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She tried to pull it away, not wanting to get him bloody. “I will get blood on you,” she warned.
“I don’t care about that, Savannah,” he insisted. “I just want to make sure that you stay awake until the ambulance gets here.” As if on cue, the siren rang out as the ambulance entered the go-cart parking lot. “They're here,” he said. “You’re going to be just fine, honey.” She hoped that he was right, but the longer she sat in the smashed-up go-cart, the more she started to doubt it. Her poor head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it, and all she wanted to do was sleep. Every time her eyes started to close, someone shouted at her to stay away.
She couldn’t remember the EMTs showing up or getting her onto the gurney. It was all a blur except Brooks. She knew that he was by her side the entire time, and that was the most comforting thought she had as they worked on her on the way to the hospital. He sat next to her, holding her hand, and promising that she was going to be just fine. She wondered if he was trying to convince her or himself that she was going to be okay. Savannah noted the panic in his eyes, and she wanted to tell him that she was fine, but the words didn’t seem to want to come. Instead, she silently lay on the gurney, hoping and praying that Brooks was right because she’d hate to have to cut her vacation short because of a stupid go-cart incident.
* * *
It felt as though she had been in the emergency room for hours, not just minutes. Doctors and nurses were in and out of her room, and Brooks was by her side the whole time. A nurse asked her if she was okay with him staying since he wasn’t related to her in any way, and she told the nurse that she wanted him with her and that was that.
The attending doctor ordered a few tests to be run and when she asked what they were for, she was told that they needed to rule out a concussion and make sure that she had no broken bones. She couldn’t really tell if anything was broken. She wasn’t in pain anywhere now except her head—that was throbbing as if someone was beating it like a damn drum.
Brooks stayed with her the entire time, except when they took her for an MRI and x-rays. The nurse told her that they couldn’t let the others back to her little cubby because of space restrictions, but Brooks kept them all informed, and she was thankful to him for that.
He sat with her while they waited for the test results as she dozed in and out of consciousness. When the doctor finally reappeared and told her that she had a concussion and that they wanted to keep her overnight, she protested, telling him that she wanted to go home.
“You need to listen to the doctor, honey,” Brooks said. There he went again, calling her honey. She wasn’t sure what to do about how that made her feel, but she’d figure that all out later. Honestly, she kind of liked it when he called her that.
“I’ll give you a few minutes to think about it,” the doctor said to Savannah, leaving her alone in the cubical with Brooks.
“I can’t stay here,” she insisted. “You don’t know this about me, but I spent a lot of time in the hospital with my mother while she received her treatment. I sat by her side and watched her get worse by the day. I watched my father who had to say goodbye to his best friend because the hospital failed her. I just can’t stay here.” The thought of spending the night in the hospital terrified her.
“How about if I stay here with you?” he asked. “One of the nurses told me that if they had to admit you, the rooms here have a pull-out bed for guests who want to stay with the patient.”
“I can’t ask you to do that, Brooks,” she insisted. “You should go back to the beach house and get a good night's sleep.”
“You didn’t ask me, I just offered. Besides, I’ve kind of gotten used to having you sleeping next to me. If I go back to the beach house without you, I’ll never be able to get to sleep all alone in that big bed. Let me stay with you. That way, if you get scared, I’ll be there to talk you through it,” Brooks offered.
“That’s a sweet offer,” she said.
“There’s nothing sweet about it,” he said. “It’s purely selfish. If I stay with you, I’ll actually get some sleep. So, how about it? Will you do what the doctor says and stay the night?” How could she say no to an offer like the one he was making her? She couldn’t. It was one of the sweetest gestures anyone had done for her in a long time.
“All right,” she agreed. “I’ll stay one night, to let them monitor me. But in the morning, I want to go back to the beach house.”
“Deal,” he agreed, “as long as the doctors say that you’re good to go, I’ll take you back to the beach house.”
“No, I want you to promise me that you’ll take me back to the house no matter what, Brooks. I don’t want to stay here one minute longer than I have to,” Savannah insisted. She was feeling tired and nauseous, but there was no way that she’d lose this argument to him.
“Fine,” he reluctantly agreed. “I’ll go find the doctor and ask him to come back in here. Then, while they get you to your room, I’ll find the guys and ask them to run back to the house to grab a few things for us. What do you want them to bring?” he asked.
She tried to think of a few things that she might need or want, but her brain felt too foggy to come up with an extensive list. “Don’t worry about it,” he insisted. “I’ll make up a list for you and if I forget anything, I’m sure that this place has a gift shop.”
“Thank you, Brooks,” she whispered, laying back and closing her eyes. “For everything.”
Brooks
Brooks spent the night with Savannah at the hospital, keeping his promise to take her home the next day. She seemed strong and ready to break out of that place if he didn’t track down the nurse to speed up her discharge paperwork.
Taking care of Savannah was like second nature for him. He really liked her and caring for her felt right, even if she fought him tooth and nail about it. She was one tough woman, and within a few days, she was back to her old self. Keeping Savannah down wasn’t an easy task, but when she got a clean bill of health from the doctor a week after her go-carting accident, she informed everyone that she was done being taken care of and wanted back in on the cleaning and cooking schedule. They tried to protest, but there was no arguing with Savannah on one of her bad days, let alone a day she was at her peak.
What really surprised the hell out of him was the night of her medical release, when she crawled into bed, cuddled into his side, and asked him how he felt about a “No strings attached relationship.” He wanted to tell her that it was a fucking dream come true for him, but that wouldn’t be one hundred percent the truth, because the more he got to know Savannah, the more he wanted some damn strings attached to what she was offering him. But his dick got the better of him, and when he opened his mouth to tell her that he already had feelings for her, he agreed to her terms instead. Sex with no strings, and that was going to be impossible for him to give her, but he’d try.
She was pressed into his side, looking up at him with her big blue eyes, waiting for an answer. “Why do you look less than thrilled about my offer, Brooks?” she asked. “I thought that guys liked it when women offered them sex with no strings. I mean, we’re both busy people and we’re only here together until the end of the summer. After that, we’ll both go back to our lives and won’t see each other anymore. Wait, unless—you don’t find me attractive.” She started to get up and he tightened his hold, pressing her firmly into his side. There was no way that he’d let her walk away from him thinking that he didn’t want her.
“I want you,” he growled. “Hell, I’ve wanted you since the first night I saw you standing over me, telling me that I was in your bed.” That was the most honest thing he had ever told her. If she had demanded that he get out of bed that night, she would have seen the erection that he was sporting.
“Really?” she asked. “Why didn’t you say anything then?”
“If you haven’t noticed, I’m not a jump in the pool, feet first, kind of guy. I thought that taking things slowly and getting to know you was the way to go. I mean, we have the whole summer. But then, you had that accident, and I didn’t want to rush you. I guess I was waiting for you to give me some kind of signal.” And boy, did she give him a signal. She had all but sent up fireworks to get his attention, asking exactly for what she wanted from him.
