“I need you to say it out loud. I need you to believe it.” His deep voice was kind andunderstanding.
“No boy is worth my tears.” I was coming down from being completely hysterical. Johnny Palmer had broken up with me out of the blue during lunch earlier that day. We had been dating for seven months, which was as good as a lifetime as far as a high schooler was concerned. He had been my first boyfriend, and I was going through my first true heartbreak at the hands of a boy. I felt like the world was caving in aroundme.
“That’s right, Squirt.” The white whiskers of my old man’s scruffy beard spread as his smile gotwide.
“Daddy! Don’t you think I’m getting a little old for that nickname?” I teased as I strained to stifle mytears.
He violently shook his head as he shoved up from the table. “You’ll never be too old to be my little squirt. Don’t you ever, not even for one damn second, think that. You’ll be fifty and I will still be calling youSquirt.”
I followed him into the kitchen where my brother was pulling a roast out of the oven. “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes,” Liam excitedly announced after checking the meatthermometer.
“Liam, hug your sister,” Dad commanded. Without hesitation, my brother’s arms were wrapping around me and Dad’s were bringing both of us in close to his broadchest.
“All we need is each other,” our father reminded us, just like he did everyday.
Icould still feelthe cotton of my father’s dampened hanky in my hands, could still smell the delectable aroma of the roast Liam had broiled to perfection, could still feel the loving embrace of that emotional hug. Even though the colors had faded slightly in my memory, the truly important details coursed through my brain, bright asday.
As the miles passed and the recollections of my childhood took over, I barely remembered why I was escaping down the highway. All I could think about was how manly my brother was, how great of a cook he had become, how amazing my father had been for embracing all of our talents and encouraging us to be the best we could be at just being ourselves. There was nothing in the world that he wanted more than for his children to truly grow into the individuals we desired tobe.
I could still hear my father’s raspy timbre repeating his favorite mantra: “Always embrace who you are, and never make any excuses for beingyourself.”
I never thought it was something special until it was too late to thank him for being such a phenomenal role model and parent. He didn’t care that I liked working on engines with him after school and playing dress-up while pretending to have a tea party or that Liam was the captain of his baseball team and took cooking lessons on the weekends. All my dad cared about was our happiness. It was the most wonderful gift he could have given to either ofus.
A little less than thirty minutes had passed as I got closer and closer to Atlanta’s city limits. The sun had faded and the glow of streetlights illuminated my ride. As the temperature started to dip, I decided it was best for me to find a motel to crash at for the weekend and formulate a new life plan, one of independence andliberation.
Traffic was light, only a few cars ahead of me. It was calming, being almost completely alone with only the low hum of my engine and the sound of the pavement under the two wheels of mybike.
Suddenly, the blaring of a horn and the bright headlights of a car took me by surprise. I whipped my head around just in time to see Jasper’s blue sedan connecting with my back tire. There was nothing I could do in that split second other than try to swerve out of his way, but it was futile. With shooting pain and squealing of tires, my bike lay down on its side, throwing my body like a ragdoll, off the shoulder and into the grass with a hardthump.
I couldn’t move. My ears rang. My body was in excruciating pain. Within seconds, my entire world went blank as I fell into thedarkness.
Chapter 3
Bear
“Call Brock,”I barked at Jaxon as we rushed through the sliding glass doors that led to the emergencyroom.
“For what, Bear?” He put his hand on my shoulder to stop my rushingpace.
I glared at him before gritting my teeth. “Tell him where to find that chick’s bike. Have him bring it to the garage. Someone needs to see if it can be salvaged. This poor woman has been through hell tonight, she should go home to a workingbike.”
I was raging. It wasn’t about that damn bike. It wasn’t even about the damn girl—I didn’t even know who the fuck she was. It was that there was someone that could be saved and for fuck’s sake, I needed a damn win. She needed to be all right and her fucking bike needed to be fixed. It was the first positive little sliver of hope in sight, the only thing I could see to grasp onto.
Jaxon turned and walked out the door without another word. There was a determined look in his eyes; he needed a victory just as badly as Idid.
I strode up to the nurses’ station with conviction, my chest puffed out, my head high in theair.
“Can I help you, sir?” A blue-haired nurse in green scrubs with bright pink lipstick on her crooked teeth beamed up at me from her rollingchair.
“There was an ambulance that just arrived with a young woman who was in an accident. Can you tell me where they’ve takenher?”
She pursed her lips. “Are youfamily?”
I shook myhead.
“I’m sorry, but I can only give patient information to next of kin. You understand, right? It’s hospital policy.” She smiled sweetly, batting her eyelashesquickly.
I bowed my head, silently counting to ten to calm my thoughts. In a low voice, I cooed, “I’m the one that found her while my friend and I were traveling home from a long trip. I just want to make sure she’s doin’ all right, ma’am. I’m sure there is some information you can give me on her status, isn’t there? I wouldn’t feel right leavin’ here without knowin’ how that little lady is doin’. She was all alone on the side of the road. Some jerk must have run her off the road and left her there for dead. I don’t want to think what might have happened if we hadn’t found her when wedid.”
