“Don't,” she says, “don't try and imagine any of it. But can we please listen to some music? Because I haven't listened to any music in four years.”
“What kind of music do you like?”
“I'm not picky.”
“How about the radio?” I turn it on and she begins to turn the knob, scrolling her way through the static until the first station clearly comes through. The song, of course, is another burst of destiny. It's the Beatles. “Here Comes The Sun.”
She begins singing along, smiling. Laughing, her head falling back on the headrest. Her fingers reach for mine and they lace together.
I drive down that mountain light as a feather.
“Tell me about Home,” she says. “It might make me less nervous to go back to civilization.”
“Fuck, I didn’t consider that. Are you scared?”
“Yes,” she says gently. “But if we’re together, I will be less so.”
“Home has good restaurants, safe streets, festivals, and my family established the town back in 1910, if you can believe it. Home is about as good as any town in the world.”
“Have you been to many places in the world?” she asks.
“Honestly, no,” I chuckle. “I’ve never left the state.”
“Me either,” she says. “I want to see places, though.”
“Where do you wanna go first?”
“Somewhere that feels like a fairy tale. Like Iceland.”
“I can dig that.” I grin, looking over at this princess. “Hot springs. Hikes. You. Me.”
She laughs. “Wow, this is moving fast.”
I swallow. Lift her hand to my lips. Kiss her soft skin. “Yeah, I guess it is, isn’t it?”
I haven't felt this way in so long, since before Luke died, and I look over at her, thanking God she came into my life. I've known her for what? An hour, and already I know this woman is a woman I cannot live without.
At urgent care, things get complicated real fucking fast.
The moment the doctors understand who Prairie Jones is, they whisk her away.
Graham shows up—of course I already called him to tell him about the man Prairie killed up in the forest.
He finds me yelling at a nurse. “Let me be with her. Can’t you hear how upset she is?”
Prairie is hysterical because they won't let me go into the examination room with her because I’m not family.
“She'd calm down,” I tell my brother, “if they’d just let me go in there with her.”
Graham forces me away from the nurses’ station and leads me into the waiting room.
“Tell me everything that happened,” Graham says. “From the beginning.”
I tell him what I know, stressed the entire time because I know that Prairie is in another room being interrogated.
Graham's eyes search mine. “Rye, what's going on? You just met her. Why are you so protective?”
“I'm just... I'm really worried about her. I really care for her. She needs me,” I tell my brother.