Page 7

Chapter 6

Lost

Boone

“ W e have a parade and a party tonight, Daddy, on a school night?” My little flower bounces on her tiny toes then twirls in a circle so her gold, sparkly skirt flares out.

“On a school night.” I chuckle as she continues to twirl toward the bathroom. “Potty first!”

I glance over at Lindsey, who shakes her head.

“Our daughter is in school.”

“And not one major temper tantrum since Christmas.” I hold out a fist. “We’re crushing this co-parenting, Linds.”

She gives it a tap and, yeah, rolls her eyes a bit, still unable to fully take a compliment.

“I, uh, I was thinking I could maybe look into seeing what would be needed to finish my degree.”

“I think that’s a great idea. You sure you still want to do the whole biz com bit or?” I let it hang.

“I mean?” She lifts a shoulder.

“Think it through; no hurry.”

“Comm would be the fastest way to earn my undergrad degree. Makes sense.”

“You’re a different person than you were then; what does Lindsey 2.0 want?”

She sighs as she stands up and heads toward the door. “I want to go freeze my ass off at the side of the road and watch you hotshots drive by, then head to the Brewery and be home by eight at the latest to get her bathed and in bed so she can get to school on time.”

“Let me keep her tonight; you sleep, wake up, and do some research.” I push up off the floor. “I’ll pack a bag for her.”

“You sure?” she calls after me.

“As long as it’s okay with Lily, it’s good with me,” I answer.

“If what’s okay with Lily, Daddy?” Lily calls from the bathroom.

“You feel like having a sleepover with me tonight?” I ask, knowing damn well she’s gonna say yes.

“We have sweet toast in the morning?”

“You bet we will.” I chuckle.

I wake up to the sound of my phone ringing, startling me out of sleep. I blindly reach for it, hoping not to wake Lily, seeing it’s still dark out, and she’s all cuddled up beside me.

My phone reads two a.m.

I answer the call, trying to be as quiet as I can be, so as not to wake my girl as I whisper into the receiver, “Hello?”

“Beau, it’s Liam,” a familiar voice says with urgency. “I need you to stay calm and listen to me for a minute, okay?”

I slide out of bed and make my way to the hall. “What the hell is going on, man?”

“Logan is on his way to your house. He should be there in just a couple minutes. There’s been an accident.”

“Lindsey?”

“Yeah, Boone, Lindsey. She went off the road and hit a tree. They took her to Upstate and …” I can hear him swallow back emotion before saying, “Just get there.”

I turn around and see Riley with a clean pair of sweats and a hoodie in her hands.

“Go, get changed. Hudson’s going to ride with you and Logan, and I’m gonna stay with Lily.”

I don’t remember much between that conversation and getting into Logan’s SUV. I know it’s bad because he doesn’t waste a second peeling out of the driveway.

“You have any information?” I ask as I roll the window down a little bit to get some fucking air. I feel like I can’t breathe.

“I know that, uh, we’re going to end up passing the scene of the accident on our way to the hospital, and there’s no way to avoid it, so I guess we should all prepare for what that’s going to look like.”

“What do you mean? She came all the way here to Skaneateles? Her place is in the opposite direction.”

Hudson’s hand grips my shoulder from the back seat and gives it a squeeze. “Brother, I don’t know, but I’m sure you’ll get the opportunity to ask her soon, yeah?”

I don’t have time to answer, and I’m glad, because I’m not sure what to think right now. And that’s when my phone rings. I answer quickly.

“This is Beau Boone.”

“Hello, Mr. Boone. This is Cathy Sheldon from Upstate Emergency Center. You’re listed as emergency contact for Lindsey?—”

“Yes, we’re on our way to the hospital now.”

“Good. That’s good. She’s in surgery, so when you come into the hospital through the emergency room, tell them who you are, and they will direct you to the fourth floor. Someone will meet you there.”

“Yeah, okay. Is there anything else you can tell me? For lack of better words, I’m fucking dying over here.”

“Pray.”

“That’s it?” I ask, hoping there’s more.

“We’ll see you soon.”

Minutes later, we see lights flashing in the distance, and my hands begin trembling. Then, as we get closer, my stomach sours when I see the metal twisted and mangled, the window shattered. One of the doors—the passenger side back door—has been removed. I’ve seen enough cop shows to know that they used that device they call the jaws of life.

“Fuck, man, fuck.” I hit the dash over and over in frustration. “How can she survive that?”

“She’s a fighter, yeah?” Logan asks, trying to offer some reassurance.

“She’s … she’s … No, man, she’s not. She’s frail. She’s—” I can’t even finish my sentence before the tears well up in my eyes.

“The call you got from the hospital; what’d they say?”

I know he’s just asking this to keep me calm, but there’s no way I can be calm after seeing that. The vehicle went through a ditch filled with snow and is damn near wrapped around a tree.

“She’s in surgery,” I manage to choke out, my voice shaking. “They said it was serious.”

Logan nods, his own face a mask of concern as we wait to be directed past the wreckage.

“We have to go to the hospital,” I say suddenly, wiping away the tears that have started to fall. “Can’t we just fucking pass these people? Tell them we have to get to her?”

“Of course, man.”

“Stupid request, I know. We can’t make things go any faster than they are,” I grumble.

“We’ll get there as fast as we can.”

I nod. “Okay.”

The hospital doors slide open, and the cold, sterile air smacks me in the face. It smells like sickness, like pain, like bad news. The fluorescent lights overhead are too bright, too harsh for two thirty in the morning, but nothing feels right—nothing.

Logan and Hart flank me on either side, silent but solid. Their footsteps echo against the floor, perfectly in sync with mine. None of us speak. What the hell is there to say?

My chest is too tight, my hands clenched into fists so hard my nails dig into my palms. I don’t even feel it.

The front desk is empty except for a tired-looking receptionist in navy blue scrubs. She glances up, blinking against the glare of her computer screen.

“Can I help you?” Her voice is quiet, almost gentle.

I clear my throat, but it still comes out rough. “I … uh … I’m here for …” I swallow hard, my voice barely working. “My, uh … Lindsey Bellemont. She was in a car accident. They told me she’s in surgery.”

Her expression shifts. Pity. That quiet, practiced sympathy hospital staff always have. I fucking hate it.

“Name?” she asks, already typing.

I tell her, my tongue thick in my mouth.

She nods, glances at the screen, then back at me. “She’s on the fourth floor. Surgical. Take the elevators down the hall, turn left.”

I nod, but I don’t move right away.

Hart nudges me. “Come on, man.”

I force my legs to work, my steps stiff, like I’m moving through wet cement. The hospital is eerily quiet at this hour. Phones ring in the distance. A soft beep echoes from somewhere behind a set of closed doors. An orderly wheels a cart past us, the wheels squeaking every few seconds. My heart pounds in my ears, drowning out everything else.

The elevator doors slide open with a ding , and the three of us step inside. The second they close, I feel like I can’t breathe.

“Fourth floor,” Logan mutters, pressing the button.

The elevator lurches to life, humming softly as it climbs. My stomach twists. The closer we get, the worse it gets, like the walls are pressing in, like there’s no air left in this place.

Then the doors open, and the surgical floor stretches out in front of us—quiet, sterile, cold. A nurse’s station glows dimly under a set of overhead lights, and the sound of a monitor beeping somewhere down the hall punches through the silence.

Hart and Logan stay close, but they don’t say anything. Again, what is there to say?

I take a deep breath, step out of the elevator, and walk toward the desk where the receptionist informs us Lindsey is still in surgery Then she directs us to the waiting room, promising we’ll be updated soon.

Within half an hour, Coach Cohen, Coach Moore, Lucas Links, Ryan Brooks, and Tessa are sitting with us, just waiting …

“Baby,” Lucas whispers, “he needs some answers; you think you can find anything out?”

Tessa looks at me. “Let’s see what I can do here.”

“Appreciate it.”

When Tessa returns, she is followed by a nurse.

Her voice is steady and calm—too calm. She looks at me like she’s trying to keep me from falling apart. But I already am.

“Your girlfriend was in a very serious accident. She hit a tree head-on. The impact …”

Her words start to blur. My ears ring. My hands grip my sweats so hard my nails dig into my skin.

“She has a traumatic brain injury, multiple broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a fractured femur, and internal bleeding.”

No. No, no, no . This isn’t real. This isn’t happening.

I shake my head, like that will somehow change what she’s saying, but she doesn’t stop.

“We did everything we could in surgery to stop the bleeding and stabilize her, but … she’s in a coma.”

I swear my heart just stops.

“We don’t know when—or if—she’ll wake up.”

My stomach drops. I can’t move. I can’t think. It feels like the floor just disappeared from under me, and I’m free-falling into nothing.

“But right now, she’s alive,” the nurse says, like that’s supposed to bring me any comfort.

Alive. But not awake. Not okay.

I try to speak, but my throat is tight, like I’m swallowing glass. When I finally force the words out, they sound broken. “Can I see her?”

The nurse nods, but there’s something in her expression—hesitation. Pity. “Of course. But I need to prepare you—she’s on a ventilator. There are a lot of machines helping her right now, a lot of wires, a lot of monitors. She won’t look like herself, but she’s still in there.”

Still in there.

I swallow hard and force myself to stand, even though my legs feel like they might give out.

The nurse rests a hand on my shoulder for a second. I barely feel it.

“Let’s go,” she says softly. “She needs you.”

I nod, but the truth is I need her more, but Lily needs her most of all.

The moment I step into the room, my breath catches in my throat.

She’s barely recognizable.

Her skin is pale—too pale—like all the warmth has been drained from her. There’s a deep bruise blooming across her forehead, dark purple against her soft skin, trailing down to her cheekbone. A thick bandage is wrapped around her head, stark white against her hair, which is tangled and dull.

Tubes. So many fucking tubes.

A ventilator tube snakes from her mouth, forcing air into her lungs with a steady, mechanical hiss. Wires and electrodes are stuck to her chest, her arms, her temples, all connected to machines that beep and hum in a rhythm that doesn’t belong to her. An IV drips something clear into the bruised skin of her hand. The one Lily loves to hold.

Her right arm is in a cast, elevated slightly by a pillow, while her left is wrapped in gauze from elbow to wrist. The hospital gown swallows her small frame, but even through the thin fabric, I can see the way her ribs rise and fall too slowly, too carefully.

Her leg. Fuck, her leg.

A thick brace stretches from her thigh down to her ankle, holding her femur together. More bandages wrap around her knee, her shin. I can barely see the parts of her that aren’t covered in medical tape, gauze, or bruises.

She looks fragile, like one wrong move might shatter her completely.

But the worst part?

Her eyes. They’re closed, bruised lids taped closed, something about that fucks with me hard. Lily can’t see her like this. She just can’t.

I step closer, my throat burning, my fingers itching to touch her, but I’m also so afraid I’ll hurt her. I pull the chair closer to her bed, my fingers hesitating before I take her hand. It’s cold—too cold—but I hold on, anyway, because I don’t know what else to do.

“Hey, you,” I whisper, my voice rough, uneven. “It’s me. I’m here.”

The ventilator hums, the machines beep in a steady rhythm, but she doesn’t react. She just … lies there. Still. Silent. And that scares the hell out of me.

I clear my throat and try again. “Listen, I know you’re in there. And I know if you could, you’d probably roll your eyes and tell me to stop being so dramatic. But I need you to hear me, okay? You have to wake up. You have to fight.”

I blink fast, but the lump in my throat doesn’t go away. I squeeze her hand gently, careful of the IV, needing some kind of connection, even if she can’t feel it.

“Lily needs you, Linds.”

My chest tightens.

“Look, I know we’re not … us and shit, but you’re still my family. And more than that, you’re Lily’s whole world.”

I swallow hard and lean forward, my forehead almost resting against her hand.

“I don’t know how to do this without you. I don’t know how to be both of us. You’re the one who knows exactly how to fix her braids when she won’t let me touch her hair. The one who sings to her when she wakes up crying in the middle of the night. You’re her favorite person in the world. And I need you to come back to her.” My voice cracks, but I don’t care. “So, you fight, okay? I don’t care how hard it is. I don’t care how long it takes—you fight. You come back to her.”

I press a kiss to the back of her hand, holding it against my forehead, breathing her in, even though all I smell is antiseptic and hospital sheets.

“You’re family, one of my best friends,” I whisper. “And I’m not ready to lose you.”

Then I sit there, gripping her hand, listening to the machines keep her alive, praying she hears me.

By four a.m., there’s still no change.

I stand up and stretch my legs then set out to figure out how to take care of Lily best while Lindsey heals, and fuck … I have to contact her parents, right? She’d want that, wouldn’t she?

I stand, and as soon as my ass leaves the seat, Molly Sparks peeks her head in the ICU room that they moved Lindsey to just about an hour ago.

“Hey there, handsome,” she says as she steps in, arms wide open.

“Miss Molly, if I hug you, I’m gonna cry.”

“Then we’ll do that together.”

And that we do, until she steps back and takes both of my hands and gives them a squeeze. “I sent Tessa and Lucas home to get some sleep. I have maintenance bringing you a chair up here so you can get some sleep, too?—”

“I can’t sleep until I know?—”

“I’m going to stay awake and sit in that chair right there that you were using before, and I promise you, if she so much as flutters a lash, I will wake you up.”

“I have to get to Lily. I have to?—”

“Lily is going to wake up in that pretty bed of hers with Riley on one side and Sydney on the other. They’re going to go to breakfast, and then they are going to go to school where Sidney will instruct every staff member that not one word is to be spoken to Lily about her mommy. Then, after school, Sydney, and Lily, and Riley, and whatever other female in this big, beautiful family is available, they are going to have a girl day. And when you’re ready to tell her whatever it is you have to tell her to get her through this, to get you both through this, that’s when you go see your little girl. Until then, trust that my little girl is making everything sparkle and shine for her.”

I lose it. I lose it in epic fashion.