Nate(90)

Duke blasted me with another condemning look, his mouth flat and thinning. “I’ll see you in court.”

He left, and I couldn’t stop the tear this time. It rolled down my face.

“We’ll get it all sorted.” The doctor tried to give me a reassuring grin, but it was falling flat, too. It didn’t reach his eyes. “When the paramedics brought you in, they told us it was an accident. That’s what the witnesses told them, so that’ll be in the report.”

Good.

I closed my eyes, feeling some relief.

Good.

I let all the tears fall.





50





Nate





“Does she know I’m coming?”

Aspen asked that after we both got into my vehicle. I’d just stowed her luggage in the back, and I began easing into the line of traffic leaving from picking up other passengers. It was lined back to back with cabs and vehicles. This airport was a mess, so it took a little before I could answer.

“No. I’m half considering putting you up in a hotel tonight, so when she sees you, it’ll be a surprise after the show tomorrow night.”

“I didn’t fly overseas to hang out in a hotel alone.”

I threw my sister a look. “Like you’re not going to crash the second you see a bed?”

She huffed, folding her arms over her chest. “It’s the thought that I want to stay up as long as I can. I want to hug and cuddle with my niece. I want to love on her and play with all her toys with her, and I want to be the best aunt she’ll ever know.”

“I think you’re beat since Quincey’s her aunt.”

“Quincey’s her mother now, her second mother. I’m her aunt.”

Nope. She was right. She was totally right.

I threw her a grin just as my phone started ringing. “I love ya, sis.”

She reached for my phone, grinning back at me before frowning. “It’s an unknown number.”

I frowned. I started to ignore it, but there was a nagging.

It was faint and in the back of my mind.

I’d had this feeling before.

“Answer it.”

She did, hitting the speaker button.

I said, “Hello?”

“Is this Nate Monson?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m a nurse at Seattle Hospital, and there’s a patient who wanted us to call you—”

An alarm spiked in me.

I gripped the steering wheel hard. “Who?”

“Quincey Royas.”

The blood drained out of me.

Fear flooded me, and I almost jerked the wheel to the side.

The world was tilting upside down, swinging around.

I’d never had this feeling before.

No. I had. One other time, a time that I never wanted to remember.

Please, God. Please not that. Not. That.

Aspen gasped. “Is she okay?”

I love her.

I loved Quincey.

If I hadn’t known before, I knew now. It rose in me, taking me over, and it was pounding through every cell in my body.

I loved her, and now I knew I couldn’t lose her.

I wouldn’t lose her.

Please, God.

“She is alive, yes.” From the nurse.

That was some relief. Some. Not enough.

“What happened?”

“I’m not at liberty to update you on Miss Royas, but she was very adamant that I call you. Please come, and by the time you get here, we’ll have the appropriate paperwork filed so you can be looped in.”

Looped in.

I’d be looped in, you bet your ass.

I growled but hit the signal because the exit for the hospital was clear fucking the other way. “I’ll be there. Get that paperwork done.”

“Wait.” Aspen touched my arm. “Who’s her emergency contact? Would she have gotten that updated?”

Jesus.

Christ.

I was praying as I asked the nurse, “Did you call her father?”

She hesitated before saying, “Just get here.”

Get there.

Yes.

That was all I was doing.

I was going to get there, now.

Aspen was on my phone, but her one hand came out to squeeze my arm. “She said she’s alive. She’s asking for you. Those are two good signs. Let’s go from there. Now.” She held my phone up. “Who do I need to call?”

“Everyone.”

I wanted a fucking army there for her.

My parents. Stephanie and Guy.

Her siblings.

My family.

My friends.

Her friends. I wanted the goddamn cavalry to arrive because they called Duke. I knew they did the instant Aspen asked.

So he was there or had been there.

She was there, helpless to him.

She’d be lying in a hospital bed, needing me, and he would’ve walked in.

Torment slashed through me.

I just needed to be there.

I had to protect her, shield her…

I had to love her.

I had to tell her that I loved her.

I wasn’t aware that Aspen was holding my hand until she squeezed it, using her other hand to go through my phone. “She’ll be okay.” A pause, her voice dipping low. “It’s not like with Owen.”