He spins around. At the sight of me, his shoulders visibly slump in relief. Ryder abandons Griffin and races to me. I collide with his chest, and he swallows me in his arms.
“You’re okay.” I whisper, my hands trace his chest as if I might find a gaping, fatal wound.
“I’m fine.” He kisses my forehead. “I wasn’t sure you’d get my voicemail.”
I didn’t, but I don’t take the time to explain how I found out there’d been an accident.
“What happened? Who’s hurt?”
Ryder’s face clenches. He closes his eyes. “It’s Dax.”
Ryder
“Dax got T-boned, I don’t know all the details, but Dallas said his car is jacked. They had to peel him out. His arm was trapped between the seat and the door.”
I’ve replayedParker’s description of the accident a thousand times since he called. Griffin made it here before me, but the man has a deep fear of hospitals. Tack on a car accident—one similar to the accident that killed his dad—and he’s not thinking right.
I’ve never been so glad the team golden retriever got married than I am tonight. Wren has a magic touch. She’s kept Griffin from turning into an impenetrable block of stone, she’s kept him from pacing, she’s kept him from losing his sense with worry.
If I doubted how much these guys mean to me, this moment wipes all doubts, all hesitation aside. The thought of Dax not being around, quiet as he is, causes bile to burn in the back of my throat.
Ava squeezes my waist. I press a kiss to the top of her head. A lot like Wren is keeping Griffin steady, Ava is an anchor keeping me grounded.
The door swings open. Loud demands for answers, a few choked sobs burst into the room. Dax’s four sisters. Scarlett, the oldest of the girls, hurries to the desk. Her eyes are red, and she has a hand on her tiny baby bump. She’s the only one married amongst the Sage kids. Odds are her husband is on a shift. He’ll be losing it, no doubt. Dax is close with his brother-in-law.
Emmaline is the youngest, not quite fifteen, and cries against Hazel, the second oldest. Isabelle is the middle girl, and going through what Dax says is her dark phase. She’s dressed in black from her lips to her combat boots, but the thick eyeliner around her eyes is smeared from tears on her cheeks.
I don’t want to let go of Ava, but Dax has basically raised his sisters. They need someone they recognize.
“Those are Dax’s sisters.” I hold up a hand and leverage Ava around, so I can take hold of her palm. “Scar!”
Scarlett snaps her head up from a clipboard with paperwork. “Ryder.” She lets out a sob and hurries over to us. In the next breath, she chokes me in a crushing hug. “I-I . . . they said he’s in surgery . . . but no one will tell me for what.”
Ava jumps into action. She gathers the three younger sisters and gets them settled on the seats, muttering reassurances while I talk to Scarlett.
“His arm was pinned when the door was smashed,” I say. “They’re doing surgery on his wrist and . . . his hand.”
Scarlett’s eyes widen. She’s thinking the same thing we all did. “His throwing hand?”
I nod. Her chin quivers, but she takes a deep breath, keeping her emotions tapped down. “All I’ve been told is a fireman EMT had to squeeze into the car and keep . . . he had to keep his head from moving in case his spine is injured. What if he has brain damage, Ryder? Or his back is broken?”
I start to tell her he’s going to be all right, but I don’t know. She’s right, we don’t have much to go on.
She pulls back when her phone rings. “It’s Brian.”
I release her to talk with her husband and go to stand with the younger Sage girls. Griffin has an arm around Emmaline’s shoulders. Wren is squeezing Isa’s hand, and Ava is listening as Hazel cries her worries softly.
Waiting for an update is torture. I pace, then sit, and end up pacing all over again.
Dallas shows up ten minutes after the Sage family, then our manager, aka our coach, and his daughter. Unexpected. Blake is in her final year of graduate school, and where once she was a constant face at Burton Field, now she’s a bit of a ghost. She ducks her face and huddles in the corner, eyes red.
Is she close with Dax?
Ava takes hold of my hand. “How are you doing?”
I shake my head. “Can’t say.” She lets out a sigh and rests her head on my shoulder. I lift my gaze to the ceiling. “I never really told Dax how much I value him as a teammate and . . . a friend.”
Ava rubs her hand up and down my arm. “Never too late to start, you know. These people, Ryd, they care about you, and you care about them. Maybe it’s time to let them in all the way.”
