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Cora worried her bottom lip with her teeth. Liam studied her, realizing his happiness at seeing her had eclipsed a few things he should’ve noticed sooner. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her mouth was taut from strain. In rumpled clothes, with her hair piled onto her head in a haphazard fashion, she looked as though she hadn’t slept in days. She was downright exhausted. That was likely why she’d gotten her days mixed up.
“You had me scared to death, Liam,” she said shakily. “I was so afraid you wouldn’t make it to the hospital, but you somehow managed to hold on. Then, when you slipped into the coma after surgery, I thought you’d never wake up. You’ve been out for seven days. The doctors said it’s not typical, but sometimes it happens to people who’ve suffered a traumatic event.”
“Wait.” Alarm spiked in his veins as he tried to assimilate what she was saying. When he’d made the decision to help go after Boyd, he’d gone into those caves knowing that his time was running out. He had barely any days to spare, and he’d already made peace with that when the angels gave him the grace period so he could try to do some good before he left forever. But now... If he’d truly lost a full week’s worth of time in the hospital, then he shouldn’t be here at all. “Cora, what day is it?”
“Thursday. Why?”
“No.” He clenched her hand. “Whatmonthis it?”
She glanced worriedly at the doctors who were still conversing quietly in the corner. “It’s September, Liam. You were shot last week at the end of August.”
He gaped at her in shock, then tried to catch the attention of the doctors to verify, but they were too engrossed in his chart on their blasted clipboard. “That can’t be right.” He struggled to sit up again, only this time he felt a sharp stab of pain in his side, and he winced.
“Don’t,” Cora said in alarm, pressing firmly on his shoulder. “I’ll lift the bed. Just lie still.”
Liam grimaced. He hated lying still, but his weak body seemed perfectly content to play the invalid, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Cora pressed a button on the side of the hospital bed, and it rose a few inches. Then she clasped his free hand in both of hers. “A lot has happened in the last week,” she said reassuringly. “It’s normal for you to feel disoriented. Just give yourself some time to heal.”
Before Liam could answer, Cora’s friend Suzette breezed into the room, followed by Officer Rob Hopper. Suzette was holding his hand, and in her other, she held a strange bouquet of candy bars on sticks. They were arranged in colorful tissue paper in a glass vase with a big bow.
“Hallelujah! He’s awake,” Suzette said, strolling closer on a cloud of spicy perfume. “The scary nurse out there said you weren’t supposed to have more than one visitor at a time, but Rob flashed his badge and said a bunch of police stuff, so here we are. Can you believe she thought I was a cop?” In a bright green dress with jingling silver bracelets and her red hair floating around her head, Suzette looked more like an oversized Christmas elf. “Liam, you freaked us all out. Cora’s been a basket case, sitting here day after day, refusing to go home and rest. She barely ate. Barely slept. I’ve never seen my best friend so miserable. If you weren’t already hurt, I’d punch you for that.” In spite of her threatening words, her smile was bright as a sunbeam when Rob Hopper looped his arm around her shoulders. The man looked happier than Liam had ever seen him. He was clearly smitten with Suzette. If he were one of those cartoon characters Liam had seen on TV, he’d be floating after her with hearts in his eyes.
“Here.” Suzette plunked the vase of candy bars on the bedside table. “Rob said to get you flowers, but I knew you’d eventually wake up, and when you did, you’d be hungry. Figured this was more your speed.”
“You figured right.” Liam eyed the king-sized bits of heaven in their glossy, colorful wrappers. If the world was filled with toil and strife, then chocolate, in his opinion, helped balance everything out. For some bizarre reason, the sight of that candy bouquet cemented the fact that he was stillhere, in this world. But why? How?
A young woman poked her head in the doorway. “Excuse me, Officers. The press is here again. Do you want to deal with them, or should I try sending them away? Last time they lingered outside for hours.”
Cora glanced at Rob, resigned. “Let’s go talk to them. Between the two of us, we should be able to appease them this time.” To Liam, she said sternly, “Rest. I’ll be back before you know it.”
Suzette waited until they were gone before settling into the nearest chair. Crossing her arms, she pierced him with a hard look. “So.”
Uh-oh.Liam recognized that look on a woman. Suzette had a bone to pick with him. He only hoped his bones would remain intact when she was finished.
Then she said the universal phrase that had men quaking in their boots since the beginning of time. “We need to talk.”
He nodded dutifully, which was the only acceptable answer.
“I love Cora like a sister,” she said. “And as happy as I am to see you’re on the mend, I still want to wring your neck a little bit.”
He couldn’t blame her, especially after the conversation they’d had at the bar when he’d lied about his feelings for Cora.
“I’ve never seen her so broken up over someone before.” Suzette rose from the chair and began pacing the room. The heels of her knee-high boots clicked loudly on the tiled floor, hammering her words home. “I told her everything you said to me. That you weren’t into her, and you didn’t want to be tied down because there were too many fish in the sea.”
Liam barely managed to hold back a groan. He wasn’t proud of that excuse. “Suzette, that was—”
“Cora was beyond upset.” The irate redhead continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “Even though she pretended not to care, I could see right through her. She was really broken up about it.”
Liam flinched, hating that his callous words had hurt the woman he loved. “I shouldn’t have—”
“How could Inottell her?” Suzette blurted, as if she needed to argue her point. “Even though I knew it would hurt, it’s my job as her best friend to look out for her. She and I go way back, way before you came along.” Still pacing, she threw Liam a fiery look, and he nodded solemnly. What she said wasn’t exactly true, but he knew better than to stoke a flame into a raging inferno if he could help it. “I couldn’t let her throw her heart away to some big walking cliché.” She gestured wildly to him, her silver bracelets jangling. “So, I told her you weren’t worth it.”
“I know, but—”
“And against all better judgment,” she interrupted again, throwing her hands in the air, “she went and fell for you, anyway.”
Liam blew out a frustrated breath. He knew Suzette was passionate about protecting Cora, but she kept steamrolling over all his attempts to speak. Either she was blatantly ignoring him, or she was too wrapped up in her thoughts to realize it. Maybe it was a little of both.
