Chapter 30 #2
“Good morning, Tink,” I whispered. “Can you hear me, baby?”
Nothing.
She looked peaceful, not a sign of distress other than the gash that they’d stitched up at the top of her forehead.
Her hair was wild and wavy from being submerged in freezing cold water.
I squeezed my eyes closed as I remembered how she looked when I’d pulled her out. Her lips were blue, her body lifeless.
Just like my mother had been.
Was I fucking cursed?
The two most important women in my life had put their lives in my hands.
I’d failed the first time.
We had no idea if Tink had suffered a loss of oxygen to the brain. Dr. Lexington, my grandfather’s doctor friend, had agreed with Dr. Pruitt here in Cottonwood Cove.
Time would tell.
Fucking endless years of schooling, and that was the diagnosis?
Time would fucking tell?
Time had never been much of a friend to me.
It had taken my mom too soon.
I rubbed my thumb over the back of her limp hand and glanced over to see her mother sleeping in the other chair.
“I didn’t get to give you your other gift.
It wasn’t just the skates in that box, Georgia.
There was a key to the house,” I said, my voice cracking on the last word.
“Our house, Tink. The one with the pickleball court. I promise I’ll play as much as you want me to if you wake up.
If you let me know that you’re in there. ”
I gave her hand a slight squeeze. Nothing.
My head fell forward and rested on our joined hands.
“Please, baby. I need you.”
“Hey,” Alana said, and I raised my head to look at her. “How is she?”
“The same.”
We both knew that the longer she stayed in this state, the worse it would be.
“Maddox.” She stood and stroked her daughter’s hair away from her face. “You saved her life.”
My eyes widened. “After I nearly killed her?”
“The ice breaking was not your fault. The boys told you to take her there. I would have told you to take her there. It’s her favorite place.
And you responded quickly. I don’t even know how you pulled her out of there so fast and performed CPR and got her to the hospital, all within minutes.
That is why she’s here and still breathing. ”
“I should have gone out on the ice and checked it first.”
“Why would anyone think to do that? And honestly, if you had gone out there first and fallen in, she would have gone after you just like you did for her. But she wouldn’t have had the strength to pull you out, and then you’d both be gone.
” Her words broke on a sob. “My daughter is very strong, Maddox. She’s a fighter. Always has been.”
Dr. Pruitt walked in and talked to us a little more about the fact that he knew nothing about her condition or her future.
I hated him for it.
I hated everyone right now.
A nurse came in to change her IV, and I saw a bruise on Georgia’s arm, and I lost my shit.
“Does anyone know what the fuck they’re doing? You can’t just keep poking her!” I raged, just as Bradford and Hugh arrived. Alana kissed my cheek and went home to shower as her father and brother said that they would take turns coming in so that I didn’t have to leave.
Because I wasn’t fucking leaving.
Hugh pulled me out into the hallway, handed me a coffee, and told me to settle the fuck down.
“Punching walls and screaming at everyone is not going to make her wake up faster, brother.” He raised a brow as I sipped the black coffee.
“How do you know? Maybe she’ll wake up and tell me to shut the fuck up,” I said dryly.
Hugh barked out a laugh, but it wasn’t nearly as loud as it usually was, and I didn’t miss the dark circles beneath his eyes.
The Reynoldses were all suffering, just like me. I was just the one being a total dickhead because that was how I usually dealt with things.
“You might be right. There’s nothing Georgie loves more than calling people out if they aren’t behaving.” He scrubbed a hand down his face.
“Is it bad that I don’t want to give up my spot in the room? I know you’re all taking shifts, but I don’t want to leave, Hugh.”
“Nah, Maddox. This is where you need to be, and we all respect that. Everyone’s out in the waiting room.
Lila went to get bagels and muffins. The family will be taking over this hospital until she wakes up.
And we can take turns coming in and out of the room.
You stay right there with your girl. She’ll want to see you first when she wakes up. ”
I nodded. “Thank you. And I’ll try not to scream at anyone for the next hour or so.”
He nodded and forced a smile. But it wasn’t genuine, because none of us could smile right now. I turned to walk back into the room, and he clapped his hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry I told you to take her there. I’m so fucking sorry.”
Jesus. He was blaming himself, too?
I turned around and wrapped my arms around him. “Don’t do that.”
“It was my idea.”
I pulled back. “If you would have seen her face when we pulled up. Hell, I probably could have gotten her to agree to marry me in that moment, because she was so fucking happy we were there.”
“Yeah. She loves that fucking place. Dad made some calls, and we’re trying to figure out how the fucking ice cracked in these temperatures. We’ve been skating on that ice for years.”
I shrugged just as Bradford called me to come back in.
I hurried inside, hoping something had happened, but it was just more updates about her heart rate being slow now.
I took back residence in my chair, reached for her hand, and promised her I would be there when she woke up.
But the sunlight that filled the room during the day would darken in the evening. Another night without my girl.
Another night where we couldn’t sit beneath the stars.
Brinkley and Finn had taken shifts coming in with me during the late hours.
Cage had come for several hours and sat with me.
Lila and Hugh were there the following morning, taking turns in the chair on the other side of her bed.
The days and the nights blurred.
Alana had urged me to go home and sleep and take a shower. But I wasn’t leaving until I knew she was okay.
Period. End of story.
The room had filled with flowers from everyone in town.
The largest arrangement that arrived was from my father, who’d called me multiple times a day to check on her.
Who the fuck would have guessed that Georgia Reynolds would be the reason I would take calls from my father?
But he was genuinely concerned about her because she’d been nothing but kind to him.
Wyle called constantly, as did my grandparents.
Everyone loved her.
I’d put them in touch with Alana, who was much better at updating people, because I didn’t want to talk to anyone but the one person I couldn’t talk to.
“I’m going to go down to the cafeteria and get you a sandwich. You haven’t eaten anything today,” Alana said when the room darkened and we were getting ready for our third night of sleeping in a chair. She’d left during the day and brought food for everyone at the hospital, but I had no appetite.
I nodded, not because I wanted food, but because I could use a minute alone. I didn’t want to break down in front of Georgia’s mother. Hell, she’d given birth to my girl, and I knew she was hurting. But holding it in was killing me.
I wrapped both hands around my girl’s dainty hand, and I let the tears fall.
“Baby, I need you to wake up. I never thought I would love anyone the way that I love you. And now that you’ve awakened that, I don’t know what to do with it.” I sniffed and tried to stop the tears from falling. “I can’t be in a world that you aren’t in. So please, please, Tink. Don’t leave me.”
The lump lodged in my throat made it difficult to breathe. I fell forward, my head resting on her hip. Her hand wrapped in mine.
And that was when I felt it.
Her finger moved along the back of my hand. Soothing and healing and bringing me back to life.
My head sprung up to look at her. Her eyes were blinking. Her hand squeezing mine back.
I glanced at the outdated clock hanging on the wall.
Forty-eight hours and twenty-nine minutes of pure hell.
Georgia’s dark gaze locked with mine.
She was awake.