44
Gordon sat by Talia’s bed holding her hand.
He refused to leave her side.
The hospital room was too white, too quiet, too full of machines making small sounds that kept him from losing his mind and pushed him closer to it at the same time. A steady beep. A soft hiss. A mechanical rhythm that said she was alive because she could not tell him herself.
Talia lay still beneath thin hospital blankets, her curls gathered away from her bruised face, one leg elevated and wrapped, one wrist secured, her shoulder immobilized. There were tubes, wires, monitors, and more medical words than Gordon ever wanted to hear again in his life.
He held the hand they would let him hold.
Her left one.
The one without the broken wrist.
Her fingers felt warm, but too still.
He rubbed his thumb gently over her knuckles. “I’m here.”
She did not move.
“I’m here, Talia.”
Still nothing.
He swallowed hard and lowered his head until his forehead nearly touched the back of her hand.
Earl had stayed with him as long as he could.
The older man had sat in the chair against the wall, cane propped beside him, his face drawn with worry and exhaustion.
He had called Brad twice, Luke once, and Elise more times than Gordon knew.
He had asked questions Gordon could not think to ask and remembered answers Gordon heard but could not hold onto.
Then Eli had arrived.
Gordon had not known Elise sent him until Eli walked into the room with a duffel bag in one hand and a cooler in the other. His face was serious in a way Gordon rarely saw.
“Rose is with Elise,” Eli said before Gordon could ask. “She told me to get here.”
Gordon nodded.
Words were hard.
Eli looked at Talia, and pain moved across his face. “Lord.”
Earl sighed from his chair. “They got her stabilized.”
“Good.” Eli set the cooler down and looked at Gordon. “Elise sent clothes. Food too.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I figured you’d say that.”
“I’m not leaving her.”
“Nobody asked you to.”
Gordon looked at him then.
Eli’s voice stayed calm. “You can eat sitting right there. You can change when you’re ready. But Elise told me to make sure food got into you, and I value my life.”
Earl grunted. “Smart man.”
Gordon did not want food.
Food felt impossible.
But Eli stood there with that quiet, patient look, and Earl looked like he might drag himself out of the chair and force the issue if Gordon refused.
So Gordon ate.
A few bites at first. Then more because his body remembered it needed fuel even if his heart wanted nothing. Elise had packed sandwiches, fruit, bottled water, and cookies wrapped in foil like she could send comfort across county lines and make it obey.
Eli stayed until Gordon finished some of it.
“You need anything?” Eli asked.
Gordon looked at Talia. “I need her to wake up.”
Eli’s throat worked.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he said.
Gordon nodded.
Eli took Earl back to the ranch after that, though Earl did not want to go. Gordon heard him grumbling all the way to the hallway, telling Eli he did not need to be handled like old furniture. Eli answered that old furniture had better sense than to argue with Elise’s orders.
Then they were gone.
And Gordon was alone with Talia.
Alone with the machines.
Alone with everything the doctors had told him.
A broken leg.
A dislocated shoulder.
A broken wrist.
Bruises. Cuts. Dehydration.
And the worst of it, the thing that had made the doctor’s voice change.
A severe head injury.
They had placed her in a medically induced coma to give her brain time to rest and heal. They could not say how long they would need to keep her that way. They could not say what would happen when they brought her out of it.
If they brought her out of it.
No.
Gordon shut his eyes.
Not if.
When.
But the doctor had been careful. Too careful. He had said there was swelling. Trauma. Uncertainty. He had said they were monitoring pressure and watching for signs of improvement. He had said she was young, strong, and that those things mattered.
Then he had said the rest.
She might not wake up the same.
She might have memory issues.
She might have difficulty speaking or walking or understanding parts of her life. She might need rehabilitation. She might need full-time care. She might need help with everything, depending on what damage remained.
If she woke.
Gordon had almost hated him for that if.
Now he sat with her hand in his and stared at her face.
“You hear me?” he whispered. “You don’t worry about any of that. You wake up however you wake up. I’ll be here.”
The machines answered for her.
Hours blurred.
A nurse came in. Checked monitors. Adjusted something. Gave him a sad smile that made him want to punch the wall and thank her at the same time.
He did neither.
He held Talia’s hand.
Sometime later, footsteps sounded in the hallway, rushed but controlled. Gordon looked up as Luke and Edye entered the room.
They looked like they had ridden straight out of the cattle drive and into his nightmare.
Luke’s jeans were dust-streaked. His shirt was wrinkled, his jaw dark with stubble, his hat in his hand. Edye looked pale beneath the determined composure she wore like armor. Her hair was pulled back, but loose strands had escaped around her face. Her eyes went first to Talia.
Then to Gordon.
“Oh, sweetheart,” she whispered.
Gordon stood because he thought he should.
Edye crossed the room and pulled him into her arms before he got all the way upright.
He broke.
There was no warning.
No chance to brace himself.
One moment he was standing there, hollow and shaking, and the next his face was buried against Edye’s shoulder and he was crying like something inside him had finally cracked open.
Edye held him tighter.
“I’ve got you,” she whispered. “We’ve got you.”
Gordon tried to stop, but he could not.
“I thought she left,” he said, the words broken. “I thought she just didn’t care.”
“I know.”
“I let her leave.”
“Hush.” Edye rubbed a hand over his back. “You did not do this.”
“I should have gone after her.”
Luke stepped closer, his voice low and firm. “You could not have known.”
Gordon shook his head, but Edye held him until the worst of the shaking passed.
When he finally pulled back, ashamed and raw, Edye touched his face like he was one of her children. “Do not worry about what comes next alone. We will do whatever it takes to see her through this tragedy.”
His eyes filled again.
He hated that he cried more, but he could not help it.
He was not only afraid.
He was relieved.
Relieved because he believed her. Luke and Edye would help. Whatever Talia needed. Whatever care, money, doctors, time, recovery, or fight came next, they would not leave him standing there with empty hands.
Luke looked toward Talia, his face grim. “Tell us what you know.”
Gordon wiped his face and sat again, holding Talia’s hand because letting go felt impossible.
“Not much.”
Luke and Edye pulled chairs close, and Gordon told them what Brad had been able to learn from the sheriff and deputies who found her.
“She was found in an abandoned house off Highway Forty-Five,” Gordon said. “The house had been empty for years. The tornado sideswiped it two days ago, and there wasn’t much left standing.”
Edye pressed a hand to her mouth.
“They found her buried under debris. She was unconscious. No ID.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed. “No ID at all?”
“They found her car, or what was left of it, about a mile from where she was found.” Gordon looked at Talia’s face. “They think she got out of the car and made it to the house before the tornado hit.”
“Why was she in that area?” Edye asked softly.
Gordon shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Was she coming back to the ranch?”
The question hung between them.
Gordon stared down at Talia’s hand.
“I don’t know.”
But the possibility had lodged inside him from the moment Earl told him where she had been found. Highway Forty-Five could have taken her toward Sunset Springs. Toward the ranch. Toward him.
Or maybe she had gotten turned around in the storm.
Maybe she had been heading somewhere else.
Maybe he was grabbing for hope because the alternative hurt too much.
Luke leaned back, jaw tight. “Brad is still checking?”
“Yes. He said the sheriff there will send what they can. They’ve been busy with storm damage.”
Edye looked at Talia again. “Does she have family?”
Gordon’s grip tightened around Talia’s hand.
“A sister,” he said. “Serena. But Talia doesn’t know where she lives. She said Serena sends pictures from different places, but they’re not close.”
“No parents?”
“Both gone. Her father died overseas. Her mother died during Covid.”
Edye closed her eyes briefly.
“She has a friend,” Gordon added. “Best friend, I think. But I don’t know her name. I don’t know anything about her.”
Luke nodded, already thinking. “We’ll find out.”
Gordon wanted to ask how, but he did not have the energy.
The next days moved in strange pieces.
Eli came every day.
Sometimes twice.
He brought food from Elise and a change of clothes for Gordon.
Once he brought a thermos of coffee so strong it made Gordon’s eyes water.
Another time he brought a small bag of toiletries and said Rose had packed it, which explained why there was lotion, lip balm, and a toothbrush Gordon had not thought to ask for.
When Luke and Edye refused to return to the ranch, Eli started bringing enough for all three of them.
“Elise says if y’all keep living on vending machine crackers and hospital coffee, she will come here herself and fight a nurse,” Eli said, setting containers on the small table near the window.
Edye managed a tired smile. “She would too.”
“She already asked how strict security is.”
Luke looked toward the door. “Tell her to stay on the ranch.”
“I did.”
“And?”
Eli sighed. “She said she would consider it, which means no.”
Even Gordon smiled a little at that.
But most of the time, he sat beside Talia.
He talked to her when he could. Sometimes about the ranch. Sometimes about Malik stealing his hat. Sometimes about Nia telling everyone Gordon had swallowed a sad rock. Sometimes about the reading room he still planned to make in his cottage.
Once, in the middle of the night, when Luke and Edye were asleep in chairs nearby, Gordon leaned close to Talia and whispered, “I’m sorry I told you to go.”
Her face did not change.
“I didn’t mean it.” His voice broke. “I mean, I did then. I was hurt. But I don’t mean it now. Come back and yell at me for it.”
Nothing.
He pressed his lips to her fingers. “Please.”
The doctors ordered more scans on the third day Gordon spent at the hospital.
He stood in the hall while they took her away, feeling like his heart had been wheeled down the corridor with her. Luke stood beside him. Edye sat in a chair nearby, hands clasped so tightly her knuckles were pale.
When they brought Talia back, Gordon took his place beside her again.
Hours later, the doctor came in.
Gordon stood.
Luke stood too.
Edye rose more slowly, her eyes locked on the doctor’s face.
“The scans are encouraging,” the doctor said.
Gordon nearly buckled.
Luke’s hand came to his shoulder.
“What does encouraging mean?” Luke asked.
“The swelling has decreased. There are still areas we need to watch, but we believe it is appropriate to begin reducing the sedatives and see how she responds.”
Gordon’s pulse thundered in his ears. “She’s going to wake up?”
“We hope so,” the doctor said carefully.
“But I need all of you to understand, this may not happen immediately. She could take time to come around. Her responses may be limited at first. She may be confused. She may not remember the accident. She may have deficits we won’t fully understand until she is more alert. ”
“But the scans look better,” Edye said.
“Yes. They look good compared to where we were.”
Gordon held onto that.
Good.
He needed one good thing.
The doctor answered more questions, then left them with more waiting.
Waiting had become a country Gordon hated living in.
He sat down beside Talia again and held her hand. “You hear that? They’re going to let you wake up. Take your time, but not too much. I’m not patient.”
Edye released a shaky laugh behind him.
Luke exhaled slowly and sat.
They waited.
After a while, when the room had quieted again, Edye looked at Gordon.
“Did she ever mention any other family? Anyone who should be called?”
He shook his head. “Only Serena. Her sister. But like I said, she didn’t know where Serena was.”
“And the friend?”
Gordon rubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t know her name. She called Talia the morning after…” He stopped, glancing at Luke and Edye. “The morning Talia was at my cottage. I heard the phone ring before I left, but I didn’t know who it was.”
Edye’s expression softened, but she did not comment.
Gordon stared at the blanket.
Then another realization hit him.
“I didn’t call the Current.”
Luke looked at him.
“Her boss,” Gordon said. “Martin. She was supposed to hand in the article. She may have already done it, but nobody knows she’s here. Nobody knows what happened.”
Luke pulled out his phone. “I’ll handle it.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes,” Luke said, already standing. “I do.”
Gordon looked up at him.
Luke’s face held the same expression he wore when weather changed, fences broke, or someone he loved was in trouble.
Calm.
Focused.
Unmovable.
“Stay with her,” Luke said.
Then he stepped out of the room with his phone in hand.
Gordon looked back at Talia.
Her hand rested in his.
Warm.
Still.
Alive.
The doctors were lowering the sedatives. Soon, maybe, she would wake.
Maybe she would know him.
Maybe she would not.
Maybe she had been coming back to him. Maybe she had not.
Maybe everything between them was still broken. Maybe the accident had shattered every plan she had made.
Gordon bent over her hand and kissed her knuckles.
“I don’t care how you wake up,” he whispered. “I don’t care if you remember me right away. I don’t care if you need help for a month, a year, forever. I’m here.”
His eyes burned.
“I’m not leaving this time.”
The monitor kept beeping.
Talia slept on.
And Gordon held her hand like love, by itself, could become an anchor strong enough to guide her back.