“I’m going to change and shower and go to the hospital,” I tell him.
Holden nods at me, still talking to Sterling on the phone. I know he won’t leave her side until I get there, but I still take the fastest shower of my life.
She looks sosmall and fragile. She has tubes and wires stuck all over her skin. I drop down to my knees beside her bed, my head falling into her side with a deep, full body exhale.
“Dolly …” I inhale her scent, focusing on the faint notes of cinnamon and vanilla through the hospital antiseptic.
Her body heat seeps into me, warming me up from the frigid cold in my truck when I didn’t think to use the heater on the way here. All I could think about was getting to her.
“Sam?” Her voice is weak.
I lift my head, grasping for her hand. “I’m here. I’m right here, baby.”
Her fingers are cold, even in my icy hand. I reach the other one up to rub her hand with both of mine as I rise to a stand. She opens her eyes, pale gray irises shining brightly in the dim hospital room.
“Hi,” she says.
Relief sweeps over me. I lean down, pressing my forehead to hers. “Hi, Dollface.”
She sighs, reaching up to wrap a hand around my neck. “Where have you been?”
A scuffling noise from the door draws both of our eyes. Sterling is standing there, arms folded across his chest. My muscles stiffen until I see the look of amusement on his features. I reach down to cup Dolly’s side. His gaze tracks the movement as he slowly shakes his head.
“Duke is going to putyouin this hospital.” He says it like it’s the first line to a hilarious joke and he can’t wait to tell us the punch line.
Dolly narrows her eyes at him. She opens her mouth to say something, but I press my finger to her lips. She blinks up at me. I stand and face him, squaring my shoulders back even though my stomach feels like I might need to empty it on the linoleum at any moment. I grip her fingers tighter.
“Sterling, I need to talk to you about your sister. I—I would say I want to take her out, but the truth is, I want to do a lot more than take her out on a date.” As the words leave my lips, I realize just how hard I’ve fallen for her. It feels like it happened in slow motion.
I look down at her face. We gaze into each other’s eyes for a few long beats.
He clears his throat, interrupting our eye-fucking.
“You know, you’ve never needed my approval. I’ve been a fan of you two since day one. Duke gave me a split lip for saying it a few years ago.” He steps farther into the room. “Although maybe cut out the ‘I want to do a lot more than take her out on a date’ part. That sounds like you want to fuck her, and if you want to avoid your face getting beaten bloody, you shouldn’t say that.” His grin widens, and he swats my shoulder. “Took you fucking long enough.”
Dolly tugs on my hand. I turn to her. She tries pulling me down to her again, and I realize she’s scooted over so I can sit with her in the narrow bed. I carefully snuggle in next to her, feeling relieved once again that we don’t have to pretend we can’t keep our hands off of each other.
I wrap my arm around her, drawing her close and tucking her into my chest. When I look back over at Sterling, he’s kicked back on the square sofa under the window that overlooks theparking lot. Part of me is still worried he’s going to tear my jugular out at any second.
“Sterling is a romantic,” Dolly whispers in my ear. Her words tickle.
I look over at her brother, who’s sipping from the to-go coffee in his hand.
“I gotta say, I saw this one coming from a mile away,” Sterling says.
Dolly giggles into me and then sighs.
“Hmm, that’s interesting,” he muses, the corner of his mouth turning up.
“What is?” I look down at Dolly, whose eyes have drifted closed again.
Her dark lashes are fanned out across her cheeks as she nuzzles me.
“Her heart monitor. It’s been going erratic the past few hours, but since you got here, it’s evened out.”
I stare at him, then look over at the machine. The lines are going up and down in a steady rhythm. We sit in silence, watching it tick away.
After a few minutes, the nurse walks in and smiles when she notices me in the bed with her. “Are you Sam?”
