She wished she could cut them all off and loudly announce,What I need, in order to feel better, is time alone with Luke. They were trained health professionals. Their sole aim was to help her. She knew this. Yet what she earnestly wanted was for everyone to go away. She had so many questions for Luke. She wanted to ask them all, then she wanted him to lie next to her in the quiet so she could throw an arm over his chest and rest her head on his shoulder and sleep for a long, long time.Thatwas the medicine she needed.
But time alone with Luke she did not get. When the staffers finished with her, Meadow and Bridget were on hand. Then Robbie and June reentered. Then her cousins. Akira. More. Five people were in the room with her when she started nodding off for the night.A good hostess shouldn’t fall asleep in front of her guests, she thought fuzzily.
Then she was out.
God had brought Finley back.
Luke was certain of it. He’d prayed and prayed that God would bring her back and He had. Now it was Luke’s job to followthrough on what he’d determined he’d do the night of her injury.
Get things right. With how he treated Finley. With his pursuit of the Vance brothers.
He’d folded out the futon in her room and was lying on it, one knee bent up. He wedged his forearm between the back of his head and a pillow so that he had a view of her.
The machines hummed. An IV dripped medicine and fluid into her veins while Finley slept peacefully. No longer in a coma. Simply sleeping.
He knew she cared about him. Beyond that, he wasn’t sure of her feelings. She was very open. She’d said soon after they met that she’d give him her treasure if he wanted it. She’d once told him, “I’ll love Chase forever.” She’d once asked, “Are you interested in dating me?”
If she loved him, she would’ve told him. Right?
He didn’t think she loved him, and so the thought of telling her he loved her scared him. But nothing would ever again have the power to scare him as much as her injury had. So down the road, when she was completely herself again, he would tell her how he felt.
At that point, she would no longer need to lean on him. She’d be strong enough to hear him sayI love youand, if she didn’t feel the same, to tell him so truthfully.
At the moment, she was dazed and not in her right mind and at a disadvantage. In the days to come, the highest priority for them both had to be and would be her health.
He’d given up on ever being good enough for her, but he would show her that he could, at least, be good.
In the middle of the night, a nurse woke Finley while doing her rounds. Across the dim room, she spotted Luke, sleeping ona futon that looked much too hard and much too short for his frame. His position revealed the firm underside of his jaw. His hands rested on his flat abs.
He was still here.
And she was still alive.
The God who’d carried her through trauma before had carried her through it again.Thank you, God, for saving me. For sending Luke. Praise you, Lord.
God had given her a second chance. She recognized the value of that, and she planned to take it and run with it.
Of course, she could barely sit upright at the moment, let alone run.
But when she was better, watch out, world.
The sight of Luke stoked a glow of contentment in her while the nurse bustled around. When the woman finally left, one of Luke’s eyes slid open.
“You’re awake,” Finley said.
“I’m awake.”
“Come here.”
He did so.
It took some doing, but she managed to scoot over. She patted the open space she’d created on the bed in invitation.
“I’ll take up all the room,” he said.
“I hope so.”
He lowered the rail on his side, then stretched out beside her. His arm drew her close against him. Just as she’d imagined, she placed one arm across his chest and rested her head on his shoulder. At last, something about this difficult day had gone her way. The reality of this was far, far better than she’d anticipated.
