Chapter 20 #2
“I’m going to drive the route he usually takes home,” he continued. “The back road by the cove, right?”
“Yes,” I answered eagerly.
“Don’t worry yet.”
Don’t worry. Yet?
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me, then sank down onto the edge of the couch, my leg bouncing uncontrollably. I stared at the door like Cade might walk through it any second, annoyed that I’d worked myself up over nothing.
I sent another text.
Please. Just tell me you’re okay.
The house felt too big. Too quiet.
When my phone rang again, my heart slammed so hard it hurt.
“Max?” I breathed.
“I found his truck,” he said.
Everything inside me went cold.
“What do you mean… found?”
“It’s off the road near the bottom of the cove,” he said carefully. “Down the embankment. Upside down. I can’t get to it from here.” He was talking in broken sentences and breathing hard.
I stood so fast the room spun. “Is he, did you see him?”
“No,” Max huffed out. “I’ve already called 9-1-1. They’re on the way. But, Missy…” He hesitated and huffed out a deep breath. “I think you should come. Now.”
I grabbed my keys with numb fingers, my vision blurring as tears finally spilled over.
“I’m on my way,” I whispered.
And as I ran for the door, one thought echoed louder than all the others.
Please let me get the chance to tell him that I love him. Please.
The drive took me less than five minutes. When I arrived, the road down to the cove was chaos.
Red and blue lights strobed against the trees, flashing across wet bark and slick pavement.
The lights were bouncing off the dark water below the embankment, and the ocean looked alive and furious.
Fire trucks lined the narrow turnout, their engines idling low and steady.
An ambulance sat with its back doors open as light spilled out onto the gravel.
I barely remember pulling the car over. Barely remember opening the door or getting out.
Max’s hand closed around my arm before my feet even hit the ground.
“Missy,” he said firmly, grounding me. “Hey. You’re here. I’ve got you.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t really listening. My eyes were locked on the edge of the drop-off, where the trees thinned and the ground fell away sharply toward the rocks and water below.
That’s where Cade was.
Somewhere down there.
“I need to see him,” I whispered, my voice shaking so badly it barely sounded like my own.
Max tightened his grip just enough to keep me from moving forward. “You can’t yet. They’re working to get to him. Let them do their jobs.”
Firefighters were clustered near the edge of the road with ropes and cables snaking around their boots.
A winch from one of the trucks whirled as it turned slowly, the thick line disappearing over the side of the embankment.
Someone shouted instructions. Someone else answered. It was all noise and motion and terror.
I could hear the ocean crashing faintly in the distance, steady and cruelly indifferent.
I barely took a breath. Barely registered anything but my heartbeat.
“How long?” I asked. I didn’t know who I was asking.
“They don’t know yet,” Max said quietly. “The truck… it’s bad, Missy.”
Upside down. That was all I could think. Max had said it was upside down.
My knees felt weak. I wrapped my arms around myself, my fingers digging into the sleeves of my jacket as if that could keep me from shattering into a million pieces. I forced myself to breathe. In. Out. In. Out.
I stared down the dark slope, my mind betraying me with images I clung to.
Cade laughing in the kitchen. Cade sanding floors with sawdust in his hair. Cade standing on my porch in the rain, kissing me like he’d been waiting his whole life to do it.
I hadn’t said it.
The thought slammed into me so hard it stole the air from my lungs, causing me to sway. Max’s arms tightened around me. Holding me upright.
Cade had said it. Softly. Casually. Like it was a given.
I love you.
What kind of idiot doesn’t say it back when it’s true? It’s always been true.
Hours seemed to pass, though it was probably only minutes. Time stretched and warped, every second dragging on. The firefighters worked with careful precision. The winch groaned as it took more weight, the cable strained as they stabilized the truck enough to get access to the inside.
At one point, I thought I might be sick. Max must have noticed because he shifted in front of me, blocking my view.
“Don’t look,” he murmured. “Not yet.”
“I need to,” I said hoarsely, swallowing hard. “I need to know.”
He didn’t argue. He just stayed close.
Finally, finally, someone yelled that they had the door open and that he was alive.
Alive.
Cade was alive.
The winch whined louder as the metal groaned. The door twisted, then gave way. A flashlight beam cut through the darkness below, followed by another.
“There,” someone said.
My heart stopped.
I strained forward despite Max’s hold, my entire body shaking now. They moved carefully, impossibly carefully, easing Cade free inch by inch. I couldn’t see much at first, just flashes of yellow gear, gloved hands, the dark outline of his body.
The rain started pelting down again, and I cursed it.
Then they lifted him.
And I saw his face.
His neck and head were circled in a white brace.
His skin was so pale beneath the dirt and blood.
One side of his face was bruised already and in the harsh lights I could see that it was swollen.
There was a cut at his hairline and dried blood caked along his temple.
His body was strapped tight to the board, and an oxygen mask covered his mouth and nose.
He wasn’t moving. His eyes didn’t open.
Something inside me shattered.
The sound that came out of me didn’t feel human. I don’t remember pulling away from Max. Don’t remember stumbling forward, but suddenly I was on my knees in the gravel, sobbing so hard my chest burned.
“No,” I whispered, over and over. “No, no, no, Cade, please.”
Max was there instantly, kneeling beside me. His arms wrapped around my shoulders while I broke completely. I pressed my face into his jacket, my tears soaking through the material as my whole body convulsed with the force of it.
“I didn’t say it,” I choked out. “I didn’t tell him that I love him. Max, I’ve always loved him and I didn’t tell him.”
“He knows.” Max’s grip tightened. His voice broke when he spoke. “You will. You’re going to tell him. He’s going to be okay.”
The paramedics rushed Cade past us, moving fast as one of them called out vitals. I scrambled to my feet but my legs barely worked. I reached out helplessly as they loaded him into the ambulance.
“Can I go with him?” I begged one of them. “Please, I’m his…”
They hesitated only a second before nodding.
As the doors closed and the siren wailed to life, I climbed in beside Cade, my fingers trembling as I found his hand.
It was warm.
Still warm.
I clung to that like a lifeline.
“I’m here,” I whispered fiercely, brushing my thumb over his knuckles as the EMT worked on him. “I’m not going anywhere. You hear me? You don’t get to leave me.”
The ambulance lurched forward, but I barely registered the lights flashing and the sound of the siren wailing as we quickly drove away.
For the first time since I’d gotten the call from Max, I prayed and hoped for our future together.
Because loving Cade Walker wasn’t something I could survive losing.