“Great engineering,” I laud them as they do their thing with the deftness and dexterity of brain surgeons.
Lawson glances over my shoulder. “Where’s your girlfriend?” I know he didn’t mean it as a swipe. Darcy has been hanging out here so much he’s probably deduced this to be a fact.
“Home with family. We’re just friends.”
Rush glances at me before getting back to the all-important task at hand. “You’ve just come to that conclusion? Are you sticking with it this time?”
“Yes.” I step in toward him. “And I’m sticking with my buddies, if you’ll have me.” I knock Rush’s knee out from behind. “I’m serious. I’m not loving the freeze-out.”
“Then you shouldn’t freeze people out.” He cuts another glance my way, this time far more serious. “You realize I’m talking about Ava, right? She’s hurting—and you, my friend, put that hurt there.”
“Nobody asked her sister to shove mine off a cliff.”
“Damn right, no one asked.” He sets a can down with just enough vigor to let me know he’s pissed. “Ava sure as hell didn’t ask. So why crucify her?”
Lawson steps in between us as if readying to break up a fight. On a normal night, he might have had to, but tonight I’m all about letting it go.
The thought of hurting Ava eviscerates me. “I’m sorry if I crucified her. I didn’t mean to. I thought it was best I let her go, and the quickest way to ensure I didn’t cave was to separate myself.”
Rush tips his head to the side, his bushy brow hikes into his forehead. “Do you want her back?”
“I don’t know.” Of course, I want her back. “I’m pretty sure there are some things that not even love can conquer.” What was that? Do I love Ava? Something in my chest cinches because maybe I do—hell, I know I do. Shit. What the hell have I done? What the hell keeps happening?
A shadow moves across the wall behind Rush and slowly takes form—those familiar features, that familiar girlish frame—I recognize it, I recognize her—Steph. There she is, so beautiful, laughing as I come to the realization of what’s happening.
Lawson taps his elbow to mine. “You okay, dude? You look like you just saw a ghost.”
I blink back, and the image of Steph evaporates to nothing. I head over to the wall, still unsure if what I saw was in my overactive imagination or a real life delusion of grandeur. My next biggest nightmare has always been losing my sanity. Losing Steph was the first. I touch the space between the wall and me, and my hand warms. My fingers brush against the white wall just as the faintest scent of Wild Honey lights up the air. Steph’s perfume.
“Stephanie,” I whisper, marveling at what just happened. She was here. I swear it. Just like Bryson swore earlier.
Rush comes over and lands an arm over my shoulder. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Better than okay. I’m thinking maybe I should find Ava.”
“It’s about time you came to your senses.” He knocks my knee out from under me with a laugh. “Let’s track her down.”
For the first time in a long while it feels as if fate, destiny, all those things I had relegated to fantasy novels were somehow coming true for me of all people. Now to seal my fate with Ava, I need to track down my destiny. I like the sound of that. A lot.
We grab our coats, and I pick up my keys. Rush tried to call her, but didn’t get an answer, so we head for the door on our way to the Black Bear.
Lucky runs at us just as we hit the porch and grabs ahold of Rush by the collar. “Harper was in an accident! I have to get to the hospital. Ava was hurt in the crash.”
The world stops spinning. All of time ceases to exist.
“Ava.” I stagger to my truck and jump inside.
Nothing can happen to Ava. I can’t lose two people in one lifetime. That’s not how this works.
Why do I get the feeling that fate and destiny met here tonight, and they’re both giving me the finger.
Ican’t breathe, can’t remember how I arrive at Hollow Brook General with both Lucky and Rush beside me.
I bolt into the ER and through the double security doors in the back that an orderly holds open for an elderly woman.
“Get back here!” he shouts. The sound of his voice reverberates through the bright hall.
I give a spastic glance left and right before spotting a crowd of doctors and nurses working furtively on a patient lying on a gurney. Dark clots of hair stretch to the floor as the girl’s hand hangs over the side, lifeless.
