Shell-shocked, Sam couldn't move from his chair. His family gathered around him, offering the silent support of their presence.
“Why don't you come on home with us tonight, I'll make some mac and cheese and you can sleep in your old room.” His mother patted his knee.
Just the idea of leaving Josie felt like an additional betrayal. Even if he couldn't be with her, he wouldn't let her be alone again. “No, I'm staying.”
It was close to midnight when the hospital waiting room's taupe walls starting closing in on Sam. His mother and father had nodded off in their chairs. Everyone else had gone home for some shuteye hours ago. A jittery edginess had invaded his muscles and he needed to move. He'd take a quick trip to the cafeteria and see if there was a vending machine or coffee.
The wide hallway was deserted at this hour, but a group of women gathered at the nurses' station at the end of the hall. A woman laughed and Sam recognized the voice. Keely dePaul was the only woman he knew with such a husky laugh, made even deeper by the cigarette habit she'd had since they went to high school.
“Hey, Keely, can I talk to you a minute?”
Her gaze soft with sympathy, the same look half the town had given him when Michael died, she nodded and took a few steps away from the other women dressed in light-blue scrubs.
“How you holding up?”
“I'll live.” He flinched at his own words. “I need to see her.”
Keely glanced around. “Follow me.”
Their steps echoed off the walls as he followed her down the hallway. She passed five doors before stopping and opening one.
Josie lay on the bed covered in blankets and heat lamps circled her bed, making the temperature in the room warmer than it was in the rest of hospital. A heart monitor beeped in a steady rhythm next to the bed. Her face was swollen, and thick white bandages wrapped around the fingers on her right hand. He took a step into the room, but Keely's hand on his arm stopped him from going in farther.
“You can't touch her. We've raised her temperature and given her pain medication, but her skin is very sensitive. Imagine the pain of the pins-and-needles feeling when your leg falls asleep and multiply it times a million.”
“Will she be okay?” Just asking the question was like standing on the edge of the world knowing a strong breeze could blow him over and into oblivion.
“She’s strong, Sam. Her heart is responding well and she reacted well to the rewarming protocol. I can't make any promises, but the outlook is good. Try not to wake her up.”
Focused only on the woman in the bed, Sam didn't even realize Keely was leaving until the door clicked shut behind him. For once, Josie looked small and fragile, lying on the bed connected to an IV and heart monitor. The sight nearly killed him.
It was more than just a sense of failed responsibility. It was love. He'd known there was something special about her the moment he sat down at that bar in Vegas. Smart, vivacious and sexy as hell, Josie woke him up from a life of settling for good enough and made him want to be a better man, the kind of man she deserved.
“I promise I'll do whatever it takes to be that man.” His voice cracked and he dropped his face into his hands.
Tears wet his palms, the first he'd cried since Michael had died. Instead of stuffing the emotion back into a dark box, he let it go and his shoulders shook under the weight of his silent anguish.
Chapter Nineteen
Soft beeps invaded Josie's subconscious, pulling her from the heavy sleep. She blinked her eyes open and white filled her view. How had the snow gotten into the cave?
Her vision focused and she realized the white above her were ceiling tiles. The cold that had seeped into her bones had disappeared, replaced by a lethargy that numbed her body.
Once the strong odor of disinfectant pierced her consciousness, she recalled waking up in the hospital yesterday. The forced-air warming blankets they'd used to defrost her and the desperate yearning for Sam had been the first things she’d felt upon regaining consciousness yesterday afternoon.
Early morning sunlight filtered in through the partially closed blinds. It danced in lines across the white blanket covering most of her body. A needle stuck out from a vein on top of her left hand, connected by a tu
be to a bag of clear fluids.
She turned her head and there was Sam.
He was asleep in a chair across the room, his body twisted into an awkward position with his chin resting on his chest. His broad shoulders rose and fell in a steady rhythm.
“Sam.” Her voice sounded raw as she called out to him.
His head snapped up, tawny eyes wide. For the span of three beeps from the EKG machine monitoring her heart, they just gazed at each other. Josie never thought she'd see him again and relief rushed through her.
He jumped up from his seat and knelt beside the bed. “Josie, I'm so sorry. I should have stopped them. I should have found you sooner.”