I follow her through the doors and into the first room. There’s a curtain drawn, which feels unnecessary considering there doesn’t seem to be anyone else around. The nurse pulls it back, and my breath catches in my chest at the sight of Nico attached to a bunch of wires and monitors, an oxygen mask on his face.
I can’t let him see me panicked.
Schooling my face into as neutral an expression as possible, I step closer to him.
“Hey,” I whisper, and he lets his head fall toward me, his eyes widening. He flicks his gaze all over me, and I see the panic flare in his eyes when he notices I’m covered in blood. He lifts his good hand to his oxygen mask, but I gently move it away. “Shh, it’s okay. I’m okay, I promise. I’m not hurt.”
I rest my hand on his cheek, and he visibly relaxes. “I’m going to get Shay, and we’ll be there when you wake up, okay? Because you’re going to wake up, Nico. You promised you’d take care of me, and that means waking up.”
I swear he moves his head up and down in the tiniest nod. It might just be the best thing I’ve ever seen.
“It’s time.”
People surround the bed, and I choke back tears as I lean down to kiss his forehead. They unlock the wheels of the stretcher, and it’s time to let him go. I have to let him go. “I’ll see you soon, okay? You’re going to be okay, and we’ll get our date night. I… I love you,” I whisper asthey pull him away, and I hug my arms to my chest, like it might stop my heart from splitting at the sight of him disappearing.
I love him.
I knew it, even if I hadn’t put the words to it yet. If I had, I would’ve talked myself out of saying it—it’s too soon, I’m leaving, and I have no idea if he feels the same. But it just slipped out.
Quinn is standing by the door, giving me space as my tears pour, but I know he heard me. I wipe my face. “That was a really bad time to say that for the first time, wasn’t it?”
He shrugs, pulling a pack of Kleenex from his pocket and handing it to me. “I’m no expert, but it seems like the perfect time to me.”
“Because it might be the only time I get?” I ask, wiping my face.
“Because you gave him something to fight for.”
Quinn pulls into a cul-de-sac and parks outside a house covered in Christmas decor. In May.
“I thought Shay lived above her bakery?”
“She does,” he tells me. “This is Noelle’s parents’ house. It’s family dinner night.”
We leave the dogs in the trunk because, although I haven’t seen it, Nico said they don’t like new people. I checked on them before we left the hospital, gave them lotsof kisses and some food, and they seem confused but otherwise okay.
Quinn doesn’t knock, just opens the door and gestures for me to go ahead. The door opens into a kitchen that’s surprisingly empty since it’s supposedly family dinner night, but I can hear raised voices coming from another room. I follow Quinn through the kitchen, starting to pick up the odd word.
“Answer his phone… Go up… Car?” says a frantic voice I assume must be Shay.
A softer voice answers Shay, but a deeper one cuts it off as we approach the doorway. “Absolutely not, sugar. I know you know the road best, but it’s still covered in snow and ice. It wouldn’t be safe even if you weren’t pregnant. I’ll drive.”
I scan the room, recognizing Shay straight away from the single framed picture in Nico’s room. She’s a couple of decades older, but even if she didn’t still look like she did at twenty-five, the expression of panic would give her away. A tall woman with purple hair is rubbing her shoulders, and they’re facing a man with gray hair, holding a baby, and a tiny woman with a baby bump. My brain is foggy, but alert enough to fill in the pieces of information I’ve gleaned from Nico over the past few weeks.
I’m not sure he realizes how often, how wistfully, he talks about the life Shay has built in Wintermore, but almost everyone here is recognizable to me, just from his descriptions: Shay, Noelle, Henry, Rora, and baby Sunny. The older couple sitting on the couch looking worried must be Noelle’s parents, and the man on the loveseat must be herbrother, Felix, but I don’t recognize the woman with the red braid beside him.
Quinn clears his throat, and all eyes turn toward us. Shay immediately zeroes in on me, on my blood-soaked sweater, and gasps.
“He’s on the way to Jackson by ambulance, and he has a whole team with him keeping him stable so he can be taken into surgery when he gets there,” Quinn says quickly, reassuring her before I can even think about opening my mouth.
“What happened?” Shay whispers. I don’t think she’s even breathing.
Quinn takes one look at me and clearly sees I’m in no state to recount everything again. I’m only half paying attention as he explains everything to Shay. Her eyes are a softer gray than Nico’s, her hair golden blonde instead of dark brown, and she looks younger than him. But otherwise, they’re obviously siblings.
She hangs on to every word Quinn says before turning to me. “You drove him down the mountain?” I nod, and she blinks like she can’t compute. “How did you convince him to get in the car?”
I wrap my arms around myself. Now that the adrenaline is gone, my insides are cold. “He didn’t want to. But I begged him until he agreed.” My voice is scratchy, like I’ve been screaming for hours. Which, as far as I know, I haven’t, but everything is a blur.
Shay’s lip quivers. “Thank you. God. Thank you, Este. I… I’m so glad you were with him.”
