AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The doctor smiles before answering her question. “It means that you’re going to have to wear this nice boot and stay off the foot for a while. But the good news is you don’t need surgery. Or a cast.”
I feel the relief pour from Ellie as her body abates, the worry finally relenting.
“Does that mean I get to go home?” I ask, eyeing Ellie by my side with a reassuring smile.
He flips through my chart that he carried into the room along with my X-ray, reviewing it before giving a definitive answer. “I’d like to keep you overnight to make sure you don’t have any other significant injuries. And because of your concussion. But yes, we’ll most likely discharge you within the next twenty-four hours.”
I look back at Ellie as the doctor leaves, my smile proud. “See? I’m fine.”
But she doesn’t smile back. Instead, her chin quivers as a fresh wave of tears threatens to spill, pooling at the corners of her eyes.
“I thought I lost you,” she whispers, inching closer to me.
I extend my arm as much as I can, allowing her to nestle into me further. She moves carefully as she settles. When she does, I sink into her, relishing in the softness of her. Her warmth, her scent, hereverything. I press a kiss into her hairline. “Hey,” I whisper. “I’m right here.”
She nods into my chest as if she’s finally acknowledging that I really am here, breathing. Alive.
She sniffles, her hand moving to wipe her own tears. “The last time I was running through the hospital like that… It was when my dad died.”
My body stiffens at the mention of her dad. Because of me, she had to relive one of the worst days of her life.
“And when I got here,” she continues, another sniffle interrupting her sentence, “I expected you to be gone. I was so scared that it was too late for me.”
“Ellie, I’m okay. You heard the doctor.”
“Yeah, but what if you weren’t?” She looks up at me, a fresh stream of hot tears running down her face. “I never got to tell you that I love you too.”
Her lips continue to tremble as another sob escapes her, her pain seeping out from her cries.
“You saw it?”
“Rhylan,” she whispers, voice shaky and unsure. “Everything you said…”
“I meant it. Every single word.”
It’s my version of shouting from a limo moonroof with an umbrella in my hand, holding a boom box over my head on her front lawn, or showing up at her door with cue cards and Christmas carols. I have no doubts, no second thoughts because I’m that sure of us. Of me and her, forever. Ellie is it. There would be no one else.
“You love me?” she squeaks.
“I told you I do,” I say. “Why is that so hard for you to believe?”
She shakes her head and lowers her face to avert her eyes away from mine. Her brows come together and her forehead creases, as if she’s unsure of how to answer my question.
“Ellie, I don’t feel like I’m suffocating anymore. I’m working so hard to make peace with who I am and that I can be enough for you. Because I want nothing more than to be enough. For you.” I take her hand in mine, lacing our fingers together. “I can’t stop thinking about you. Everywhere I look, I see you. You were the last thing I saw when that car hit me.”
She slightly balks at the mention of the accident that brought me here. I feel hesitant bringing it up, but she needs to know. Shehasto understand how much she means to me. How much I love her.
“I belong to you, Ellie.” I bring her hand to my lips and kiss the back of it, not realizing how much I’ve missed doing that simple act. “Please let me spend the rest of my life showing you how much I regret everything I did to hurt you. I love you.”
Our lips meet in the middle, right in between me and her. Us meeting at the halfway point, not one pulling the other closer. Because that’s what this is: two people who love each other and don’t have to convince the other of it. We understand that this is our norm from now on. Loving each other and never having to reconcile for it. It feels freeing.
I can’t help but feel completely content, holding her in my arms, knowing that this is my chance. My second chance that I’m not sure I really deserve but would fight tooth and nail for.
When Ellie pulls away from me, her eyes lingering on mine, she smiles. “I love you too, Rhylan.”
FIFTY-TWO
RHYLAN
