Chapter 29Luke
CHAPTER 29
LUKE
“Where is she?” I ask Nate when I walk out of the security room I’ve been held in for the last two dang hours. He’s standing outside of it, presumably waiting for me since he pushes off the wall when I come out.
A detective follows me, patting me on the shoulder. “We’ll be in touch.”
Question after question was hurled at me, and I clench my jaw to keep from scowling at the man who kept me away from Hailey for so long. First I had to wait for him to get there, then we had to go over everything. Three fucking times.
Originally they held me because of the aggression I showed towards Priscylla. One of the security guys saw it on a monitor and called it in, which was why the initial security guard showed up in the first place, and why he took me down. I told them it was bullshit, but after the detective showed me the video, I can’t say I blame them. It did look like I wanted to kill Priscylla.
I suppose it didn’t only look like it. If it weren’t for Nate, I don’t know what I would have done.
Not a thought I care to examine right now.
“She’s still in emerg,” Nate says, the two of us heading in that direction.
“Is she okay?”
He nods when I glance over at him, but then cocks his head at a strange angle. “Has a pretty bad concussion, and given her history that’s a bit concerning. But that’s not the part you’re not going to like.”
Grabbing Nate’s arm, I stop him in the hallway we’re currently walking down, frowning. “What do you mean? What’s wrong? What happened? Did Priscylla?—”
Nate quickly shakes his head, putting a hand on my shoulder. “No, Priscylla has been under the watchful eye of two officers and has been kept far away from Hailey. It’s not that.”
“Then what?” I demand, nostrils flaring as my heart rate picks up.
He clears his throat, glancing down the hall before bringing his attention back to me. “Jordan wouldn’t tell me anything other than Hailey doesn’t want visitors.”
It’s my turn to tilt my head, my frown deepening. “What? Why? No, that—” My voice cracks on the word, and I clear my own throat to try again. “She can’t—that can’t mean me.”
This was the last thing I expected when I was finally told I was free to leave. With a severe concussion, I can understand not wanting a barrage of people in the room with her, but there’s no way she meant me. I saw the way she looked at me before they forced me to leave her there. Hailey wanted nothing more than for me to comfort her.
I saw it.
I… I swear I saw it.
Didn’t I?
“Nate, where exactly is she?” I ask him, stepping closer.
His jaw grinds back and forth, eyes boring into mine, looking like he’s debating with himself. A debate I wonder if he’s been battling since he found out about her request.
Finally, he sighs, looks up and down the corridor, and relents. “I’m not going to tell you she’s in one of the private ER bays. Just like I’m not going to tell you it’s the one on the left side of the shoe.”
The ER is shaped like a giant horseshoe, or a U, which is why most of us, plus the hospital staff, call it the shoe, with the nurses station being at the top of the U and on the left. Which means Hailey’s room is going to be the closest room to it. And nearly impossible to sneak into.
Guns blazing it is.
Turning away from him, I start jogging through the hall, finally reaching the emergency department. Luck is on my side. No one is at the nurses station, and there’s a flurry of activity I can hear coming from somewhere in the shoe.
Slowing to a walk so I don’t draw attention if someone were to come around a corner, I make a beeline towards the room Nate indicated. I’m five feet from it when the door opens, and Jordan steps out to stand in front of it, arms crossed over her chest, lips forming a thin line.
Dang it. I thought I was home free.
“She doesn’t want visitors,” Jordan states, tone firm like there’s no arguing with her.
Two choices face me. I could take her word for it, turn around, and walk away—though, I’d probably pull up a chair and camp out right outside the door until Hailey came out. Or I could do what I should have done ten years ago. Fight for her. Make her say it to my face.
Even if she kind of did that a week ago. If she truly doesn’t want me, I need to hear it again, because I don’t believe it. Rich, coming from me, the guy who never feels he’ll be believed, but maybe that’s why I know I need to fight. Because what I saw in her, what I felt from her, both that day at my house, and earlier today, I know she doesn’t want things to be over between us.
Taking a deep breath, I ready myself for an argument. Or to get down on my knees and beg. Or maybe pull out my wallet to bribe. Whatever it takes.
“Please. I need to talk to her.”
Jordan’s head tilts. “She doesn’t want to talk anymore. She needs to rest.”
“Jordan, I’m begging you, please let me in. Give me five minutes, and if she wants to throw me out after, I’ll leave, and I’ll make sure she never sees me again,” I plead, ready to drop down to the ground.
But then I catch it. The subtle motion of Jordan’s head. While she’s tilting it, she’s actually jerking it minutely towards the door. My forehead creases as I follow the motion and realize what she’s trying to say without words. The door isn’t closed completely. She’s got it propped open so our voices can carry inside.
“She doesn’t want to talk, Luke. You should probably leave her alone.”
Hope blooms in my chest and quickly spreads outward, filling my whole body and soul. Nodding my thanks, I inhale deeply, then exhale slowly. “I lost that woman once—twice if you include last week—and today I could have lost her permanently. I’m done losing her. If she doesn’t want to talk, that’s fine, I don’t need her to talk, I just need her to listen. I need her to hear me fight for her. And if she doesn’t want me after that, okay. But ten years ago I listened to people who weren’t her, and I refuse to do that again.”
Jordan and I stand there, staring at each other. Listening, waiting, hoping. At least I’m hoping. And by the twinkle in her eye, I’m positive she is too.
Ten seconds. Twenty. Then…
“Jor, let him in,” a nasally voice says from inside.
Relief sweeps through me, despite Hailey sounding like she’s been crying, and my shoulders sag with the feeling for one quick moment. My job isn’t done, though, and I take in a breath, stand up straight, and hold my head high as Jordan pushes the door open with her body. She gives me a small smile and nod, then masks it as she looks into the room at Hailey on the bed.
It’s mostly dark in the room, save for the light coming through the window to the left of the door that has a curtain covering it. The darkness must be helping with her concussion. It pulls at my heart to think about that, and for a second, I wonder if this should wait. She does need the rest.
“Don’t ask about her mom. That’s my only stipulation” Jordan says to my right, quietly enough I don’t think Hailey would be able to hear her. Then, louder, she adds, “Yell if you need to kick him out. I’ll station Nate at the door.”
I glance in her direction and narrow my eyes almost imperceptibly. She winks at me, gives me a pat on the bicep, and then slips past me. It makes me wonder how much she knows—how much Nate told her about Hailey and me. And what the two of them schemed up while I was locked away and Hailey was dealing with god knows what.
Leaving the door open a crack, mostly to give Hailey the peace of mind that she could yell, and someone would hear her if she needed to, I reach into my back pocket and take out my wallet.
“If your plan to fight for me includes throwing money at me, I’ll tell you right now it’s not going to work,” she says quietly, a hint of a smile in her voice.
When I look up after fishing something out of one of the pockets, the smile I heard is pulling at one corner of her lips, but when our eyes meet it vanishes. As though she doesn’t want me to see that me being here makes her happy. A wall. Nothing huge, but still there, ready to be erected with bricks forever, or ready to be ripped apart for eternity.
I’m going to shred the shit out of it.
“I thought you were done talking.” Raising an eyebrow in question, I move towards the bed. She bites down on her lip, and I can’t help but chuckle in response. “Good. Listening is what I need from you right now anyway.”
When I reach the side of her bed, I sit down on it, facing her, our thighs touching, though hers is covered by a blanket. She sits up a little, surprise making her eyes widen. This close I can see how rough she looks. Sallow skinned, red-rimmed and puffy eyes. She’s been crying, and it makes me want to rip the world apart to find whatever has been making her feel like that so I can destroy it with my bare hands.
“A little arrogant of you to think you can stroll in here and crowd me,” she huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. They fall a second later, with a small wince, and I look down at her hands in her lap, an IV sticking out of one.
Shoving back the anger that I’ll have to deal with one day, I flash her a dimpled smile. “Well, you once told me I make the ice melt, and I figure the closer I am, the quicker that happens.”
Hailey turns her head, a smile breaking out across her lips before she shakes her head, takes a breath, and turns back to me, the smile disappearing again. “Luke, I broke?—”
I silence her with a thumb to her lips, my hand cupping her cheek, imploring her not to say another word. “Please, just listen. Two minutes. And then you can say whatever you want. Build an ice castle to keep me out, or let it all turn into a brilliant, beautiful ocean for us to navigate together.”
She lifts an eyebrow in response but remains silent.
Dropping my eyes from hers to the necklace still around her neck, my hand follows, and I gently pick up the pendant. Even years from the day I gave it to her, it’s still just as pretty as it was back then. Like her. “I could only buy a promise ring that day because I’d spent almost everything I had on this. I think I somehow infused my heart into it before I left, so that it would always stay with you, close to your heart because I never thought you’d take it off. It would always be here for safe keeping. Everlasting, never ending.”
Hailey lifts her hand to mine, her fingers sliding into my palm, forcing me to let go of the necklace which drops back to her chest. Our eyes meet as I take her hand, bringing it to my lips, pressing a soft kiss to her wrist, the heel of her hand, her palm. When her hand is fully open, I turn it over and place the object I fished out of my wallet into it. Her eyes dart down, and her gasp is audible as she realizes what it is.
The promise ring.
“Just like my promise to you. Everlasting. Never ending. You had my heart in that necklace, this ring had the rest of me. And both belong to you.” I close her fingers around the simple yellow band with one tiny gemstone that isn’t a diamond but sparkles anyway. “That’s as true now as it was back then. This kind of love comes around once in an eternity, I swear, and I’m never going to let it go. Even if you let me go.”
Lifting my free hand, I push her hair back behind her ear, my thumb brushing across her freckles, catching one tear that slides down her cheek. “I never stopped loving you, and never will. You are everything to me, Freckles, and I will spend the rest of my life making up for not breaking your door down ten years ago, and for keeping the truth from you about what happened in Waco, if you’ll let me. And if you need time, I’ll give it to you. I just need to know if one day you’ll have me.”
Her mouth opens to speak, but then she shuts it again, looking at me expectantly.
I can’t help but laugh. “I think my two minutes are probably up.”
She smiles with a chuckle of her own, but then sobers, tilting her head into my touch. “I was going to jump out of a plane.”
Of all the things that could have come out of her mouth, that’s not one that I saw coming. “What?”
“When I saw Dr. Rinkins earlier—god, that was only today, how was that only today?—I didn’t know how I was going to make up for breaking your heart, but I felt like I had to do something big,” she explains, reaching up to take my hand at her face in her free one, lowering them to her lap with our others. Tears well in her eyes, her voice dropping lower with her words as emotion thickens her throat. “So, I thought what better way to show you I love you than jumping out of a plane. Doing something that scares me to death. ‘Cause you make me brave, and you make me want to conquer every fear I’ve ever had.”
I squeeze her hands. “You know a simple ‘I love you, Dimples’ would have sufficed, right?”
“No, Luke, it wouldn’t,” she says, shaking her head. “Because it doesn’t even touch how I feel about you, or what you mean to me. You deserve so much more than a simple ‘I love you’ even though that is true. You deserved a phone call ten years ago, even if it would have been me screaming at you. And I should have been more understanding that not everything from our pasts can be shared overnight.”
“I should have told you about Priscylla, Hailey. As soon as you saw that text. I was so dang scared you wouldn’t believe me, though, after everyone turned against me in Waco, and I’d just gotten you back?—”
She interrupts, pulling our hands to her chest, squeezing mine. “I forgive you. But can we promise each other no more secrets?”
I turn her one hand over, and she opens her fingers to reveal the ring still sitting in her palm. Taking it, I hold it between us, gazing into her eyes. “I promise.”
A smile dances softly across her lips as she flips her hand over and holds it out to me. As I slide the ring onto her finger, she repeats, “I promise.”
Taking her face in my hands, I lean forward, closing the distance between us and capturing her lips with mine, sealing the promise with a kiss.
We spent some time kissing, but then I urged her to rest, and laid down beside her, gathering her in my arms so she could use me as a pillow. It took less than a minute for her breathing to change and sleep to claim her.
Or drugs. While she was out, Jordan snuck in for a second to check on things, making a comment that it was about time Hailey gave into the drugs for some much needed rest. Apparently, she’d been forcing herself to stay awake, though how she fought it, I haven’t a clue.
She woke up ten minutes ago when the doctor was in to check on her. Hailey officially told him she wanted out of the hospital for the night, and while he urged her to stay, he agreed to release her into my care. As long as she knew the rules which included no driving, and a follow up appointment with her regular physician. Now we’re just waiting for the paperwork to get out of here. That, and we need to wait for Nate and Liam to drive my Jeep over from the firehouse since I originally came with Nate.
“Luke?” Hailey says softly.
I press my lips to the top of her head. “Yeah, Freckles?”
“I don’t think I have a house left,” she sighs.
My fingertips run up and down her arm, and I smile to myself. “Yeah, you do. It’s at the top of Grouse Road and it’s one of your favorite places in all of Bear Creek. A place you wished you lived, and now that wish is coming true.”
She turns her head up to me, an eyebrow raised. “I can’t tell if that’s your way of asking me to move in, or just an offer to stay.”
I angle my head, brushing my lips across hers. “Let it be whatever you want it to be. We can go as fast or slow as you want, Freckles. Either way, I’m all in.”
“Even if I’m broken?” she asks, easing back from me, chewing on her bottom lip.
Frowning, I bring my hand to her face, brushing some of the hair from it behind her ear. It falls back in her face a second later, so I push it away again. “Baby, you’re not broken.”
“I don’t know if I ever want to talk to my mom again,” she confesses on a quick exhale, like she can’t get the words out fast enough, or like they might burn her if they stay in her mind.
I’ve wondered about that while Hailey was asleep. Jordan gave me that one condition not to ask about her mom, which told me that something must have happened. The fact that Debra was by Hailey’s side before I got hauled off, and she hasn’t been here since I showed up again, was also a major clue that something must have gone down. In time I’ll learn, but there’s no need to push for the answers now.
“You don’t have to. You don’t owe her anything, Hailey,” I tell her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “And you don’t need to make any decisions about it today, either. It’ll come in time.”
She curls back into me, resting her head on my chest, fitting perfectly against my body and beneath my arm wrapped around her. I settle back in, my fingers resuming their gentle caress when she lifts her hand and holds it up in front of us. My eyes land on the ring around her finger, and there’s nothing but a smile on my face seeing it there.
“I think I really like having your ring on my finger,” she murmurs.
Dang. If that doesn’t make my heart want to explode straight out of my chest so it can sing to the entire world about how the prettiest girl around likes my ring. My mark.
“One day, when you’re ready, we’ll upgrade it,” I say, reaching out and pressing my fingers beneath hers. Hers curl around mine, and I pull her hand closer to get a better view of the ring.
“I don’t know. I like this one and what it represents.”
“You can wear them both, then.”
She tilts her head up to me, and despite looking tired and a tad drugged, she smiles brighter than I think I’ve ever seen. “Thank you for coming back to me.”
“I told you we’d be together again one day. I could never get over you, Freckles. Never-ending is just that.”