30. Eli
Eli
Thank fuck being a firefighter and familiar face around the hospital gives you certain perks.
When I walked into the ER with Kendra, nobody told me I couldn’t be with her after I simply said she was mine.
I claimed her, and that was all the staff needed to know.
Does that work everywhere? Probably not.
Do I give a fuck? Not a single one. Right now all that matters is that I get to be with my woman, where she asked me to be.
The doctors and nurses worked in a choreographed whirlwind, assessing and diagnosing Kendra.
Every word felt like a punch in my own gut as they listed off all her obvious injuries and the suspected ones.
I wanted to fight them when they had to wheel her away from me to get scans and X-rays, but they told me I couldn’t be in those rooms anyway .
. . that they would bring her back soon.
I knew they were right and that I was possibly turning into a bit of an overprotective caveman, but I couldn’t help it.
As I watched the clock tick off our separation minute by minute, there was a knock at the door and Danny McEntire, our friend and Fox Grove’s newest appointed police detective, came in.
I had just seen him a few hours ago at the wedding, toasting our friends and having fun.
Now we both looked at each other somberly, and he clasped a strong, reassuring hand on my shoulder.
“Hey, man,” I say in a voice that doesn’t sound like my own.
“Damn, Eli. Are you okay?”
“I am going to kill that fucker, I swear to God, Danny.” I growl, hands fisting.
“Alright, I am gonna let you have that one off the record. But you can’t say shit like that to me.
Seriously. I know you’re pissed, but you are not gonna do that.
You are gonna let me do my job, and you just take care of your friend and your baby, okay?
” His stern voice helps the anger clouding my mind recede some.
“It’s my fault. I never should’ve let Kendra go home with him.” I swipe the tears from my cheeks that I have no chance of holding back anymore, and Danny pulls me into a hug.
“This is not on you, Eli. I have officers going out right now to arrest Bennett Cross. There’s no way he is going to get away with this. Once Kendra’s awake she can give us more details.” He pulls back and locks eyes with me, giving me a look that says more than any other words can.
A nurse rushes into the room; I can’t remember her name, but she was here when we brought Kendra in. “You’re Kendra Powell’s family, correct?”
“Yes,” I say without hesitation.
“Okay, sir. Her scans indicate that she has a ruptured spleen and has internal bleeding. She is being prepped for emergency surgery right now. I can take you to that waiting area if you will follow me.” She holds her hand out gesturing for me and Danny to follow her out into the hallway.
Before I let myself collapse because of all this, break down right on the hospital floor, I feel Danny’s hand on my back, guiding me behind the tall, raven-haired nurse. Once we get to the waiting area of the surgical floor, she assures us that we will be given updates when possible.
“Have you called anyone else?” Danny asks as we sit down together in matching stiff blue-and-green-patterned chairs meant for much smaller humans.
“No. Shit, Danny. Who am I gonna call right now? It’s Rem and Lainey’s fucking wedding night. After all that they have been through I don’t want to put this on them, tonight of all nights. I will pop their bubble of bliss in the morning.” I shake my head at him.
“Yeah, fuck.”
“My mom has Wren, thank God. But I’m not gonna to call her until I know they’re awake.
I will need her to keep Wren for I don’t know how long.
And then that makes me feel guilty too, being away from my baby girl.
This was my second full night away from her.
” I run my hands through my messy hair and yank off my suit coat, which has Kendra’s blood all over it. Fuck.
“You are where you need to be, your mom will understand. And she can bring Wren up here later to see you. You are doing an awesome job with her. You’re a really great dad, Eli.
” The sincerity from one of my oldest friends cracks my chest. Everyone knows me as a fuckboy, not a father.
Nobody ever thought this would be my path, least of all me.
It’s been at least an hour and we are still waiting for an update when I hear a man’s voice at that nurse’s station.
“I’m here for Kendra Powell.” He’s older, with thick, lighter brown hair that is going grey at the temples, a stocky build on his probably five-foot-ten frame. His worried blue eyes are a mirror to the ones I see on Kendra every day.
The nurse gives him the same information—that Kendra is still in surgery and they will give an update when they can.
“Mr. Powell?” I inquire as Kendra’s dad makes his way over to me and Danny.
“Yes?” Weariness and worry etch every wrinkle and crease on his face as he cautiously shakes my outstretched hand.
“I’m Eli Hargrove, Kendra’s neighbor and . . . friend.” It feels like a lie. I’m more, want to be more. But what the hell am I supposed to say that’s any different in this moment? Kendra’s dad narrows his eyes as I continue, “And this is Detective Danny McEntire.”
“I’m Max Powell, Kendra’s dad. The hospital called and said that she was brought in after an accident and was in surgery?
What happened? She was at the wedding tonight?
I just talked to her this morning.” The tears forming in his eyes and the quivering in his questions make me want to run from having this conversation.
I don’t want this man to know what horrors his daughter went through tonight.
Thankfully, it’s Danny that speaks first.
“Mr. Powell,” he begins, but Kendra’s dad holds up a hand.
“Max, please, call me Max.”
“Okay, Max. Well, Kendra was at the wedding tonight. She left with her date, Bennett Cross. He took her home, and a couple hours later Eli found her in the living room of her home. She was alone and severely beaten.” Max stumbles to the nearest chair, collapsing into its hard embrace, and I drop down in the chair next to him.
“I called an ambulance, and we got her here as fast as we could. They said she has a ruptured spleen and internal bleeding. That’s what she is in surgery for right now. We haven’t had any updates yet though,” I explain.
“My little girl,” Max whimpers and buries his face in his hands.
Danny exchanges a glance with me, not sure what we should do.
“Eli,” Max says, “thank you, thank you for finding her. For getting her here. God, I can’t even think about what would have happened if . . . I guess for this I can forgive you for breaking her heart all those years ago.” I gape at him and Danny gasps in surprise.
Welp, I guess the cat’s coming out of the freaking bag tonight.
“I’m so sorry, Max. For everything. But I promise, I will never hurt her again. I will never let anyone else hurt her again.” Max takes in my words with the scrutiny of a loving father, something I never experienced myself but hope to provide for Wren.
“I believe you, son.” He pats my hand as tears cloud my vision.
A man has never called me that word, ever.
Even the years my father was around, it was not a title or a tie to me that he claimed with any kind of pride.
He snapped his fingers at me in irritation and called me boy or my name.
But here was Max, saying son so casually, and yet with complete sincerity.
It was embedded with the forgiveness he was issuing me for hurting his daughter all those years ago.
Forgiveness, that in my eyes, I still needed to earn.
Several cups of shitty hospital coffee that Danny kept supplying for us later, a doctor stepped through the double doors and called for Kendra’s family. Max and I both jumped to our feet.
The older, short Black man with a mahogany complexion pulls the scrub cap scattered with stars from his head and shakes our hands.
“I’m Dr. Allen and am in charge of your daughter’s care,” he says with a deep, exhausted sigh.
“Well, Ms. Kendra is out of the worst of it for now. We got in there and it was a lot of damage. The spleen was totally ruptured and there was a significant amount of internal bleeding. Thankfully, she was brought in to us in time to get her to my OR so fast.”
“When can we see her?” Max asks.
“She is in recovery now, so we can bring two people back at a time in a few minutes.”
“What about her other injuries?” I ask.
“Yes, Kendra also suffered two broken ribs, a break to her left ulna. It was a clean break from what the X-ray showed, which was fortunate. She won’t need surgery, just a cast for probably six to eight weeks.
But our ortho doc will be in to follow up with that just to be sure.
” Max and I nod along with the information being thrown at us.
Dr. Allen continues, “She has a lot of bruising, a split lip, and we believe a Grade 3 concussion, but it’s of course hard to say until Kendra wakes up and is able to answer some questions for us. ”
Danny walks up and introduces himself, having been off to the side listening and taking notes. “I’m sorry, sir, have to ask, given the nature of this case and my investigation. Was there any indication of sexual assault?”
I suck in a sharp breath. That is something I should have thought of, but my mind was so focused on all her other injuries I didn’t even consider that Kendra could have suffered even further trauma at the hands of that sick motherfucker.
“No, Detective, thankfully there was no indication of that,” Dr. Allen says, shaking his head.
Thank. Fuck.
“I am going to head back to the station, okay? I’ll come back here in a few hours to check in, and hopefully Kendra will be awake and able to tell me what happened.” Danny hugs me, shakes hands with Max, and leaves.
I put my hand on Max’s shoulder, giving him some silent support the way Danny did for me as we follow Dr. Allen down the quiet hallways to the room Kendra is in.
Max’s body starts to tremble as we take in his daughter on the hospital bed.
She looks so small. Her face is a map of trauma and bruises—nasal cannula for oxygen snug under her nose.
The beautiful blue eyes that normally spark with sass and confidence are swollen shut.
Kendra’s shiny blonde hair looks dull and flat.
Her left arm is wrapped in a pink cast. I wonder if a nurse or someone picked it for her because of the pink in her hair?
An IV is placed in her right arm, but her hand is above the blankets and facing upward, like she is waiting.
I immediately stride over to her bedside and slip my hand into hers.
It’s warm and reassuring. Not touching her right now is impossible.
I would climb into the bed and hold her if it were possible, but I know that would just further her pain.
I settle for sitting as close to her as I can at her bedside in another stiff chair.
Max pulls up a matching chair on the other side of Kendra’s bed and looks at me seriously. “You really do care for my little girl, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir. I do.” I don’t shy away from the eye contact, needing him to know that I am a man now, not some panic-stricken boy, scared and unsure of his feelings.
“I don’t know all the details of what happened between you two that summer.
Her nana was the one that shared some with me, thought I should know before she died since it was just the three of us, and Kendra had confided in her.
All I do know is she came back brokenhearted and was never quite the same.
She lost part of herself, and I can’t help but wonder if that part was you. ” Max looks back at Kendra in thought.
“Kendra knocked me on my ass back then. Hell, still kind of does now.” Max chuffs and looks back to me.
“I didn’t have a good example of what a man should be to his family, how he should love a woman.
I have a great mom and three little sisters.
But . . . my own father left us all when I was eleven. ”
Shaking his head, Max says, “I’m so sorry, Eli.”
“That summer, when Kendra told me how she felt, I was terrified. I figured it was in my DNA to ruin every woman I touched. It made me think that I was not allowed to have a real relationship because I was my father’s clone.
So I’d never gotten close to anyone. Not until her.
I pushed her away thinking it was best for both of us.
” I look at Kendra and stroke her hand gently.
“But it took me becoming a father myself to understand just how selfish and horrible my own truly was, is, and how much he did not deserve that title.”
“He certainly does not, Eli. Any man that can walk away from his family, his wife and children that way? Well, he’s no man at all.
” Max is the kind of person every human aspires to be.
I can tell that Kendra never had to question his love for her, and God do I hope that Wren feels that way about me as she grows.
“I don’t know if Kendra will ever give me another shot, but if she does, I promise that I will take care of her heart this time. I understand what we both deserve, and I am not running scared anymore.”
“Only time will tell, but I think if you are as open with her as you just were with me, I bet you’ve got a pretty good shot, Eli . . . Now what was this about you being a father?” Max raises an eyebrow.
And so for the next several hours I tell Max all about Wren, my unusual path to fatherhood, my life as a firefighter. We talk and we bond, waiting for the woman we both love to wake up.