Chapter 30
Magnolia
I’m setting up my phone to go live on social media, arranging my workspace so everything looks perfect for the camera. I’ve got a new batch of chocolate-covered strawberries to dip, and my followers have been asking for a tutorial on my technique.
I’m just about to hit the “Go Live” button when there’s a loud, aggressive knock on the door.
My heart jumps into my throat, and my hands start shaking. That knock—it sounds exactly like Cody’s knock. It’s one that’s meant to intimidate. The kind of knock that used to make my stomach drop when we were still living together.
But he’s in jail. He has to be in jail. They arrested him. I saw them take him away.
The knocking comes again, even louder, more insistent, as I’m looking around for a place to hide.
“Magnolia! Open the door!”
It’s not Cody’s voice. It takes me a second to place it, my brain too flooded with panic to think clearly, but then I realize, it’s Dakota.
I run to the door, fumbling with the locks. When I throw it open, Dakota’s standing there, and his face is pale, his eyes wide with terror. Immediately my eyes go to where his shirt has a bloom of red at the bottom. Is that blood?
“What’s wrong?” I ask, but I already know. I can feel it in my bones. Something’s happened. Something bad.
“Magnolia, it’s Levi.” His voice is shaking. “He’s been shot.”
The world tilts sideways, and I reach out to grab the door facing. “What?”
“Cody made bail. He was waiting outside the police station. He shot Levi.” Dakota grabs my arm when my knees buckle and my fingers let go of the door. “He’s at the hospital. He’s asking for you. We need to go now.”
I don’t remember grabbing my purse. Don’t remember locking the door behind me. Don’t remember getting into Dakota’s truck. Everything is a blur of panic and fear and one thought repeating over and over in my head.
Please don’t let him die. Please, God, don’t take him from me.
Dakota drives like a man possessed, running red lights, swerving around slower cars. At one point, I hear a siren and think we’re being pulled over, but then I realize it’s following us, giving us an escort. One of Levi’s friends or coworkers, I assume, making sure we get there as fast as possible.
“How bad is it?” I manage to ask, my voice coming out strangled.
“I don’t know,” Dakota says, and his hands are white-knuckled on the steering wheel. “He was conscious when they loaded him into the ambulance. He said your name.”
That breaks every part of me. Tears start streaming down my face, and I can’t stop them. Levi said my name. What if that was the last thing he ever said? What if I never get to tell him how much I love him again, how much he’s changed my life, how I can’t imagine a future without him in it?
We screech into the hospital parking lot, and I’m out of the truck before Dakota even has it in park. I run for the emergency entrance, my vision blurred with tears, my heart pounding so hard it hurts.
The sliding doors open, and I burst into the waiting room.
And stop.
They’re all there. The entire Harrison family. Ruby and Caleb, Mason and Karina, Molly pacing near the windows, other family members I recognize but can’t name in this moment. Police officers in uniform, some I know, some I don’t. Everyone looking tense, worried, and scared.
Every single head turns when I come through the doors, and I see it in their faces—they know. They know about Levi and me. They know I’m more than just Molly’s best friend. It seems as if both of us have let it slip, have let it show just a little too much.
Ruby is the first to move. She crosses the waiting room and pulls me into her arms, and I collapse against her, sobbing.
“He’s in surgery,” she says quietly, her hand rubbing circles on my back. “The bullet went through his shoulder. They’re removing it now, but the doctors say he’s going to be okay. He’s going to make a full recovery.”
I pull back to look at her face, searching for any sign that she’s lying to make me feel better.
But her eyes are clear and honest. As honest as they’ve been since the day I started my period at their house, while my parents were off living their lives.
She’d told me everything I’d needed to hear, and been such a help in everything I needed.
“You promise?” I whisper.
“I promise.” She guides me to a chair, sitting down beside me and keeping hold of my hand. “We’ve all been here before, Magnolia. Loving men who have dangerous jobs. Waiting to hear if they’re going to be okay. It never gets easier, but we get through it together.”
I look around the waiting room at all these strong women—Ruby, Karina, Molly, others whose names I know but can’t quite recall. Women who’ve loved police officers, who’ve waited in hospitals, who’ve built lives with men who run toward danger instead of away from it.
“I love him,” I say, and my voice breaks. “I love Levi so much.”
Ruby squeezes my hand. “I know you do, honey. And he loves you. Anyone can see it.”
“I can’t lose him,” I whisper. “I just found him. I can’t lose him now.”
“You won’t,” she says firmly. “He’s a fighter. He’s a Harrison. He’s going to be fine.”
Molly sits down on my other side, taking my other hand. She doesn’t say anything, just holds on tight, and I’m grateful for my best friend, for her support, even if she’s probably going to give me an earful.
“I’m not,” she says, leaning in. “Going to give you an earful.”
“Did I say that out loud?” I ask softly.
“No, but I know you. Trust me.” She gives me a small smile. “I have my own secrets.”
Even though I want to, I don’t question her. Whatever her secrets are, they’ll still be there when Levi gets out of surgery, and we’ve verified he’s going to be okay.
Time passes in a strange way. Minutes feel like hours, and hours feel like minutes. People come and go as we wait, cops checking in, bringing coffee, offering support to one another. Someone pushes a cup of something hot into my hands, and I drink it without tasting it.
Across the waiting room, Mason looks completely wrecked.
I hear through the grapevine, that he’s the one who shot Cody.
Someone came out to get me about an hour ago to tell me that he’s okay and to ask if I wanted to see him, since I’m his next of kin.
I told them no, and a few minutes ago I saw his parents be escorted through the waiting area.
Finally—after what feels like an eternity but is probably only an hour or two—a doctor comes out. He’s still in scrubs, and he looks tired but not concerned, which I take as a good sign.
“Family of Levi Harrison?”
We all stand. Every single person in that waiting room.
The doctor’s eyebrows go up, and I would laugh under different circumstances. But right now, all I care about is what he’s going to say next.
“He’s going to be fine,” the doctor says, and I feel my knees go weak with relief.
Ruby and Molly both grab me to keep me upright.
“The bullet went through his shoulder, missed all major arteries and bones. We removed the fragments, cleaned and stitched the wound. He’ll need physical therapy, and he’ll be on restricted duty for a while, but he’s going to make a full recovery. ”
A sob escapes my throat, and suddenly I’m crying again, but this time it’s relief, pure and overwhelming.
“Can we see him?” Mason asks.
“He’s in recovery now, but he should be moved to a room soon. He’s been asking for...” The doctor checks his notes. “Someone named Magnolia?”
Every eye in the waiting room turns to me again, and although my face warms, I don’t even care.
“That’s me,” I manage.
The doctor smiles. “He’s been very insistent. As soon as he wakes up, you can go in. Room 304 on the third floor.”
I nod, unable to speak past the lump in my throat.
We wait a little longer, and then a nurse comes out to tell us he’s awake and asking for me. Everyone insists I go first since that’s what he’s asking for, and I’m too desperate to see him to argue.
“Be prepared to give us a full update,” Ruby says as she pushes me toward the nurse.
The third floor feels miles away, even though it’s just two floors up. When I find room 304, I pause at the door, suddenly nervous. What if seeing him in a hospital bed, bandaged and hurt, is too much? What if I break down completely?
But then I hear his voice from inside. “Is she here yet?”
And I’m pushing through the door before I can second-guess myself.
He’s sitting up in the hospital bed, his shoulder heavily bandaged, his face pale but his eyes bright and alive and fixed on me.
“Magnolia Grace.”
His voice is reverent as he says those words, like he can’t believe I’m here.
I cross the room in three steps, and he reaches out with his good arm. I take his hand, and then I’m leaning over him, kissing him like I’ll never get the chance to again. Kissing him like he didn’t just get shot. Kissing him like I’m not currently still married to another man.
Kissing him like I love him, because I do. Because this is every single thing I’ve wanted since Dakota came to my door.
When I finally pull back, we’re both crying, and I don’t care that I’m showing this much emotion.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” I whisper.
“I’m sorry,” he says, his thumb brushing away my tears. “I’m so sorry.”
“You said my name.”
“It was all I could think about. You were all I could think about.”
Behind us, someone clears their throat. I turn to see the entire Harrison family packed into the doorway, and most of them are grinning.
“Well,” Molly says, her voice thick with emotion. “I guess the secret’s really out now. There’s no denying it.”
Levi smiles up at me, but talks to them. “I never wanted to deny it.”
And despite everything; the shooting, the fear, the hospital, the fact that my technically-still-husband just tried to kill the man I love, I laugh.
It feels good after the tension of the day.
And I know with this man there will be many more times to laugh, than there ever will be to be scared.