Savor You (Fusion #5)(63)

“I was working in Olympia today, so I only had half as far to drive.”

“You still made good time,” Jake replies. “We probably don’t want to know how fast you were driving.”

“No,” Steph replies. “You don’t. Also, aren’t you Jake Knox?”

“This is my husband,” Addie says with a smile.

“It’s Jake Knox,” I reply. “She had a massive crush on you back in the day.”

“Hell, on this day,” Steph says and shrugs. “I’m happily married too, by the way, but yeah. Big fan.”

Jake grins, and just then the doctor comes through the double doors. She looks tired as she scans the waiting area.

“Mr. and Mrs. Palazzo?”

“That’s us.” Mia’s parents stand. Landon joins them, and the doctor approaches them.

“Do you want to go somewhere private to talk?” she asks.

“No,” Landon says. “Everyone here is family.”

The doctor nods. “I’m Dr. Miller, and I’m Mia’s physician today. Your daughter is very lucky. She was in a car accident, as you know. She rear-ended the car ahead of her at a high speed. The police estimate that she was going at around forty-five miles per hour.”

“Jesus,” Trevor mutters.

“Then, a man rear-ended her. He wasn’t going as fast, which is probably what saved her life. The car crumpled like an accordion, so the first responders had to cut her out of the car.

“We’ve done a CT scan and taken several X-rays. It appears that she has one broken rib, some bruising on her chest from the seat belt, and lacerations on her head where she hit the airbag. She has a concussion, which was concerning because we couldn’t get her to stay awake, but she seems to be doing better now.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Cami asks, holding on to Landon’s hand for dear life.

Steph is standing beside me, also holding on to my hand.

“Yes,” Dr. Miller says with a nod. “She’s going to be just fine. I think we’ll keep her here overnight, just so we can watch that concussion, but she’s going to make a full recovery.

“It’s going to take about thirty more minutes to get her settled in her room, and then you are all welcome to go in and see her. I would recommend no more than four of you at a time, as the room isn’t that big.”

She turns to leave, but then stops short and turns back. “I almost forgot. The baby is fine, too. She’s going to need to monitor things for a few weeks, but I don’t think there will be any trouble.”

She walks away, and I’m stunned.

“What baby?” Steph asks me.

“I have no idea,” I murmur. My God, is that what she was hurrying home to tell me? I look around and all eyes are on me, but there’s nothing that I can say, given that I simply don’t know.

Did she just find out today? Has she known for a while?

“What are you thinking?” Steph asks quietly.

“I don’t know what to think.”

I just shake my head at the others and sigh, then rub my hands over my face in frustration.

“I take it he didn’t know either,” Kat murmurs. I can hear other voices around me, but I’ve tuned them all out. All I know for sure is, the woman I love more than anything is lying in a hospital bed alone, that she’s apparently carrying a baby that I didn’t know about, and I can’t get to her.

“We’re going to go,” Addie says and everyone but Mia’s parents, brother, and Cami nod. “Now that we know she’s okay, we’ll go and come back later this evening or tomorrow morning. Just please keep us posted if anything changes.”

“We will,” Landon says. “Thanks for being here.”

I’m hugged and assured that everything is okay as they leave, but I barely feel it. I need to see Mia. I need to ask her a million questions.

Not even ten minutes later, a nurse comes out to escort us back to Mia’s room. Stephanie and I lag behind, entering the room last. Mia’s parents immediately rush to her and hug her, her mother crying.

“Oh, bambina,” she says. “You scared me. How are you? Do you need anything?”

Mia searches the room for me, and when her eyes meet mine, they soften, but she doesn’t ask for me. Instead, she just starts to talk about the accident.

“It was stupid. The guy changed lanes to move to a faster moving one, but I couldn’t see that traffic was stopped ahead of him. And that’s really all I remember.”

Her head is wrapped in gauze. Her arm is in a sling, and her white skin matches the sheets on the bed.

She’s hooked up to dozens of wires and monitors. Her heartbeat is thumping in the room.

“It was scary,” she whispers, and her mother hugs her again.

“I want to hear about this baby,” her father says. Mia’s eyes immediately fly to mine again, and she shakes her head.

“Not now.”

“Were you ever going to tell anyone?” Steph asks, her hands on her hips and her face a mask of pure anger. “Do you know how horrible it is that Camden found out this way?”

“Stop,” I say, holding on to her elbow to keep her from advancing on Mia. “This is not the time for this.”

“I know you’re hurt,” Steph continues. “And I’m so relieved that you’re going to be okay. But Mia, again? After everything you’ve been through with my brother, you’re going to do this to him again?”