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6:13 P.M.
She was definitely ready to go home.
A couple of hours in the hospital and she was already going stir crazy.
Chloe was feeling much better. She had been poked and prodded and x-rayed and examined. Her broken arm didn't need surgery. It would heal on its own, but she was going to be wearing a sling for a good few weeks to keep her arm immobilized while the bone healed. She’d been given painkillers,and now the pain in her arm was nothing more than a dull, distant nuisance.
One of the first things she’d asked upon being rescued was about Savannah. Thankfully, her friend was alive, but it sounded like she had a long road of recovery ahead of her. And there was a possibility that she might never walk again. Chloe was devastated for Savannah, who had already been through so much. Still, at least she was alive, and there was hope.
Now she was sitting here, perched on the edge of her hospital bed, waiting for Fin.
Finally, they were in a place where they could work things out. They were on the same page. They loved each other, they were both sorry for the mistakes they had made, and they were ready to fix things between them.
So, where was he?
He’d held her in his arms back at Pete Larkin’s house until the paramedics had arrived. Even then, he had only reluctantly handed her over to them. He’d held her good hand in the ambulance and stayed by her side in the ER. He had still been sitting in a chair beside her bed when her exhausted body had given out, and she had finally drifted off to sleep.
But when she’d woken up, he’d been gone.
That was over an hour ago, and he still hadn’t come back.
A tiny flicker of doubt crept in.
Had he changed his mind?
She didn't doubt that he loved her, he had come looking for her, he’d been terrified for her.
That was the problem.
Had he only apologized to her because he’d been afraid of losing her?
Maybe he didn't really want to get back together.
The door to her room whooshed open, and she was almost afraid to look up and see who was there in case it wasn't Fin.
Or in case it was.
Fiddling with the hem of her sling, Chloe chanced a look up. It was Fin. He was standing in the doorway looking awkward.
“You can come in,” she said, suddenly nervous.
“I just wanted to say goodbye.” He took one uncertain step into the room.
Her stomach dropped. “Goodbye?”
“Not forever,” he quickly clarified. “I just thought it might be better if your parents come and pick you up. I thought we should take some time. Maybe talk sometime in the new year. Once all of this …” He waved his hands in the air, and she assumed he meant everything that’d happened the last few days, “Has died down.”
She knew what he was doing.
He was running away.
Again.
There was a time when she would have let him. She would have thought that she deserved everything he threw at her.
But those days were over.
“If you walk out that door, then it is definitely over between us, Fin,” Chloe warned. And she meant it. She wasn't going to do this back and forth dance indefinitely. “So, you think carefully before you leave. I can't keep doing this. I can't take you blaming me and punishing me any longer.”
