She heard their heavy hearts as they shared. Nora grieved over her relationship with her daughter and struggled to know how to start over with nothing. Emma worried that Ethan would end things for good when he found out about the pregnancy—and just when they were finally on the same page.
And Maddy... She was just worried about Connor. Everything else took a back seat.
She lay listening to the storm rage around them. Her stomach was all twisted up inside, just knowing Connor was out there somewhere. Gram had talked to her about having faith in God. Trusting Him with her future. If that applied to her love life, it certainly applied to the storm and Connor’s safety.
Give me faith, God. I want to believe. I want to trust.Maddy kept praying. It was all she could do. It would be enough. It had to be.
A while later Nora stirred on the other end of the couch. Her eyes fluttered open, and she found Maddy in the shadows. “What time is it?”
Maddy could barely hear her over the pounding rain. “After five.”
“You haven’t heard anything yet?”
Maddy shook her head. “How much longer till the storm passes, do you think?”
“Earlier they were saying about twelve hours.”
It had started around nine. They still had about four hours left, but Maddy had already made up her mind. The sun would rise about six, and she was going to drive around looking for Connor, hurricane or no.
She glanced at her watch. Less than an hour to go.
She needed something else to think about or she was going to drive herself crazy. “So you and Emma cleared the air last night?”
A smile tipped Nora’s lips as she glanced down at her sleeping sister. “Yeah. I think we’re going to be okay.”
“I think you’re right.”
They talked quietly for a while, and when they ran out of things to say, Nora drifted off to sleep again.
At six it was still awfully dark, the sunrise shielded by a thick cover of clouds. But Maddy got up and quietly slipped on her shoes. She’d have to let someone know what she was doing. She headed toward Nora, stretched out on the sofa.
A melody suddenly filled the room. Her phone! She pulled it from her pocket. The screen showed a number she didn’t recognize.
She punched the green button. “Hello.”
“Hi, is this Maddy Monroe?”
Her heart was in her throat. “Yes, who’s this?”
“I’m a nurse at Dosher Memorial. A Connor Sullivan was brought in by ambulance a little while ago, and we found your contact information in his phone.”
“Is he okay?”
“Are you a relative of Mr. Sullivan’s?”
“No, I’m his... friend.”
“I’m trying to locate next of kin. Can you point me in the right direction?”
Cold fingers of dread raked down Maddy’s throat. “Is he all right?”
“He’s had an accident and we need to reach his next of kin. Your calls and texts were on his screen, so I started with you.”
“His parents and his sisters... Is he all right? Please tell me.”
“He’s alive, but I really can’t share any more information than that. But we’ll be asking his next of kin to come to the hospital as soon as possible.”
Oh God, she prayed. Maddy’s eyes closed in a long blink. Her breath felt stuffed in her lungs. She couldn’t breathe.
