I wince. “Things changed.”
“Clearly.” She sighs, sitting back in her chair. “I get it, for the record. I see how she looks at you, and you’ve said her name in your sleep about a hundred times in the past few hours alone, so I assume it’s mutual.”
“It is.”
“Well, I like her. I’m not sorry for being hard on you about it, though.”
I try to laugh, but it hurts, and it ends up more of a grimace. “I don’t blame you.”
Shay frowns at my grimace. “You’re due for more pain medicine soon. As for Este, there’s a family wing upstairs with some rest areas and showers. She and Bryan went up there to shower. She refused to leave you, so Bryan made up some story about wanting to shower because the hotel they’re staying at has shitty water pressure to get her to go with him.”
“Bryan’s here?”
Shay nods. “Mhmm. And Chris and Sloane. And yes, they have all heard you saying Este’s name in your sleep, so I imagine they’re probably going to have some questions for you.”
Suddenly, being impaled with an axe doesn’t seem so bad.
A nurse comes by and helps me to the bathroom. Like my dream, my left arm is in a sling, and it hurts like hell, but I’m surprisingly steady on my feet. I manage to splash my face with water and brush my teeth, and by the time I make it back to bed, I’m exhausted. My muscles are aching like I haven’t used them in weeks.
“How long have I been out?” I ask Shay.
“A little over a day. You’ve actually woken up a few times, but you were really agitated and kept trying to take your sling off, so they sedated you. You don’t remember?”
“No. I remember drifting off for surgery, and then I… I dreamed of Georgie.”
A smile stretches over Shay’s face. “Yeah? How was she?”
“Good. Really good. Told me to get my shit together.”
“Sounds like Georgie,” Shay says. Georgie’s name always sounds so much more natural when she says it. She doesn’t shy away from talking about her as much as I do. “Are you going to listen to her?”
“I’m thinking about it,” I say, and she takes my hand, squeezing it just like Georgie did in my dream.
“Good.”
I hear Este before I see her, and I swear my pain fades a little.
“Dad, please stop fussing so much. I’m fine. I promise I’ll tell you if—oh my god.” She goes still in the doorway when she sees I’m awake, then rushes across the room. “You’re awake. Hi.”
“Hi, angel.” I take her in, and my next breath feels deeper. Her hair is still damp from the shower, and she looks exhausted. Her eyes are worried, red-rimmed with dark circles, and she’s pale. It’s how she looked when she first arrived at the cabin—beautiful but worn out.
“How are you feeling?”
“Sore, but not bad, considering. Thanks to you. How areyoufeeling?”
“I’m okay.” We both know she’s lying, but I’m not going to push her in front of Shay and… her dad. Shit.
I give her a “we’ll talk about that later” look and turn to Bryan.
“Hey, Bry.” I’ve seen pictures of him over the years, of course, and we’ve video-called, but we’ve both grown up ahell of a lot since I last saw him, so I didn’t expect him to look exactly how I remembered him. He’s hardly aged.
“Hey, man. Bet you didn’t think this is how we’d meet again after so long, huh?” He clasps my good hand and squeezes. “Glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks.”
“Thankyoufor taking care of our little girl,” he counters.
I miss being sedated.
