Everything hurt.
Every muscle.
The hair on her head.
Her pillow was damp with drool, and when she lifted her phone camera in selfie mode to check how she'd woken up from her beauty sleep, she discovered deep creases from the linens pressed into her cheek, and her hair, left damp, had dried in frizzy waves.
She glanced over to the bedside table to see what time it was, and there was a glass of juice, two pain pills, a fat cinnamon roll, and a note:
Whiskey needed to find a bush.
We’ll be back in a few minutes.
Sommer grinned as she scooted up in the bed. Tipped back the meds and took a bite of the most delicious roll she’d ever tasted.
In a second, she’d get up and make some coffee.
Then she’d call the hospital and see if Marna and Abbie had put her on their call list and she could get an update on their status.
But for the moment, she’d bask in the relief of everyone being off the mountain.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sommer
Saturday, Afternoon
“Absolutely not,” Gabriel said, standing in front of her driver’s side door to block her.
“I’m fine,” Sommer insisted.
“Have you seen you move? You’re like the oldest grandma that ever lived. You have the reaction time of a sloth. You’re not driving on the highway.”
“Is this our first fight?” Sommer jabbed a hand onto her hip. “You donotget to tell me what to do.”
“But I’m right, and you know it.”
He was right. And she did know it.
And if she were being honest with herself, she liked that he was willing to fight to keep her safe. A reluctant smile twitched her lips.
“See? Here’s the new plan. I drive you home. Then, on Sunday, if you have full use of your arms and legs, I'll bring you back up. We have a nice picnic. Whiskey gets to smell all the nature smells, and you drive home. When’s your next shift?”
“Tuesday. It starts a long week. I work 12-hour shifts with a 4-day week followed by a 3-day week. This week I had friends filling in because I worked their shifts.”
“Grueling. So you need to use all of that time resting and building up stamina.”
Sommer stepped to Gabriel’s passenger side.
He fobbed the car unlocked, then opened the door for her, waited until she was in, and shut it.
Whiskey jumped her front feet onto the passenger seat behind Sommer, and from there Gabriel had to hoist her up. “Can we stop by the hospital to check on Abbie and Marna?”
Gabriel rounded to the driver’s side and climbed in. “They’ll start her in the emergency department?”
“It depends on what Iniquus radioed in.” She pulled her safety belt in place. “If they’re highly contagious, the staff will isolate them to protect the other patients.”
“They’re highly contagious.” After drawing his belt in place, Gabriel pressed the engine button to start the car.
