Chapter 11
“So he’s going to be okay?” McKenna peered through the glass window to where Oliver rested comfortably on a bed with a nasal cannula and with monitor wires attached to his chest. “It’s just that my sister almost drowned once before.
It was several years ago, but I remember how she seemed fine at first, then later she wasn’t fine, then she caught pneumonia and—”
The doctor, a young woman with a frizzy brown ponytail and shadows under her eyes gently cleared her throat. “So you’ve told us. Multiple times. I promise your brother is in good hands. That’s the whole reason he got transferred to a bigger hospital. We’ll be able to keep a close eye on him.”
“Okay. Thank you. Also, he’s not my brother. He’s my sister’s—” Her voice caught. She swallowed. “Boyfriend. He’s my sister’s boyfriend.” Because once again poor Oliver hadn’t made it through the stinking proposal.
“Well,” the doctor said, probably not sure why McKenna was the one here if this was her sister’s boyfriend, but too tired to get into additional drama, and patted McKenna’s shoulder.
“Hang in there. Right now his vital signs are rock solid. We’ll continue to monitor him.
As long as everything stays how it is, he’ll be home soon. ”
McKenna nodded. The doctor’s words were all very comforting. So why wasn’t she comforted?
Maybe because she’d turned her sister’s proposal into the worst catastrophe ever. And that was saying something considering all the previous catastrophes.
Poor Bobbi. She really didn’t handle emergency situations well.
For a while McKenna didn’t think Bobbi was ever going to make it back from the other side of the river.
She’d still probably be stranded there yelling about death, sharks, and alligators if one of the EMTs hadn’t volunteered to carry her back over the decrepit bridge before resecuring the rope to prevent further people from crossing.
When they found out Oliver would be getting transferred to a larger hospital in Omaha soon as they returned from retrieving McKenna’s vehicle, Oliver had convinced Bobbi to go home, change, and finish packing for her trip to Italy tomorrow, which Oliver refused to let her back out of because of him.
“I’ll make sure he gets settled,” McKenna added when Bobbi didn’t seem convinced.
“You promise to call with every single update?”
“Promise.”
Which is why, once the doctor stepped away, McKenna shot off another text to Bobbi with the doctor’s encouraging words. Then she slipped the phone into her pocket and stepped into Oliver’s room.
“Hey there. Still feeling okay?” she asked once Oliver turned his head on the pillow to face her. She pulled up a chair next to his bed. “Quite the evening, huh? Think how hard we’re going to laugh about this one eventually.”
Looked like eventually may be a long way off. Oliver didn’t so much as crack a smile. McKenna cleared her throat. “Need anything right now?”
He straightened his head on the pillow, staring up at the television screen mounted on the wall across from his bed. “Is Bobbi okay?”
“Of course. She was just a little rattled at first. You know Bobbi. But she’s fine now.
She’s a champ. No need to worry about Bobbi.
Tomorrow she’ll be right as rain. She’ll go on her little Italy trip and be back in three weeks.
She’ll settle into her new job lickety-split, and you can ask her the big question, and everything will work out just like it’s supposed to. ”
With McKenna hopefully landing in LA.
“I don’t know, McKenna.” Oliver continued staring at the wall, his face as blank as the television screen. “Perhaps it’s not meant to be.”
McKenna clasped her hands together between her knees, forcing herself to take two steady breaths before she said anything panicky like Let’s get Bobbi here, find a chaplain and have a wedding tonight!
“Oliver, listen. It’s been a wild day. You fell in a river. You got the wind knocked out of you. You slammed your head into a stranger’s forehead. Let’s not make any big life decisions right now.”
“This is six times, McKenna. Six times I’ve tried proposing to your sister and it hasn’t gone right. How can that not be a sign?”
“A sign for what? You two love each other.”
“Maybe love isn’t enough.”
“Do I need to turn up your oxygen? Of course love is enough.”
“I just feel like I’m trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
“Everybody feels that way in a hospital bed.”
“It shouldn’t be this hard.”
“I’ll ask for another pillow.”
“You’re not listening.”
Oh, but she was. And she was going to have to borrow his nasal cannula if he kept talking this way. “I know proposing to my sister has turned out to be a much bigger challenge than any of us anticipated. But that doesn’t mean you two don’t belong together. You love Bobbi. Bobbi loves you.”
“Then why can’t I get the most important question I’ll ever ask her right?”
“You will. I promise. We’ll come up with something better. Something away from restaurants and water and—”
“Maybe it’s time to reconsider that job offer in Germany.”
McKenna froze with her mouth open. She didn’t need to ask him to clarify. She knew all about the job offer in Germany. It was all Bobbi could talk about for a while.
It’s such a great opportunity for him, but he’ll be overseas for three years.
What’s going to happen to us? You know I wouldn’t be able to go with him because of my job.
And you know how I feel about long distance.
If he tells me he’s taking it, I don’t know, McKenna.
It might be a sign that we’re just not meant to be.
“I thought you’d decided against it,” McKenna said.
Oliver sighed. “I did . . . when I thought I’d be staying here and marrying Bobbi and starting a life together. But maybe . . . maybe I’m meant to go. Maybe we need this time apart to see if we’re meant to be together.”
“I don’t think you mean that.” He couldn’t mean that. This was just the river water talking.
Oliver sighed again. “Maybe I don’t. But I’m telling you right now, if one more thing goes wrong with proposing to Bobbi—I don’t care what it is—I’m taking it as a serious sign that we need to reconsider things between us.
You’re right. We do love each other. But maybe this is God’s way of saying now isn’t the right time for us. Maybe we need to wait.”
“No.” McKenna jumped from her seat. If Oliver breathed one word of moving to Germany, Bobbi would panic and end things.
“I’m not listening to any more of this ridiculous talk.
Get some rest. I promise you’re going to feel a hundred percent more optimistic about everything come morning.
I’ll be here first thing to see how you did overnight.
The doctor made it sound like there’s a good chance you could get released. ”
“Do you mind bringing some clean clothes with you?”
“On it. Why don’t I take your clothes home so I can throw them in the wash for you, too?” And hopefully wash away all talk of moving to Germany for three years. She started for the closet where she assumed they’d tossed his belongings.
“Wait.” Oliver sprang forward. “The ring.”
McKenna’s sandals stuck to the floor. The ring.
“I don’t have the ring,” Oliver said. “I never grabbed it off the bench.” He groaned. “Who leaves behind a twenty-thousand-dollar engagement ring?”
Twenty thousand dollars? McKenna gripped the footboard of his bed.
Twenty thousand dollars? She knew Oliver had taken the ring to a jeweler to add another diamond so that the ring could remain a family heirloom while also containing a special element from him, but .
. . Twenty thousand dollars? On top of its already being priceless?
“Well—” He flapped his hand, then winced at the IV near his wrist. “I guess I got my sign, didn’t I?”
“No. No sign. You didn’t leave the ring. The ring is fine,” McKenna said, reaching into her dress pocket. Where was the ring? “I never even put the ring on the bench.” Where was the ring?
“You still have the ring?”
“Of course I still have the ring.” Her fingers started to shake.
“On you?”
Her whole body trembled. Where was the ring, where was the ring, where was the ring? “Glove compartment,” she blurted, her heart pounding out the truth in her chest like a marching band.
Not in the glove compartment, not in the glove compartment, oh sweet mercy, not in the glove compartment.
He sank back on his pillow with a sigh. “That’s a relief.”
“Hospitals, you know,” she said with a choked laugh. “Always losing things. Dentures. Glasses. Lives. You think I was going to bring something irreplaceable inside of these walls?”
Oh, she might vomit.
“Good thinking,” he said with a yawn, followed by an even wider yawn, his eyes drifting shut.
“You need rest.” McKenna stumbled for the door. “I’m going to head out and”—find the ring, find the ring, find the ring!—“take care of a few things. See you tomorrow.”
Soon as he mumbled a goodbye, McKenna dashed out of his room, praying Oliver was too tired to think and that Nate was still in the emergency department less than an hour away.