Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Dakota
I watch the rise and fall of Chance’s heartbeat on the monitor, tying to find solace in it. It’s been over twenty-four hours since we pulled him from the ranch after he fell to the ground, and he still hasn’t woken up.
“You need to eat,” Wyatt barks from his chair in the corner of the room.
“So do you.” I don’t have the energy to fight him. Not anymore.
We’ve been doing a lot of that since we got to the hospital. Being argumentative seems to be the way we both handle guilt, and we’re just lucky enough to be stuck with each other while we wait for Chance to wake up.
Because he will wake up.
Other than the breathing tube under his nose, it just looks like he’s sleeping. He has the same child-like expression on his face that he does when we spend our nights together. Like it is the only time he truly doesn’t have a care in the world. And maybe that is true.
For once, I want to wake him up and not let him have that rest. I need to know that he’s going to be okay. That he’s still going to be the same asshole I fell in love with.
“You’re not going to do him any good if you don’t take care of yourself,” Wyatt says in a tone that makes me want to punch him.
“Don’t you have family you can go and annoy?”
“Don’t you have ambulances that need chasing?”
I stand and face him, pointing my finger at him. “Fuck you with the lawyer jokes. Fuck you with trying to boss me around and get me out of this room, and you know what, just FUCK YOU!” I yell.
He stands and crosses the distance between us, towering over me like he’s trying to intimidate me. “Do you think you’re any better? You’re not going to make him wake up by staring at him or holding his hand.”
“Maybe not, but I’m going to be here for him, whether you like it or not.”
“Can you both knock it off?”
I spin around, eyes wide, as Chance starts to cough. The sound is both welcoming and alarming. He’s awake, which is the biggest thing, but the cough sounds so horrific and painful it has to be torture for him.
Rushing to his side, I place my hand on his shoulder, trying to stop him from sitting up. He swats my hand away while still coughing and sits.
“You should lay down.” When he doesn’t listen to me, I roll my eyes and focus on pouring him some water.
Stubborn-ass cowboy.
Wyatt moves to my side as I pass Chance the glass, urging him to drink slowly.
“You’re really fucking stupid, you know that, right?”
“Wyatt!” I gasp.
“What? He knows it, we all know it.” He narrows his eyes at Chance. “You almost got yourself killed, just like I said you were going to.”
“Can we save the ‘I told you so’s’ for later?” Chance’s voice is rough and gravelly, like he’s smoked a lifetime of cigarettes in a night.
“No, you need to hear this. You scared every last person in town with your dumbass plan. Not to mention risking your horse and cattle. And you didn’t even bring fucking bolt cutters with you when you fled to the fence? What was your plan once you got there?”
“Didn’t have one.” Chance thrusts the glass at me before lowering himself back onto the bed.
“Not now,” I seethe. Running my hands through Chance’s hair, I try to comfort him as he covers his eyes with his arm.
“If we all had to rush back into the fire to save his ass, he can listen to this.” He gives me a side glare that tells me to shut up. “You’re reckless and you’re a fucking idiot. When I left you, I assumed it was because you were smart enough to get your dumb ass out of the fire, not stay like some damn martyr.”
Chance remains silent, except for a small cough.
“Well?” Wyatt demands.
“You’re right.”
Wyatt and I both stare at him, not believing we’re hearing him admit that.
“This is enough for now. Wyatt, go take a walk. We can finish this later.”
“How about you both go for a walk?” An older nurse suggests as she walks into the room. “Now that Mr. Declan here is awake, I need to run some tests.”
I nod, leaning down and kissing him on the forehead, too grateful to have him back to think about how he hasn’t said a word to me since he woke up.
Wyatt and I walk in silence to the elevator. I need coffee desperately. And food, but I’m feeing prideful, and I won’t eat because Wyatt had all but ordered me to earlier.
“He needed to hear it,” Wyatt says gruffly as we stare at the screen of the elevator, waiting for it to reach our floor.
“Are you trying to convince me or you?”
“Both.”
The beep of the elevator and muffled hospital sounds hang between us as the numbers on the screen tick by.
How many fucking floors are in this building?
As the doors finally open, we shuffle inside and don’t say another word. I move to the farthest corner away from him. It may be childish, but after the way he spoke to Chance, I can’t risk lashing out at him. I need to save all my energy for getting Chance home.
Home. I don’t even know where that is anymore.
The hospital cafeteria is eerily quiet, with only a few employees sitting quietly at tables.
Walking briskly, I leave Wyatt behind and go straight to the coffee machine. I need the biggest cup they’ve got, even though I know it will most likely taste terrible.
I don’t look for him as I pay and make my way to an empty table as far away from everyone as I can get. Taking a sip of the overly bitter coffee, I wince and try to pretend it’s my favourite latte instead.
I take another sip, realizing that no amount of wishing will make this one of Tess’ lattes.
A wrapped breakfast sandwich is tossed in front of me a moment before Wyatt lowers himself into a chair at the table.
I lock eyes with him, eyebrow raised.
“Eat,” he commands before unwrapping his own and taking a bite.
I watch him, taking another sip of my coffee and avoiding the sandwich.
He sighs. “Seriously, Dakota. You need to eat something.” He stares at me for a moment longer and sighs. “Come on. I promised Chance I would take care of you.”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t need taking care of. I did just fine before you both came along.”
“Clearly,” he says dryly before taking another bite.
“I’ll eat if you promise to lay off Chance. At least until he’s better and can fight back.”
Wyatt looks between me and the untouched sandwich. “Deal.”
Satisfied that he’s telling the truth, I unwrap it and take a big bite, which I immediately regret. The egg tastes like rubber, the English Muffin it’s on is stale, and the cheese tastes like it might possibly be expired.
“This is disgusting,” I say, fighting to swallow the nearly inedible food before chugging my coffee. The bitterness of the drink is a thousand times better than this ‘food.’
“I know.” He sits back, giving me a shit-eating grin.
“And you talked me into eating it anyway?”
“If I have to eat this, so do you. They charged me an arm and a leg for it.” He chuckles.
I laugh, crumpling up my napkin and throwing it at him, which only makes him laugh harder.
“Well, this is it.” I step into the small hotel room, hoping that if I act overly cheery that it will lessen the blow that this will be our temporary home.
Chance crosses into the room with a scowl on his face.
“I know it’s not much, but it’s better than sleeping on the cots in the shelter. While I’m grateful, they weren’t the most comfortable.” Or the chair in his hospital room, but I don’t mention that.
Closing the door behind him, I try to see the room from his perspective. There’s a single queen bed in the middle of the room with standard wooden nightstands on either side. There’s small, rounded table with two chairs, and a desk with a rolling chair. A door to the bathroom is on the far wall, which is tiny, but functional and clean.
There are a few piles of bags on the table. I ran out and got some clothes and food before picking him up from the hospital. I had to guess on his size, and I hope I guessed correctly. The clothes he was wearing the night of the fire had to be destroyed by the hospital, so Wyatt brought him some of his until we could get others sorted.
Chance hasn’t said a word since I got to his hospital room. Other than needing time to recuperate from the smoke inhalation, he’s thankfully all right. While it’s pissing me off he hasn’t said anything, I tell myself it’s because his throat must be in a lot of pain, not because he doesn’t want to talk to me.
“I thought you would probably want a shower and settle in. I can go grab dinner. There’s a diner around the corner that has decent food and they’ve been giving a discount to all the evacuees.” I walk into the middle of the room, shuffling through the bags on the table to distract myself. “I had to guess on your size and what you would wear, but it’s a start at least. There’s a big box store on the edge of town, and a mall in the next town over…”
Chance covers my hands in his, forcing me to look up at him.
“I don’t care about food or clothes right now.” He pulls me into him and wraps his arms around me.
I’ve tried to be so strong since the night of the fire. I haven’t broken down or cried. I’ve been so focused on what needed to be done in order to get Chance out of there or how to get him home from the hospital. But now that he’s here with me, holding me, I find myself letting go.
The tears flow freely as he holds me closer. I can’t stop the sobs that erupt from my body or the way I cling to him. I hate he smells like Wyatt’s cologne, and not of the whiskey-sunshine smell that I associate with Chance, but he’s here. He’s holding me. He’s alive.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, kissing the top of my head.
“I want to be so mad at you for making me think you were leaving the ranch and meeting me at the shelter, but I can’t. I’m just so grateful to have you here with me.”
“I know,” he whispers into my hair.
I punch at his chest without any heat, letting my fist graze off his chest. “Why did you stay? Why didn’t you call for help right away? I know the other ranchers would have come with their trailers after unloading their own cattle.” I punch him again, this time with a little more strength behind it. “Why did you stop fighting? Why didn’t you fight for yourself? For me? For us?” I’m back to sobbing now and collapse back into his arms.
“Because I’m a coward, Dakota. That’s why.”
“I listened to your voicemails.” I whisper, burrowing into his chest. “I’ve listened to them over and over since the night of your fire. You were saying goodbye to me.”
I hear him suck in a breath, but he doesn’t say anything.
I look up at him, wiping my eyes. “Why would you do that? Why wouldn’t you get out of there? Leave the cattle, take Duke and ride? I know that the animals and the land are everything to you, but you’re everything to me, Chance! I fucking love you!”
He strokes the hair away from my face, wiping at the tears on my cheeks with his thumbs. “I know.”
“And yet, you stayed.”
He looks at me for a moment longer. “Like I said, I’m a coward. I thought you would be better off. I thought that I was doing the right thing.”
“Well you were wrong!” I explode back, putting space between us. “You don’t get to make that decision; do you hear me? We are in this together. We are together. That means you can’t run around playing cowboy and throwing yourself into literal fires.”
“Not playing. I am a cowboy.” A smile hints at his lips, which makes him look both adorable and increases my urge to punch him for real.
“I mean it, Chance.”
He takes a step forward, placing his hands on my shoulders as he dips his head and looks into my eyes. “I’m sorry, Dakota. I know I was wrong now. I shouldn’t have stayed at the ranch, and I shouldn’t have done it alone. I can’t thank you enough for what you did to get me and the animals out of there. And I want you to know that I meant every word I said in those voicemails. I love you, Dakota. For real. I promise I won’t go anywhere again.”
He’s so sincere, and I can tell that he’s not lying to me, but at the same time, I can’t help remembering when he told me that he’s not a forever kind of guy. That he doesn’t do long term relationships.
I look down at the ring on my finger and question what this all really means.
“I’ve been thinking about that.” He tips his chin at my hand. “You should keep it.”
“Chance, it’s your mom’s. It should stay in the family.”
“It will, because I mean it when I say I’m in. I’m not going anywhere. We should do this for real. All of it.”
“You can’t mean…”
He takes my hands and kisses my knuckles. “That we get married. Yes, yes, I do.”
My mouth hangs open, staring at him. I don’t know what to say.
“Not right now, obviously.”
“But what about you not being a ‘forever kind of guy?’ You were very clear that marriage was never in your future.”
“Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I just needed to meet the right person for me to see forever with.”
“How would we?” My gaze drifts past him out of the window. The town that we called home is utterly damaged. We might not even be able to go back to the life we once had.
“We’ll figure it out.”
“Half the town is gone.” My mind catches up with what’s happening. “The town! I didn’t fill you in on everything. There’s so much destruction.”
Now that the fire has been controlled, police and fire have gone in and have started updating people as they find out what’s been saved and what is damaged. “The rodeo area is gone.”
“I know. Wyatt told me. When the police couldn’t get a hold of me, they called him.”
“I’m so sorry, Chance. Everything we worked for is gone.”
“No, it’s not. As much as the sponsors were wrong in what they demanded, it brought me you, and I can’t be upset about that.”
Excuse me while I swoon.
“And your house…”
“Is gone. I know.”
“How are you not upset about this?”
“The arena can be rebuilt, and so can my house. Plus, you know I hated that house anyway. Our old family house was saved. We can live there while we rebuild the main house.”
“What about Wyatt?”
He wraps his arms around me again. “Well, I heard your house survived without any damage…”
I smile, thinking I know where this is going. “It did…”
“And since we will be getting married, that usually means that the couple lives together.”
“This is true.” I smile, wrapping my arms around his waist.
“So that would leave your house empty.”
“I guess we could accommodate him. Since we’ll be kicking him out of his house and all.”
Chance smiles and lowers his mouth down to mine. The smell of smoke and ash clings to him, mixed with Wyatt’s cologne, but the touch of his lips is all Chance.
He doesn’t hold back as his tongue grazes my lips, forcing me to yield to him. My hands roam to the front of his shirt, clinging to him as if he would fade away if I let go.
“You said something about a shower?”
“Hmm…yes, I believe I did.”
He backs me up into the bathroom and slams the door behind him before showing me just how much he means it when he says he’s become a forever kind of guy.