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“Don’t touch her,” he says urgently. “We can’t move her until we’re sure nothing’s broken. I’ve radioed for help.”
My heart’s broken, I think pathetically.I don’t need an ambulance to tell you that.
I’m suddenly aware of a lot of noise and commotion going on around me; people shouting, car doors slamming. I can hear Ben arguing loudly with someone, and I’m sure that’s McTavish’s voice somewhere in the mix.
“I’m not going to try to move her,” Jack says, pushing Dylan roughly aside. “But you’re not going to stop me being with her.”
Dylan hesitates for a second, then nods. Within seconds, Jack’s leaning into the car, and I allow myself to relax just a little. Well, as much as youcanrelax in a crashed car, which is on its side in a ditch, anyway.
It’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be okay now Jack’s here.
“Hey,” says Jack, smiling gently. He’s obeying Dylan’s instruction not to touch me, but he leans forward until he’s looking right into my eyes.
“Hey.” I grin weakly back at him, vaguely aware that there’s something important I have to say to him, but too overwhelmed to know where to even begin.
“We’ll have to stop meeting like this,” he says softly. “People will start to talk.”
“What, in ditches, you mean?” I start to chuckle, but a sharp pain in my ribs stops me. Jack’s brow creases in concern.
“What hurts, baby?” he says soothingly. “Tell me what hurts?”
I think carefully.
“Um, everything? I think?” I say, hazarding a guess. “I can feel both of my legs and arms, though. I’ve checked. I think everything’s still attached. Or everything important, anyway.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Jack grins. “Can you tell me who the Chancellor of the Exchequer is this week, though?”
“Er—”
“Ambulance is on its way,” Dylan says, saving me the trouble of trying to remember the answer to this. “Should be here soon. Just hang on there, Emerald.”
“This is the second time you’ve run me off the road in your car,” I croak, ignoring Dylan and concentrating fully on Jack.
“Sorry about that,” he says, reaching forward to tenderly brush the hair from my face. “It was an accident, I swear.”
“That’s my line,” I tell him. “I’m the one who has accidents, remember?”
“Yes, you certainly do. Like no one else I know.”
He forces himself to smile, but I can see the panic just behind his eyes. Somewhere in the distance, a siren starts to wail. I kind of wish it would stop, so I could sleep. It’s weirdly exhausting lying here like this.
“Meeting you was the best accident of my life, Emerald.” Jack’s voice brings me back to the present. “And I’m sorry I had to run your bus off the road for it to happen, but honestly, I can’t say I regret it.”
“You don’t?” I’m really tired now, but this gets my attention. I have a sneaking suspicion he’s just talking to try to keep me awake — or maybe he thinks I’m dying and that these might be his last words to me?
Wait.AmI dying? Does Jack think I’m dying?
I try to sit up again, in a bid to prove I’m still very much alive, but my head feels fuzzy and weird, so I stay where I am and try to concentrate on his face, and the familiar sound of his voice.
“I don’t regret it in the slightest,” he says. “In fact, I’d do it again.”
“You bloody betternotdo it again,” I hear Dylan mutter indignantly. Jack ignores him and reaches forward to take my hand.
“I’d do it again if it meant getting to be with you,” he says, looking at me as if we’re the only two people in the world. “And, well, as long as no one got hurt, obviously.”
He casts a quick glance in Dylan’s direction, then looks back at me.
“I don’t ever want anyone to get hurt, Emerald,” he says quietly. “Especially not you. And I’m so sorry I hurt you. Not just with this,” he waves with one hand, a gesture which I assume is supposed to encompass the car, and the ditch, and the very short chase that brought us here. “But with everything. I shouldn’t have let you leave that night. I know I said we should take a break, but I didn’t really mean it. I didn’t want to have a break from you. I don’t want toeverhave a break from you.”
