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“I know,” Saff whispered. Then she pressed a kiss to her wrist, and Maddie savored the feeling, letting it seep into her bones. Letting it remind her that Saff was still there with her. That they’d both made it.
“Will it ever go away?” Maddie whispered. “Feeling like we’re still out there on that road?”
Saff went quiet, letting out a slow breath. “Yes. But it’ll take time.”
Maddie sniffled, praying that it was the truth.
“I’m so sorry,” Saff whispered. “But I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
And something in the way she said it, made her finally believe it.
Chapter fifty-three
Saff moved one leg after the other down off the side of the bed.
Maddie waited tensely in front of her, hands hovering in the air as if ready to catch her if need be.
James and Erin stood a few feet behind Maddie, each watching with anxious smiles as she slowly stood.
It had taken two excruciatingly long weeks to finally get to that point. Where she didn’t feel like she needed assistance anymore to walk. And although being cooped up for weeks wasn’t ideal, she could see that she wasn’t the only one that needed that time to heal.
For days, she’d felt Maddie’s mind still trapped elsewhere—likely on that road. But with each passing day, that was healing too, like any other stitched up wound slowly scarring over.
She could still feel it sometimes, in the way Maddie’s hand tightened around hers. Or in the way her kisses lingered just a few extra tender seconds at night before falling asleep.
But slowly, Maddie was becoming her usual bright self again. And each time she gave her that familiar teasing smile, Saff’s heart warmed in a way it never had before.
“Take it slow,” James muttered, eying her with careful concern, the same way he had every day when he’d come to check on her.
That was another thing she’d had to get used to.
It almost shocked her the first day when James and Erin had come in, questioning the doctor about each thing they’d done and were doing to help her. They’d stayed for close to an hour that first day, making him run through the instructions for her care and healing again and again.
Even Josh seemed to care in his own unique way, stopping by each day to fill her in on what was going on in the safe zone. And although Maddie looked like she wanted to kill him every time he mentioned opportunities for her to go back out to the coast, she still appreciated it.
And that’s when she’d realized that it wasn’t just Maddie that seemed to care for her.
It was them, too—all of them.
Maddie took her hand, a wide smile breaking out on her face as Saff stepped to her.
The wound tugged at her side, but the pain wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been, and she took the next few steps with relative ease.
“Everything feels okay?” Maddie asked, as her hand slipped down onto her hip.
“Yeah,” she answered. “Feels good. Stiff—but good.”
James gave her a wide smile. “You ready?”
Saff nodded, a smile forming on her own lips then. She was more than ready.
They all moved slowly out of the room, then down the hall of the medical ward, James and Maddie staying close, ready to catch her at a moment’s notice.
The sun poured down onto her cheeks as they walked through the last set of double doors out onto smooth pavement.
“Where to first?” Erin asked, lifting a hand to block out the sun in her eyes.
Maddie slipped her sunglasses on before taking her hand.