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“Oh, my god,” Nora mumbled, immediately climbing out of bed.
Of course.Mitzi. Mitzi and Steele had only been seeing each other for a couple months, but Nora knew from personal experience that it didn’t take long to fall in love with a Steele. Moreover, if you lost him, it was impossible to get over him. She wouldn’t wish such pain on her worst enemy, let alone the closest she’d ever had to a sister.
Mitzi and Nora had the alphabet to thank for their friendship, which was going on twenty plus years.Barton and Bateswere seated next to each other in the fourth grade, and they were almost inseparable until they graduated high school. Yet, in spite of the distance life managed to put between them over the years, they remained close. Recently, Nora still woke up thrilled as she’d been two months ago when Mitzi Belle told her she was moving back to Shelby.
Now, knowing her oldest and dearest friend’s worry over Steele would be far heavier than her own, Nora didn’t waste any time as she headed for her closet to get dressed.
“Which hospital? I’m on my way.”
She threw on the first pair of leggings she could find, tossed her night shirt on the floor, then donned a bra and a roomy sweater before shoving her bare feet into a pair of sneakers. On her way to Evie’s room, she rubbed at her eyes, checking to make sure nothing had gathered there in the couple hours she’d been asleep. Feeling nothing, she winced a little at having to rouse her sleeping child—but she had no choice. She wouldn’t leave without her.
“Hey, baby. We’ve got to get up.”
Evie made an incoherent noise but didn’t fight Nora, who slipped her hands beneath her daughter’s arms as she lifted her out of bed. As soon as they were chest to chest, Evie wrapped herself around her mother, still mostly asleep. Nora hesitatedfor only a moment, then decided Evie wouldn’t need shoes, and they were on their way out the door not even five minutes after Reese’s call.
In the fifteen minutes it took to get to the hospital, Evie had fallen back into a deep sleep. After pulling into an empty stall in the emergency room parking lot at Vanderbilt Hospital, Nora gently extracted her four-year-old from her booster seat. Again, little arms and legs wrapped around her, and Nora hurried to her next destination.
The light inside was abrasive at this time of night. She blinked a few times but had no trouble spotting Mitzi, sitting amongst the group Reese had mentioned over the phone. She expected to see Keaton and Gale, Steele’s parents, along with Lawson and Justice, his brother and sister. Reed—Detective Abernathy—was expected, too, as they were partners on the job. But it was all the other cops who were there, some in uniform, some in street clothes, that made her nervous. It meant Steele’s condition was serious.
Rushing over to the empty seat beside Mitzi, Nora tried not to think about the blood on the shirt she thought she saw when she glanced at Reed. Instead, she tried to focus all her attention on Mitzi. She reached over and rubbed a comforting hand across her friend’s back.
“Hi. Any news, yet?”
Mitzi shook her head and furrowed her brow, her eyes shifting between the back of Evie’s head and Nora’s face. “I’m sorry for gettin’ you both out of bed.”
“Are you kidding?” Nora scoffed. “My Evie-B loves that man. So do you. I’d be pissed at you if I found out about this a second later than I did.”
Nora could see it as her words hit Mitzi. It was so obvious to her that Mitzi was in love. But it was equally as obvious she hadn’t yet spoken the words to the man himself. She saw the fearsuch a reality brought with it as it clouded her big, hazel-green eyes. Looking at her straight on, Nora insisted, “He’s gonna be okay.”
“Then why haven’t we heard anything?”
“The doctors are makin’ sure I’m right,” she answered confidently.
In truth, Nora had no idea the severity of the situation, but it didn’t matter. Atticus Steele had to be okay. For his family. For Mitzi. For every officer and friend who waited with bated breath in that room. For the whole town, who’d seen the boy grow into a man and one of the finest detectives to ever serve on the Shelbyville Police Department.
It was another twenty minutes before the doctor finally came out to give an update. Nora held Evie a little tighter as Keaton, Gale, and Justice stood—Lawson pushing himself away from the wall on which he’d been leaning. Mitzi got up, too. A familiar pang of longing struck Nora’s heart as she watched Keaton open his arm for her, insisting she belonged with them.
She shoved the feeling aside, reminding herself it had been almost seven years since she was considered anything close to one of them. She didn’t have the right to long for that sense of belonging. She was there for Mitzi. She was there for Evie. She was there for Detective Steele. It was as simple as that.
So why, when favorable news was delivered and after Mitzi and Gale left with the doctor to visit a recovering Steele, did her gaze immediately seek out Lawson—she didn’t care to answer. And why, when she found him looking right back at her with his handsome, brown eyes flooded with relief, did her heart start to race—she didn’t dare answer that, either.
Avoid it though she might, she knew the answer had always been there. Since she was fourteen years old.
“Mommy?” Evie’s call to Nora sounded more like a whine than anything else as she began to stir. “Mommy?”
“Yeah, mini-me, I’ve got you,” cooed Nora, smoothing her hand over Evie’s sleep-tangled hair. “Sorry mommy had to pull you out of bed. We’ll go home soon, okay?”
Evie balled her hands into fists and rubbed at her eyes before squinting at her mother. “Where are we?”
“We’re at the hospital.”
“Why?”
Nora drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She hated to give her mini-me bad news. She had such a sweet, tender heart. More than anything, Nora wanted to protect her from any reality that would damage it. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to lie, either.
“Well, Detective Steele got hurt at work. The doctors had to help him.”
Evie’s spine straightened at the news, her pretty eyes suddenly filled with curious caution. “He got an owey? Like Uncle Wayde?”
