31. River
Chapter Thirty-One
RIVER
The sound of my phone ringing startled me from a fitful sleep.
I hadn’t slept well in weeks.
That’s your own fault, dummy.
After grabbing my cell, I sat up in bed, and saw the time read two-thirty in the morning. My pulse picked up speed.
This is not good.
“Hello.”
A chorus of sniffles echoed through the line. “R-River.” Lake’s voice, a mixture of tears and sorrow, managed to get out three more words that had my heart pounding and my body vaulting out of bed. “Huntley’s been hurt.”
“Where is he?” I yelled, panic ruling my tone, something that wasn’t fair to my sister, who was already upset. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scream in your ear.”
I was running for the bathroom to do what I needed as my sister replied, “It’s okay.”
“How bad is he and where is he at?” I tried asking, but it came out garbled as I rushed to brush my teeth before going to the bathroom and haphazardly throwing up my hair .
I was met with silence, but after a couple of seconds, Bronson was there, his voice sounding tired.
“Hey, River. Lake is worried and trying to get dressed so she handed the phone to me. She is taking it pretty hard that she wasn’t working tonight and not there to help him.”
Running back into my bedroom, I frantically threw on clothes when someone knocked on the door. I moved to open it and found both kids standing there staring at me with worried expressions.
“How bad is he and where is he at?” I asked again, trying to get an answer.
More worry filled Lennon and Bre’s eyes at my question.
“We don’t know much. One of the other guys called Lake to let her know that Huntley had been trapped under debris after a burning home crashed down on him and a young girl he rescued. He’s on his way to the hospital.”
I gasped, my knees almost buckling at his words.
“What hospital?”
After he gave me the information, I offered to have the kids go over and watch Stormi. By the look on their faces, they were torn. I knew they would want to help, but I also sensed that they wanted to join me too.
Suddenly my sister was back on the line. “Thank you for bringing the kids to watch Stormi. I would hate having to wake her.”
I mouthed for the kids to change and they took off toward their rooms. God they were amazing, always there for me and also now our group of friends.
“No thanks necessary. I’ll drop them off in a couple of minutes.”
“Do you want to ride with us?” she asked.
“No!” I said a bit too abruptly. Softening my tone I added, “I want to take my car so it’s there. I don’t know when I’ll come home. ”
“Okay, I understand. See you in a few.” Then she was gone.
I shoved down all the emotions threatening to weigh me down and walked out into the living room. I didn’t have to explain it to her, she would do the same thing if it was Bronson in the hospital.
She wouldn’t leave his side.
Just as I didn’t plan on leaving Huntley’s.
I was about to come unglued.
When I arrived at the hospital, Bronson had insisted on meeting me by my car to walk me in after he’d dropped his pregnant wife at the doors. She may have had a bit to go but that didn’t stop him from being overprotective already. It truly started the day she told him she was pregnant.
Anyway, he’d deemed it unsafe for me to make the trek alone. I proceeded to remind him that I’d taken care of myself for many years.
More than he or most of the others even knew.
“Huntley would never forgive me if anything happened to you,” he replied, hardheaded as always.
That stole the wind from my sails.
I wasn’t worried about myself; my only concern was for Huntley.
“He’ll be okay,” he told me with confidence, as if doing his best to reassure me.
With a shaky voice, I asked, “H-How can you be so sure?”
Bronson stopped suddenly there in the parking lot and I followed suit. He turned to me, his brows pinched together. “I know because the man is in love with you and he will fight to be here with you the same way I would for Lake.”
My heart tumbled over in my chest .
There’s no other option, he has to be alright.
My brother-in-law touched my arm lightly in comfort and then we began walking again.
As we entered the emergency waiting area, my eyes widened at the amount of people. I scanned the crowd and noticed ninety percent of the room was filled with friends waiting for Huntley.
Lake wandered over to me and wrapped me in a hug. “We’re still waiting to hear what’s going on,” she said softly next to my ear.
“Let's find you ladies a seat,” Bronson said from beside us.
My sister pulled back and let go of me. My feet didn’t budge as my brother-in-law gestured at a couple of open chairs. “There is no way I can sit down.”
I’d been tightly rolled up like a ball of yarn and I knew I’d unravel if I attempted to stop moving. “I can’t,” I told them in a slightly panicked voice. “He shouldn’t be alone.”
“He’s not alone, sweetie. They just took his mom back there when Bronson came to walk you in,” Lake assured me. “Right now, they will only let family see him.”
His mom?
Huntley had mentioned wanting me to meet his mom and at one time I’d thought I would. Then I’d gone and pulled away so I didn’t think that would ever happen.
This was not how I imagined being introduced.
I wish it was me with him.
In a broken voice, I insisted, “I need to see him.”
“I think I can help with that,” came a voice from behind me and I whirled around to find Ruby.
Looking at my friend, who was obviously working tonight judging by the scrubs she was wearing, my brows raised in question and hope flared inside me. “You can?”
“I thought it was only family right now? ”
I momentarily turned at my sister’s question, her face puzzled.
When I looked back at Ruby, she had a slight smile on her face. “A fiancée is considered family.”
“You sneaky dog,” Lake told her. Then she touched my arm just as Bronson had done moments earlier. “Go honey, see your man.”
“B-But, I’m n-not his—” I started to sputter but was cut off when Lake threw her hand over my mouth.
“Just go with it, sis. You want to see him don’t you?”
I nodded. I couldn’t believe Ruby lied to get me in, but I wanted to see Huntley more than I wanted my next breath, so I needed to shut up and go with it.
“Come on, I’ll show you to his room,” Ruby said. Then as the rest of the gang came to congregate around us, she told me that someone else would be out to talk to everyone.
When she started walking, I paused and looked around at everyone. I felt bad getting to go back when I knew they all wanted to see him, but Lake gave me an encouraging smile and I practically took off running to catch up with my friend.
“He’s banged up with some bruised ribs and a slight concussion, but he’s going to recover,” Ruby whispered as she looped her arm through mine. “If I’ve learned anything since meeting Lyric, it’s true love doesn’t come along often and when it does, it hangs on tight.”
My emotions bubbled up inside me with each step I took and tears pricked at the back of my eyelids. How was I going to hold it together when I saw him?
Ruby stopped in front of a closed door, dropped my arm and placed her hand on my shoulder. “Hold on even when it scares the ever-lovin' shit out of you.” She gestured to the inside of the room. “Now go see your guy.”
I nodded, then took a huge breath. “Thank you.”
“No thanks necessary, girlfriend. ”
Turning, I placed my hand on the door and slowly pushed it open just in time to catch a woman, who I assumed was his mother, saying, “Once you're released, you'll come home with me so I can take care of you.”
That yarn quickly began to unravel. Without thinking, and in a harsh tone, one that left no room for debate, I interjected, “No. He will be coming home with me .”
In the next second my world came crashing down around me and my heart flipped a million times over.
A woman—one that could only be Huntley’s mother since she was the only one allowed in prior to me—turned at my interruption and sharp tongue. This allowed me to see not only her but my guy too.
That’s when I fell apart completely.
I gasped at the sight of the woman and injured man staring at me, both with a look of shock. Huntley seemed to recover a bit faster than his mother and me, his lips tipping up in a small smile.
“Warrior. Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”
Oh my god, he could have died.
He could have died and I would have never gotten to tell him I love him.
Not able to hold anything in any longer, I burst into tears.
Then through blurry, watery eyes, I saw the woman approaching me as recognition seemed to dawn on her aged but still absolutely beautiful face.
It couldn’t be.
I must be hallucinating.
“Everything is going to be okay, sweet girl.”
I knew that voice.
It was the sound of an angel.
My angel.