"We don't have to talk about it right now. When you're ready, I can get on the phone with the dean's office and get everything sorted out."
He wasn't even listening to her.
Cord seemed to sense her distress. "I think it's time you headed out."
Her dad bristled. "Look—"
"No, you look.” His voice was low, nearly a growl. “Look at what happened to your daughter."
Dad's gaze slipped to her in the hospital bed and then away.
"When Molly's ready to go home, she's leaving this hospital. With me."
Dad’s mouth opened. He looked at her as if waiting for her to argue, but she would do no such thing.
He seemed too shocked to speak as Cord ushered him out of the room.
Overwhelming emotions brought tears to Molly's eyes, and she closed them. She felt like a regular watering pot these last twenty-four hours. Maybe longer than that. Since Toby had showed himself just outside the No Name's boundary.
Cord said something indistinguishable to her dad and then closed the door. He returned to her, leaning his hip against the side of her bed.
"You want to lay back down?"
She shook her head, then nodded. What if her dad made a stink about Cord kicking him out of her room?
Sometime during the hours she'd been here, she'd overheard Cord call himself her fiancé. She figured he’d said it so he'd be allowed to stay with her.
But if her dad told the hospital it was a lie, Cord could get in trouble.
And right now, he was the only steady thing in her life.
She couldn't stop the tears that slipped free. She squeezed her eyes closed.
He stopped the motor lowering her bed. "Am I hurting you? Is it your ribs?"
"No," she whispered. "It's…" She opened her eyes, and more tears spilled out.
He was right there, pressing a tissue into her hand. "Hey, hey." He brushed a kiss on her temple. "It's okay," he said gently.
"I don't want to go back to school." She hated that her voice wobbled and broke in the middle of her sentence. She sniffled, dabbing at her face.
"He can't make you do anything you don't want to do."
She hiccupped a tiny sob. "What if he tells the nurses we're not engaged?"
He brushed away another tear leaking out of the corner of her eye. His face was close, his expression serious. He wasn't discounting her emotions, even though they were running wild.
"If that happens, we'll deal with it. If I need to, I'll get down on one knee and ask you properly."
He cracked the slightest smile, and that, combined with his words, helped her draw the first moments of comfort since she'd woken up alone in the room.
"That's right," he encouraged. "Take another breath. Not too deep. Don’t want to hurt your ribs."
She did. And the oxygen helped her body regain the tiniest bit of equilibrium.
She was acting crazy.
And Cord had talked her through it, even teasing her about proposing.
"Everything's gonna be okay," he whispered as her eyes grew heavy again. He brushed a kiss across each one of them when she closed them.
Everything's gonna be okay.
