He’s going to get through this, the doctor said. He’ll make a full recovery. I grasp that thin thread of hope like it’s the only thing keeping me from having a full-blown meltdown.
A few minutes later, the nurse takes us back out to the waiting room, letting us know they’ll tell us once they move Jacob to his inpatient room.
I take deep breaths, trying to hold it together, hanging onto the knowledge that he’s going to be all right. After he recovers and has physical therapy, he will be okay. It’s like a mantra I have to keep repeating to myself. Seeing him in that bed, bruised and broken, brings all the emotions rushing back from when Aria died. Guilt. Anger. Sadness. But at least this time, it’s not total despair.
He’s going to be okay.
I need a break.
“Can I take you up on that hotel room shower offer?”
She rubs my arm. “Of course.” Digging into her briefcase, she hands me the keys to her car, the confirmation number for the hotel reservation, and her wallet so I can check in for her, since she came straight to the hospital.
“I have a bag of clothes in the trunk,” she adds.
Thankfully, we are similar in size, except she’s a few inches taller, so I can borrow something to change into.
Of course, she’s staying at the nicest place in the immediate area, the kind with plush white robes, designer shampoo, and shiny marble floors in the lobby.
After I’ve showered, Mindy texts and asks me to bring back some dinner, so I grab some takeout for both of us on my way back.
I’m walking down the hallway toward the waiting room, food bags in hand, when I spot him, talking to Mindy.
My heart flips in my chest. I didn’t think he would be here until tomorrow at the earliest.
I’m a human statue in the middle of the hospital corridor. I drink him in. He’s wearing dark slacks and a button-up gray long-sleeved shirt. I’ve never seen him so dressed up, but his jawline is as scruffy as ever. Mindy’s nodding at something he’s saying, but then she sees me and smiles.
He catches the angle of her gaze, and his head turns in my direction.
Then he’s coming toward me, moving in space-eating strides, as quickly as I’m rushing toward him.
The takeout bags drop to the floor when we reach each other, and then his arms are around me. I hang on, relishing the feel of his warmth, his comfort, the way he rubs my back and murmurs in my ear.
Everything I’ve been holding back since the cop car pulled into the driveway, Jacob in the hospital bed, my guilt over arguing with him, worrying about the aftermath of all of this . . . I haven’t cried yet, not even when Mindy got here. But Archer’s mere presence knocks down the dam, a hurricane of pent-up chaos I’ve been keeping shuttered and locked inside. I can let go now. He’s here to hold me together even when I’m falling apart. He’s my safe space.
When I finally pull back to wipe my face on something other than his shirt, I’m full of remorse. “I’m so sorry about all of this.” I sniff and wipe at my cheeks with the back of my hand. “You missed out on your work and came all this way just for me to get snot all over you. I’m a mess.”
He smiles down at me, tucking some hair back behind my ear. “Life is messy sometimes. Whatever happens, we clean it up together.”
The words are enough to send a flood of emotion into my eyes again, and I hide my face against his chest. The shirt is already ruined, so I can’t make it worse.
How did he become so integral so soon?
How did he become someone who has my back no matter what? Someone who’s seen all my dark bits and accepted them? I know with every piece of my soul that I would do anything for him too.
This should be terrifying. I should run for the hills, but I could no sooner remove my heart from my body.
He’s the calm in my storm.
Jesus.
I love him.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Finley
We eat in the waiting room, the three of us. I share my dinner with Archer. Shortly after we finish, a nurse comes out to let us know Jacob is settled in his room.