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I refuse to believe otherwise.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Julian
Ididn’t think when I ran out of my office.
Or when I broke five different road rules in my panic to make it back to the Founder’s house.
In fact, my body is running on pure adrenaline and a single brain cell as I rush into the house, shouting Dahlia’s name while searching for the attic.
She cries out from one side of the house, and I rush to the stairs. My shoes slap against the wood, matching the staccato beat of my heart as I hurry up the steps.
The sight of Dahlia cradling her left arm to her chest nearly brings me to my knees.
This is all your fault.
“What happened?” I do my best to tamp down the edge in my voice.
“Oh, thank God you came alone. I don’t think I coulddeal with my mom or sister hyperventilating and praying the pain away right now.” Dahlia’s voice cracks, betraying the calm mask she’s fighting to keep.
My gaze bounces between her, the ladder, and the rolls of paper a few feet away. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“Can you help me first, lecture me later? I’m pretty sure I broke my arm.” She points at her limp limb.
“I’m going to call for an ambulance.” I kneel beside her and fumble for my phone.
“No!”
“Why not?”
“No need for that whole production.”
I check out her arm again. “We could make everything worse by moving you.”
“The thought of being in an ambulance…” Her voice shakes.
Shit.In my panic, I nearly forgot about how Dahlia had a front-row seat to her dad dying in the back of an ambulance from a stroke.
“Will you drive?Please.” She attempts to sit up.
I hold her down by pressing her shoulders while assessing the situation. “I’m going to have to carry you.”
“I can walk! Watch. But help me stand up first.” She attempts to sit up with a hiss.
“Stop moving or I’m calling an ambulance.”
“Wait! Can you get my phone first? It’s on the windowsill.”
“Fine.” I grab her phone and tuck it into my back pocket.
I kneel and slide my arms beneath her. Her eyes water as I hold her against my chest and rise, doing my best to avoidaggravating her injury.
My hands tighten around her. “You good?”
“Never been better.” Her overly cheery voice grates on my frayed nerves.
When she answered the phone, my mind jumped to the worst conclusion based on Dahlia’s muffled, panicked voice. I couldn’t stop the graphic images from playing in my head after years spent working in construction.
