AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I get up on shaky legs, my left foot asleep, and shamble toward the nurse. “Is he okay?” I manage to ask, determined to know that much before I’m booted out. The nurse takes my arm and helps me down the strip-lit corridor, surprisingly not toward the exit but toward Rowan’s room.
“He’s as okay as any patient who has been in a head-on collision,” the nurse replies, clearly aiming for a joke and missing. “But he’s awake, and he’s been asking for you. I assume youareSummer and not his sister?”
I cringe. “Are you going to make me leave if I tell the truth?”
“I don’t know what truth you’re talking about, Mrs. Lauder,” the nurse answers with a crooked wink. “I’ll give you a few minutes, but then he is going to need to rest. We can’t have you putting his blood pressure through the roof like before.”
I gape at her. “Idid that.”
“Terrible joke. So sorry. When you’ve worked here for a while, you get a pretty macabre sense of humor.” She pulls an apologetic face but shoves me into Rowan’s private room. “If you don’t tell anyone about that, I won’t say a word about who you are. Although, being a DuCate, no one would dare to kick you out anyway.”
I smile. “The name does have some perks, but I won’t miss it when it’s gone.”
“You planning on marrying this one?” The nurse lingers, her curiosity piqued.
I shrug. “We’re just going to take it a day at a time. Right now, maybe an hour at a time is more sensible.”
“Well, I won’t cut into this hour then.” The nurse nods her head and closes the door behind her, leaving Rowan and me alone.
He’s awake, sitting up in the bed, and there’s a jolt of panic in my belly, fearing he might’ve heard more of that than I meant him to. But his one good eye is still glassy, and I’m trusting in the painkillers to keep him from remembering much.
“You’re here,” he rasps as I go to his bedside, resuming my vigil on the chair.
I nod and find his hand among the covers, pressing it to my lips. “I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Is… Lyndsey coming?”
“I’ve been keeping her updated. She’ll be here once she drops Grace at Cybil’s,” I explain. The last time I spoke to her, about an hour ago, she still couldn’t find anyone to babysit in Slidell so decided to call Cybil once it was an appropriate hour. “It might be a bit until she can get here, so you’re stuck with me until then.”
He smiles. “I don’t… mind that.”
“No, but apparently I’m bad for your health.” I chuckle, brushing my thumb across his bruised hand. “You’re supposed to lie there and do nothing, okay? Doctor’s orders.”
“Where’s… the fun… in that?” He grins woozily, but it disappears as quickly as it came, morphing into a frown. “Where’s my phone? I was… looking for my phone.”
I hold it up. “The nurse gave it to me. It was… um… still recording something when you had your accident.” I decide to be honest, deserving any punishment for breaching his privacy. “I watched it, Rowan. I’m sorry. I know it wasn’t mine to watch, but I couldn’t help it. And once I’d watched one, I watched them all.”
“You did?” His eyebrows shoot up, and I can’t tell if he’s angry or shocked.
“In my defense, I’m in a few of them, and you didn’t get my consent to record me,” I tell him, half-joking. I had no idea my voice sounded like that, and if the videos weren’t so precious, I’d have them scrubbed.
His expression softens and his eye closes. “I’m glad,” he murmurs. “I… wanted to show… them to you. I wanted… the videos… to tell you everything that… I can’t, even… before I had a… wrecking ball through the… chest.”
The relief is immediate, sweeping through me like I’m the one with an IV of heavy painkillers flowing through my veins. He’s not mad, he’s not disappointed, he’s not shocked—it’s what he would’ve done if he hadn’t gone into some kind of seizure, trying to find his phone. I do wish we could’ve skipped that hellish part, though.
“You do know that I wouldn’t have minded if you’d just called, don’t you?” I say quietly, bending my head to kiss his hand again.
He rolls his one good eye. “Now you… tell me. You mean, I… didn’t have to be… romantic?”
“Not if it put you in the hospital, no.”
“Did you… see the last one?” he presses, his hand gripping mine with a promising strength. “When did… it cut off? Did you… hear my decision… or did the crash… happen before then?”
I should give him the easy route, considering his condition, but I’m eager to hear him say it again. “I think it cut off before then. You said you’d be with me soon, and then… well, you’re probably feeling the rest of what happened.”
With his free hand, he pulls his breathing mask away from his face. “I said… I had fallen in… love with you,” he whispers, pausing to draw another breath from the mask. “I said I want… to live big with you, like… my sneakers. I made… up my mind. You’re… it, Summer. You’re… the beginning and the… end. So, let’s… not waste… any more time, ok?”
“I’ve fallen in love with you, too,” I whisper back. “And I don’t think there’s anything on this Earth that could make me happier than living big with you and your sneakers. You’re my new beginning, Rowan, and,” I put his hand to my heart, “there’s a place in here for you, for as long as you want it.”
