept me distracted for a little, but not nearly long enough. They showed me to a small room to wait, while he went through X-Ray, MRI, and whatever else they deemed necessary.
I wanted to call Daria, but I didn’t have much of an update for her. I sent her a quick text instead.At the hospital. No more news.
When she replied withthanks for letting me knowI felt the tension in the brief message. As soon as he could remember that I’d said it, I was telling him how I felt. That I was wrong and an idiot for not seeing it sooner.
Fuck it, I’d tell him the moment I could talk to him again, and over and over, until he did remember.
A nurse came into the room to give me an update, and paused, staring at me. “You’re favoring your arm.”
“I have an old injury—torn rotator cuff—I think I re-damaged it.” I wasn’t worried about that. The pain stayed at a dull roar if I didn’t move my shoulder.
“Come on. Let’s get you checked out.”
“I can’t. I’m waiting.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Your partner is going to be a while, but I promise to have someone come find you if he’s done before you are.”
After an examination and a few tests, they confirmed what I already knew—my arm was shot. They gave me a sling, but my injury wasn’t the same kind of emergency as Colin’s, so my scans would wait.
And then I was back to doing the same.
It was almost ten at night when Colin’s doctor found me. “Colin is fine. He has a concussion, but the damage isn’t severe. The short-term memory loss is already mostly gone, but expect to still see it occasionally. We do want to keep him overnight for observation, and when he checks out, someone will need to stay with him for at least 24 hours.”
“That’ll be me. Where is he?”
“I’ll have an orderly bring you to his room, and a nurse will be by in a little bit with information about what to do after he checks out.”
“Thank you.”
I called Brooke, who went from sounding annoyed to hear from me, to definitely irritated that I hadn’t let her know sooner, to relieved that Colin was okay.
“Tanner.” The edge in her voice stopped me as we were ending the call.
“Hmm?”
“Don’t hurt him, or I will hunt you down.”
Because of course Colin had told her why he was staying with her. I doubted he used the wordsclueless asshat, but the meaning probably came across that way. “I promise that’s the last thing I want.”
I called Daria next, and she picked up immediately. “Hey. How is he?” she asked.
“He’s all right.” It was such a relief to say that. “Concussion, they’re keeping him overnight, but he’ll be okay.”
“Good. How are you? You hurt yourself.”
“I’m okay too. Thank you, for taking care of everything at the pool.” I’d been aching to talk to her for more than a week, and this was the only conversation that mattered now. I still wanted to tell her I felt like that week at her house was more. That I wanted more from her.
But I understood why she’d stepped back, and Colin was who mattered tonight. And every night. Every day. Why did I have to wait until things were desperate to realize how I felt?
Daria had said something.
