AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re a hero,” he told me. “You were coming back from the Fort with Krissy and Libby on the ferry, and there was an accident with some of the structure. You saved Libby’s life and put yourself in danger instead. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t want to even think of what could have happened.”
“She’s okay? Thank God,” I sighed. “I was so scared when I saw what was happening. I don’t know, I didn’t even think. I just saw what I had to do and did it.”
“I know, I know,” he told me as he moved his hand from my stomach to my hand. “You acted out of love and instinct. I’m telling you, I couldn’t be more proud of you than I am right now.”
“Why do I need surgery?” I asked.
“You’ve got a few broken bones and some deep cuts that are going to need some repair before they can heal properly. They want to get to them right away before you even start to heal to make sure you’ve got the best chance of full recovery,” he explained.
“Best chance? What does that mean? Am I going to be able to walk again?” I asked. There was a lump in my throat at the thought of being paralyzed. I knew I could deal with it, but the thought of needing to filled me with more dread than I could even express.
With a smirk, Neils moved his hand to my feet. My toes were exposed out of the wrappings around both my feet.
“Can you feel this?” he asked as he wiggled one of my toes.
“Yes.”
“What about this?” he asked as he moved to another toe.
“Yes.”
“Great. And this?” he asked a third time as he moved his hand to another part of my foot and gave me a light squeeze.
“Yes.”
“Then you’ll be able to walk again,” he said. “You have full feeling in your feet, which means you aren’t paralyzed. Don’t stress about this, you’ll be just fine. Mostly we’re talking about repairing bones and cosmetic things, and I fully believe you’re going to be happy you took care of it as soon as you could.
“Like Libby,” I said. “She’s going to get to see that sometimes you have the scars of things you survived. I’m going to survive, right?”
“Of course, you are,” he told me. “And I’m going to be right here for you through it all. I don’t care if I have to wait for weeks for you to get better. I’m not budging from your side until you are well enough to come home with me. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life, Erin, and I know that has to mean something.”
“I do, too,” I told him. “But I’m scared. It was so hard for me to be honest with Krissy and tell her what was going on with our age difference and everything. I don’t know how I’m going to get the guts to tell my dad. And what makes it worse is that I want to tell him before he leaves the island, which means we only have a bit of time before that happens. I don’t know where to even begin.”
“Erin, I–” he said, but I cut him off.
“I was hoping that you and I could both sit down with him and talk to him together. I don’t know what to say alone, and I don’t think it’s fair to put that on you either. But I was thinking that if you and I went together to talk to him and tell him how we feel, he might be a lot more willing to accept it. I just, I don’t know, I don’t feel right about keeping it from him anymore. I want him to know, even if he doesn’t agree, I feel he deserves to know the truth about us,” I said.
“I didn’t have the chance to talk to you about it,” he told me. “But I was going to tell you that I figured it was time he knew the truth, too. I also wanted to talk about you being prepared to just deal with him not accepting us.”
“You think so?”
“I know so,” he told me. “I know your father well enough to know he’s not going to be happy. But I feel like it is the best thing for this relationship that we are honest with everyone about where we stand with each other and who better to start with than your farther?”
“Besides Libby, yes,” I agreed. Then, it struck me. I had been thinking about Libby when I shoved her out of the way of that beam, and I had been knocked out on the spot. I didn’t think about what that meant for Krissy and Libby now, or where they were. My stomach tied itself into a knot as I turned my attention to Neils.
“Where is she?” I asked suddenly.
“Libby?”
“And Krissy,” I demanded. “What happened to them after I blacked out? Did they get abandoned?”
“They’re fine,” he told me, his voice soothing. “They are both at the hospital that we’re in route to now, and so is your father. He took the two of them to the cafeteria with him to get their minds off of things. Everyone is really worried about you, especially Libby, who is blaming herself right now for what happened.”
“What, no!” I cried. “You can’t let her think that this was her fault!”
“I’m not letting her think anything,” he said. “She is her own person, and I can tell her the truth, but I can’t make her believe it any more than I can make her think anything else. I did my best to convince her that she didn’t have anything to do with what happened besides just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I have a feeling she’s going to have to hear it from you before she’ll even consider forgiving herself for what happened.”
“The poor kid,” I lamented. “Can she come in to see me as soon as I get there? She has to know this wasn’t her fault. Like, as soon as we can tell her. She has to know.”
