Ben - Don’t look
“You think they’ll actually take the cast off?” Maggie asked in a hopeful tone from the shotgun seat that Friday afternoon as I drove us to the hospital for her appointment.
“I don’t know,” I said, not wanting to get her hopes up. “They said four weeks minimum.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “Yeah, I guess I’m just hoping to be done with this.” She gestured to her cast. “And I kind of hope we don't run into Ethan.” Her face tensed.
My hand tightened on the wheel. Yeah, I hoped we didn’t run into that fucker either. Not only was he a total dick, but he seemed like a total nitwit to me. I didn’t want him anywhere near her medical care. Part of me was still worried that another x-ray should’ve been taken a couple weeks ago after the blue paint disaster…
And of course we couldn’t catch a lucky break. The first person we ran into in the hospital hallway was Doctor Ethan Whitaker.
His blue eyes lit up like he just won the fucking lottery, while Maggie stiffened by my side. It was so tempting to pull her closer to me, just to make him go away, but I didn’t want to startle her. And, if she shoved me off, I'm not sure I’d be able to handle it.
“Margaret, how are you doing? I’m so sorry I haven't had time to text you about a second date, sweetheart. It’s been so busy around here,” he gestured to the empty hallway around him. “You’ll be hearing from me soon though,” he said with a wink before strutting off.
I clenched my jaw to stop myself from blurting out anything stupid. But in the back of my mind, I wondered if it was time for a conversation… Maybe it was time I told her how I felt. How I wanted to protect her. How I wanted her, period.
Maggie pulled her hair over one shoulder, looking extra tense and unsure, and that made me pause. What if I confessed everything and I made her tense and unsure? What if she didn’t feel the same way about me? Would she go out with that prick again? How the hell would I stay on this assignment if that happened? Because I wouldn’t be able to stomach watching her fake a smile through another date with him, not when I knew I could make her smile for real…
She sucked in a deep breath beside me, and I noticed she was counting to four, tapping her finger against her leg to count. A little pride swelled in my chest.
“C’mon, let’s go get this cast off,” I told her, trying to give her some encouragement.
She rolled her eyes. “We don’t know if that’s happening.”
“But it could,” I told her, leading the way.
And it did happen.
An hour later, she was walking out of the hospital without a cast and with pamphlets detailing rehab exercises.
I thought she’d be more excited about the good news, but she sat silently in the passenger seat, seemingly lost in thought.
“Why the long face? Thought you’d be happy about this, Jinx.” I started up the Escalade.
“It just looks and feels so weird.” She inspected her left hand.
She had a point, her forearm and hand looked sickly skinny and pale, but that was normal after getting a cast off. “It’s just from not using it. It’ll bounce back quickly.”
“Hope so,” she muttered.
“I’ll help you.”
“Actually?”
I held the top of her seat and twisted to back us out of the parking lot. Before turning back around, I caught her staring at me with such hope in her eyes that it cracked my chest a little.
The insane urge to touch her overwhelmed me and I reached over and placed a hand on her thigh. “Absolutely.”
“Thank you,” she breathed out, laying her hand on top of mine.
I swallowed hard. I couldn’t take the tension between us any longer. If I didn’t say something, I was going to kiss her. I needed to tell her how I felt. I needed to know if she wanted the same things as me, and damn the consequences to hell.
As I eased us to the entrance of the parking lot, I locked eyes with her. “Maggie, I–”
My attention snapped to the rearview mirror. A car was coming up on us way too fucking fast.
“You’re buckled, right?” I forced out.
“What? Why?”
“Right?” I repeated.
“Yes,” she said in a panicked voice.
I looked both ways to time it right then slammed on the gas to power through the red light at the intersection ahead of us. The black SUV behind me did the same, causing an accident in its wake, telling me that I wasn’t mistaken. They were coming for us.
Fuck.
“Hang on,” I shouted as I jammed the wheel to the right, making our tires squeal.
“Ben?!”
I sped down the road where I knew a cop was always clocking people and hit speed dial on the car. “Coleson, you seeing this?”
“Yes, we’re on it,” he said in a steel voice.
Another red light was up ahead, but the car behind us would surely barrel into us if we stopped.
“Maggie–”
“Stop!” she screamed, stomping her right foot against the imaginary brake on the passenger side.
Yeah, that wasn’t happening. Grimacing, I hit the gas as we plowed through the intersection, just missing another collision.
Maggie was now screaming as she looked back at the wreckage.
“Don’t look,” I forced out between gritted teeth. “It’s about to get worse.”
Two cop cars now flanked the SUV behind us.
Hopping the median, I pulled a quick u-turn to shoot down a side-road. Maggie continued screaming at me to stop.
Thinking we lost them, I slowed down, only to see another dark SUV pulling out ahead of us.