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“Thank you, Jessie.”
“Love you, Carys. Stay strong. That’s what he needs from you now. Give him all the strength you have and call me after you see him. We’ll cry together when no one else is around.”
I look up at the ceiling of the jet and blow out a breath, trying to control my emotions. “I’ll call you as soon as I can, Jess.” When I end the call, I look over at Coach, who’s staring at me.
“Are you ready to talk to me, kiddo?” His soft voice relaxes me slightly, but I’m all too aware that this is Cooper’s father and I just admitted to hiding something from him for a year.
“I love him, Coach. I have for years. But I knew I wasn’t supposed to. I knew everyone would think it was wrong.” I knew in my heart it wasn’t, but everyone else would have tried to push us apart.
“Love is never wrong, Carys. It’s complicated.” He sighs. “Between the two of you, more so than most. But it’s not wrong.”
“It seems easy to say that now that it’s out there, but that’s not what it felt like in the beginning, Coach. We were already figuring things out long-distance. In the first six months, I don’t think we spent an entire week together. It felt insurmountable as it was, and yet, falling in love with him—real love, not a teenage crush—that was the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
Coach’s deep-blue eyes crinkle in the corners as he smiles a small, soft smile for the first time since we got the news earlier. “According to Declan, Cooper is very much in love with you too. He told Dec he’d give the rest of us up before he gave you up, if he had to.”
I bite down on my bottom lip, holding back the sob that catches in my throat. “I messed it up though.”
“I’m sure whatever happened can be fixed.” Coach always exudes strength and confidence, just like his sons.
“I pushed him away. After my diagnosis, I was scared. I didn’t want to force him into taking care of me for the rest of my life, knowing I wouldn’t even be able to give him kids. Knowing that my life could be shorter than his.” I wipe my eyes and shake my head. “It sounds so stupid after today. He begged me not to. He told me it wasn’t the end of us.”
Please, God, let him be right.
“My son is the strongest man I’ve ever known, Carys. He’s going to pull through. He’s going to be fine. And you’re going to be by his side while he does it. Leave your brother and Nattie to me.”
I lean my head on Coach’s shoulder and offer up a silent prayer, begging for him to be right.
* * *
Hours later, we land in Germany and are taken directly to the hospital, where we wait for another two hours in a freezing-cold waiting room before the doctor finally comes out to talk to us.
“Mr. Sinclair?” a man in blue scrubs asks as he enters the waiting room.
Coach stands. “I’m Joe Sinclair.”
The doctor joins us in the quiet corner of the room. “Petty Officer Sinclair is out of surgery and awake. He sustained a grade-three concussion from the blast as well as a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He lost a lot of blood but is doing as well as can be expected now. A nurse will be out shortly to take you back to see him.”
The doctor stands as if to leave, and I jump in front of him.
“Is he going to be okay?” I move in front of him while I try to get control of my shaking hands. “You didn’t say he’d be okay.”
“The next twenty-four to seventy-two hours should tell us more.” He nods his head and walks away.
Before I sit back down, a nurse in green scrubs with her hair back in a low bun joins Coach and me. “I can take you back to see Petty Officer Sinclair now.”
“Thank you,” we both say as we follow her down a stark white hall.
The hum of the fluorescent lighting gets louder with each smack of my sneakers against the dark linoleum floor.
I’m not sure how I got to this moment.
A year ago, I was in his arms. We were happy. He loved me.
And I suddenly fear what’s waiting on the other side of that door.
Coach knocks once and steps in ahead of me while I linger in the hall, steadying my nerves before I follow him in. My breath wooshes out of me when I see Cooper in the hospital bed. Bruised, battered, cut, and stitched. His skin is a pale gray instead of his normal golden glow. There are stitches by his brow and a bandage taped around his wrist.
But he’s here.
