34. Daphne
Chapter Thirty-Four
DAPHNE
A sense of panic clawed inside my chest. “How fast can you get there?” I asked Grant for maybe the tenth time in the past five minutes.
Grant, his eyes so much like Flynn’s, glanced in the rearview mirror. “Daphne, I’m driving as fast as I can.”
“I know, I know,” I muttered. “I’m sorry.”
Gravel spit from the truck’s wheels as we zoomed toward Diamond Creek.
“Hurry,” Cat said from where she sat beside me in the back seat.
Nora glanced over her shoulder. “Hang tight; he’s going to hit the pavement soon.”
Only moments ago, we’d gotten a call from emergency services in Diamond Creek. Flynn and Elias had crashed and were being picked up by helicopter and flown to the hospital. We had only sketchy details. They were alive, the most important factor, but both had been injured. We had no idea how badly.
I needed to see Flynn. I needed to touch him, and I needed to know he was okay. My peaceful internal state I had about accepting that I needed to wait until he was ready for what we had was trampled. I needed Flynn to know I wanted nothing more than us .
Grant floored it once we hit the pavement. We were silent and tense in his truck for the remainder of the drive. He skidded to a jerking stop in front of the doors to the emergency room at the hospital.
“I’ll park. Go on in,” he said quickly.
Nora, Cat, and I ran into the hospital. Stopping at the circular desk in the emergency room, I practically barked, “We need to know the update on Flynn Walker and Elias Lowe.”
The receptionist looked up with a bland smile on her face. “Are you family?”
“Yes,” Cat said, her eyes snapping. “We’re his sisters, and this is his girlfriend.”
The woman, bless her heart, seemed entirely unruffled by Cat’s frustration. She clicked a few keys on her computer and looked at the screen before replying, “They’re being assessed right now. You’ll have to wait. You can wait here,” she explained, gesturing to the chairs lining the walls. “Or there’s a smaller room down the hallway.”
In silent agreement, the three of us followed the direction she pointed to the waiting room down the hallway. At first, I sat, feeling out of place and not knowing what to do. Grant eventually joined us. Nora and Grant scrolled through their phones while Cat idly flipped through magazines.
I couldn’t focus on anything. I just needed to see Flynn. Restless, I stood from my chair. “I think I’m gonna go get some coffee. Does anybody need anything?”
Grant leaped up from his chair. “I’ll go with you.”
We walked down the hallway together and found a small refreshment station. As I was filling one of the paper cups with coffee, Grant commented, “You know, Flynn loves you.”
I whipped sideways to look at him. “Huh?”
Grant smiled. “Flynn. Loves. You.” He spoke slowly as if I was a small child who needed each word elucidated.
“How do you know?” My voice was shaky, and I gripped the cup of coffee. The warmth seeping through the paper to my hands barely soothed my nerves.
“Because I know my brother. Maybe he’s already said it, but I just thought you should know.” He reached over and slid his arm around my shoulder, giving me a side hug.
His phone buzzed at that moment. As he stepped away, he slid it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. “Gotta take this. I’m guessing Gabriel wants an update.”
As he strode away, I tried to breathe through the dread balling like ice inside my belly. I started to walk down the hallway when a door opened nearby, and a nurse pushed through. She barely glanced in my direction as she hurried past me. I kept walking slowly before I sensed motion again. This time when I glanced back, I saw Flynn.
I felt shaky all over, and my heart was pounding in an unsteady beat. I almost dropped my coffee and had to clutch it a little tighter before it slipped free from my grip.
“Flynn,” I murmured, my voice coming out hoarse as I approached him on wobbly legs. His hair was damp, and his blue eyes were electric as he looked at me. He wore a shirt hanging open and a pair of mud-splattered jeans.
“What are you doing? You shouldn’t be?—”
Flynn stopped in front of me. Without a word, he wrapped his arms around me, tucking his head into my neck. He was cold. I could tell from the subtle tremors that ran through him.
I wrapped my free arm around him, and the coffee cup in my hand ended up squished between us. I felt a little slosh on my shirt, and I didn’t even care. If he noticed, it didn’t show.
We breathed together. It felt as if our bodies were actually speaking to each other.
Thank God you’re safe.
I’m here.
I’m not going anywhere.
I love you.
After several moments, I lifted my head. “Shouldn’t you be getting checked out?” I asked as the reality of his situation slammed into me again.
He eased his hold, and my free hand fluttered about. I smoothed his hair, which was salty and stiff, likely from the ocean breeze and the rain that had begun to fall in the past few hours.
“Did you get my message?” he asked, his eyes frantically boring into me as he ignored my concern.
“What are you talking about? No. You need to see a doctor,” I ordered, fussing as I started to turn him around.
Flynn’s hands gripped my shoulders and turned me back to face him. “I love you. That was my message.”
My heart frantically flipped over in my chest as I stared at him. I didn’t realize I was crying until concern passed through his eyes as he lifted a hand and brushed a tear away with his thumb. “That wasn’t supposed to make you cry.”
He folded me in his arms again, and I took a moment to absorb him, needing his masculine scent, his strength, and the sound of his heart thumping strong and steady against my ear where it was pressed against his chest to let me know he was alive and okay.
When I thought I could breathe and not be a watering pot, I lifted my head and pressed a kiss on the underside of his jaw. “I love you too,” I said, suddenly feeling bashful.
His eyes held mine, the look there so intent, it took my breath away. “I’m sorry it took me crashing a plane to stop being a coward.”
“You weren’t a coward. I was stalling too, trying to pretend I was all cool with waiting. I’m not cool. I’ve never been cool.”
Flynn’s smile sent joy scattering through me. It felt as if the windows were thrown open into my heart, and sunshine burst through, sending light and warmth everywhere.
Flynn tolerated me running my hands down his arms and pushing his shirt to the side to see the horrible bruising on his rib cage. There was a deep contusion in one area. “Flynn.” I tried to will my tears away. “You need to get checked out, and where’s Elias?” I curled my hand around his.
“He’s headed into surgery.” Flynn suddenly looked worried and uncertain. I knew how much his friends meant to him and knew he was scared for Elias. “I think he’ll be okay, but a branch knocked him out, and it looked like he had a broken leg. He was bleeding on his side, but we couldn’t figure out what caused it.”
“Now, where—” Just then, Cat appeared around the corner in the hallway and dashed down to Flynn the second she saw him.
Stepping away from me, he caught her in his arms, holding her securely as she exclaimed, “Flynn!”
When he released her, she was crying, and I fished in my purse to find some tissues for her. Flynn looked dismayed at her tears.
Cat gave him an angry glare. “Of course I’m upset, you dummy. You could’ve died.”
He tweaked her ponytail and curled his arm around her shoulders as he pulled her into his side carefully. Although he was putting on a good show of being okay, I didn’t miss how carefully he moved. “I’m fine. You didn’t think you’d get rid of me that easy, did you?”
“Not funny,” she said before blowing her nose noisily into the tissue I handed her.
A nurse appeared in the hallway. “Ah, there you are. I figured you went to find someone. We need to run a few tests to make sure there’s no internal bleeding. Now, come on.”
Flynn wasn’t cleared to go home for several more hours. There was no internal bleeding, though he had two cracked ribs. He refused to leave the hospital until he knew Elias was going to be okay. With Elias in surgery, all we could do was wait.
They gave us a private room that was unoccupied for him to wait with any other family and friends. Grant left to take Cat home because Flynn insisted she was going to school tomorrow and needed to go to bed at a reasonable time. Cat wasn’t thrilled, but she was too subdued and tired to put up a fight. Nora had left earlier to go pick up clean clothes and bring them to the hospital for Flynn. He’d showered and changed after the medical team finished with him.
For about an hour, it was just Flynn and me waiting. The television was on a home and garden show. Flynn leaned back in his chair, rolling his head to the side. “Don’t let me fall asleep. I want to be awake to hear how Elias is when he comes out of surgery.”
I decided lying by omission was perfectly acceptable. I nodded. “I’ll make sure you’re awake.”
I had no intention of keeping him awake, but I would wake him up after we got the update on Elias. I rested my hand on his shoulders, teasing my fingers lightly in his hair at the base of his neck. He fell asleep in a matter of minutes.