“You’re awake!” I exclaim. “How long have you been awake for?”
“Not long… You looked so peaceful sleeping.”
“You should have woken me.” I haven’t left her side since that bastard hit her with his car. I was on my way back from lunch with James and our senior management team when I saw Hailee—and then the car. I roared her name so loudly that the entire street froze, but it didn’t stop the car from plowing into her. I ran to her as fast as I could, the fastest I’ve ever moved in my life. My heart stopped, and as I fell to my knees beside her, fear unlike anything I’ve ever experienced had me in a chokehold—the fear of losing the love of my life.
Someone had the presence of mind to call an ambulance, and I suspect it was James because I remember seeing his mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear a word of it. My mind had deserted me, hiding from thewhat ifsthat threatened to overwhelm me—what if I hadn’t been a coward, what if I didn’t let her go, what if she… dies.
She looked peaceful with her eyes closed, as if she were simply asleep. I wanted to cradle her head in my lap, but I was too afraid to touch her, terrified of making her injuries worse. I haven’t left her side since they lifted her into the ambulance.
I must have nodded off while waiting for her to regain consciousness. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been hit by a bus and not by a Ford,” she replies with a chuckle.
“You’re incredibly lucky. Other than a broken leg and a concussion, you’re relatively unscathed. I saw the whole thing; you have no idea how close you came to dying.” My voice trembles slightly as I recall the terrifying moment.
She looks down at her leg in the cast. “That’s all, a broken leg?” she asks.
“And a concussion,” I add.
“I feel a hell of a lot worse than that.”
“Your body’s been battered and bruised. It’ll take time for you to heal.”
“What on earth happened? Why did he try to run me over?”
I rub my hand over my mouth and chin and exhale heavily. “He didn’t. The man driving was having a heart attack.”
“For fuck’s sake,” she mutters, closing her eyes briefly then instantly opening them again. “Is he okay? Did he survive?”
I shake my head.
“Shit.” She winces. Her eyes suddenly widen. “Oh my God, I totally forgot what I was doing there. I was on my way to see you!”
“Me?”
“Yes! That’s right… I was on my way to warn you that your merger was going to fall through, because I found your mole. It’s Piper!”
“How doyouknow that?”
“Wait, you knew already?”
“Yeah, we figured out she was being paid by Mark. We were going to trap her at the merger. How the hell did you know?
“I saw her having lunch with my mother, Rachael, and her sister—Maddy. My bitch of a mother must have been behind the whole thing, including the pregnancy test.”
Un-fucking-believable. I shake my head.
“To be honest, I hadn’t fully realized how unstable Rachael was,” I admit. “She came to me with a marriage proposal, suggesting that we make it a business arrangement, and offered her father’s company as collateral. I refused, of course. Then she sweetened the deal by offering up the mole in my company. So I played dumb and pretended to accept, and she gave up Piper just like that.” I snap my fingers.
“Oh my God,” she murmurs.
We lapse into a comfortable silence, both lost in our own thoughts as we process everything. But I don’t want to waste any more time.
“I missed you, gorgeous,” I whisper, picking up her hand and pressing my lips to her skin, lingering for a moment to breathe in her scent. “Watching you get hit by that car, I was petrified I had lost you before I even had the chance to have you. I’ve tried to move on, I really have. But I couldn’t. The thought of being with anyone else made my skin crawl. I’ve wasted a lot of time running from my past, and I don’t want to waste another second. I’m done running. And I’m done pushing you away.” My voice breaks. “If you’ll still have me, and I’m not too late.”
Her eyes well with tears, but she graces me with one of her heart-stopping smiles.
“You’re not too late. I’ve been waiting for you.”
