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Mom walked over to my brother and handed him a bottle of water. “Nathan, why don’t you head on home? You need a shower and a bed.”
He shook his head and got to his feet, eyes tired. “Not until I know Mav is okay.”
“He’s going to be fine,” I said, wrapping my arms around my waist. I felt sick to my stomach every time I thought of Maverick not being okay. Hehadto be fine. My fatherpromisedhe’d be fine.
Suddenly, Nathan leaned down and unzipped the backpack he’d brought with him.
“Does anyone have a cup I can pour some water into?” Nathan asked, as he surreptitiously looked around the room. My mother, father, Grams, Granddad, Rose, and Kipton were currently in the waiting room with us.
“Here, I have one,” Kipton said, handing Nathan an empty Styrofoam cup.
He reached into the backpack and pulled out a kitten.
“Oh my God, Nathan!” my mother whisper-shouted. “Why do you have a kitten in a backpack?”
“And in the hospital waiting room?” Grams added.
Nathan sat, smiling when the little kitten started to drink the water. “I’m not letting her out of my sight. Maverick gave her to me to keep safe.”
I stared at my brother in confusion. “What do you mean?”
He looked up from the cat and met my gaze. “He first ran in for a foal who’d escaped back to the barn. Then he ran back in and went to the tack room. A cat carrying a baby came running out of the barn, with Maverick behind her carrying three other kittens. The next thing I knew, he was running back toward the barn. Said there was one more kitten in the tack room.” He shook his head. “I was so scared.
“I called Dad and told him the barn was on fire and Maverick was inside. After what felt like forever, he came out of the tack room and started running. Beams and other stuff inside the barn were starting to fall. I yelled for him to run faster. A large beam fell, and he somehow managed to jump over it, but then something hit him. I think that’s how he broke his rib…or ribs. He got out of that barn seconds before the whole thing collapsed.”
My hands were over my mouth to hold back a sob. I knew about Nathan’s call, since Dad was with us at the time. Knew Maverick had run into the barn. But no one had told me the whole story before now.
“When he was on the ground, he reached under his shirt and pulled her out.” He gestured to the kitten. “He told me to take care of kitten, Lil. Looked me right in the eye before he passed out and made me promise. I’m not letting it out of my sight. I promised him.”
I looked up and met my mother’s gaze. She wiped her tears away and sat down next to Nathan. I sat on his other side and wrapped my arm around my brother.
“She’s probably hungry. We need to go get her some food.”
He nodded. “Once I know Maverick is okay.”
I turned away and wiped my tears off my cheeks. He’d risked his life for a foal and a kitten? God, if that didn’t makeme fall even more in love with him. But his actions made sense. He couldn’t abandon these young animals like he’d been abandoned. My heart broke even more for him just thinking about it.
“He ran back into a burning building to get akitten?” Rose asked in a shocked voice, reading my thoughts.
Sighing, Kipton whispered, “How romantic.”
“When he recovers, I’m going to kill him,” I said, trying my best to keep my voice light.
A few chuckles went around the room, but immediately stopped when a doctor appeared.
“Is there a Lily here?” he asked, looking around the room.
Pushing to my feet, I rushed over to him. “I’m Lily.”
“Are you Mr. Prescott’s wife?”
A part of me wanted to lie. I shook my head. “I’m his girlfriend.”
He smiled. “He asked for you before we had to put him under.”
My hand went to my mouth. “Is he in surgery?”
The doctor held up his hands. “Everything’s okay. He’s going to be fine. He broke two ribs, and one of them punctured his lung. I inserted a tube to drain the air, and I’d like to leave it in to help inflate the lung again. I didn’t see any other issues, and his lung should recover just fine. He did inhale some smoke, so we have him on oxygen for that, and to help with that lung.”
