Page 54 of Riding the Line (Willow Ridge #2)

Duke

‘Sir, you’re going to have to calm down,’ the nurse at the desk cautions me, crossing her arms to signal she is not going to put up with any more of my bullshit today.

The deep frown marring her face and shadows beneath her eyes suggests I’m not the only visitor that’s had her exasperated either.

‘Unless you’re family, we can’t let you in while she’s not awake. I’ve told you twice already.’

My fingers clutch at the edge of the desk, begging for stability as the images of paramedics wheeling Cherry down a different corridor to me as she started having a second seizure once we arrived at the hospital torment my mind.

My heart jumps into my throat knowing I wasn’t by her side as medical staff pulled me away for my own injuries.

How they didn’t let me hold her hand. I barely managed a few minutes with the doctor before I was storming out to find out where they’d taken her. If she was going to be okay.

‘Please, you don’t understand—’

‘Now,’ the nurse raises her voice this time, throwing a hand to her hip. I immediately shrink back, recognising that I’m being offered my last chance here. ‘If you know any family we can contact, then we can call them and could let you in with them. If they allow it.’

Family.

Wyatt.

But he’ll know. He’ll know what I’ve done. I’ll have to tell him that his sister is in hospital because of me.

That she’s battered and bruised because of me.

That she’s just had two seizures because of me.

That she’ll have to give up her driver’s licence again for a while because of me.

That she could’ve died because of me.

Every dream I let myself have for the future, Cherry gracing each one, shattered the moment I saw that fallen tree.

It wasn’t my past life that flashed before my eyes in the moments prior to crashing, but the future I’d never get, because I was stupid enough to give into temptation.

And now it’s all gone. Slipping out of my fingers as I held Cherry, as I carried her from the wreckage, watching her consciousness slip from her too.

I’d been here before.

Marching down a dirt road, Cherry in my arms, as I try to catch up with the ambulance on its way. I don’t care that I’ve left my bike behind. All that matters is her.

Each step has agony biting at every one of my limbs. Blood rushes in my ears, my heart racing so fast it might beat out of my chest. Even as my legs tremble, my arms quake, love powers me on.

‘I’m sorry. I’ve got you,’ I repeat to Cherry, over and over, as she lay unconscious against my chest, cradled in my hold.

I need her to know she’s okay, that I’ll always protect her.

I know I didn’t do a good job of it today, but I’ll make it up to her.

I’ll walk as far and as long as it takes to get her to safety.

Even as the rain begins to pour.

All this pain because instead of staying behind that line that I drew all those years ago, out of respect for my best friend, I rode past it, so far that it’s invisible now.

I finally push away from the desk with a sharp sigh that has the muscles in my chest spasming in agony.

My surroundings start to blur again, the ringing in my ears picking up. Rain lashes at the windows around the waiting area, like my fears are trying to claw in to take me away. Roiling nerves fill my stomach, and my legs are already starting to take me towards the exit.

To run .

But … I can’t. Not this time.

I almost lost Cherry when I let my fear get the best of me before.

Even if it means upsetting Wyatt – hell, even if it upsets the whole of Willow Ridge – it’s the right thing to do.

To show Cherry that I’m always here for her.

That I won’t push her away this time. That she’s worth losing everything for.

Even if it means having to let her go too.

I drop down into one of the plastic seats of the waiting area behind me. The jolting action sends red-hot pain slicing through my shoulder, and the nurse just tuts at me when I groan. I swear there’s a brief curve to her lips, no doubt thinking, maybe that will shut you up . God knows I deserve it.

With trembling hands, I fish my phone out of my pocket, still surprised the screen only suffered a few cracks considering Cherry’s was ruined.

The torn skin of my hands sting as I swipe through all the missed calls and numerous text messages from both Rory and Wyatt already.

I swallow thickly as I pull up Wyatt’s number, my thumb hovering over the call button.

How the fuck do I explain this?

With another ragged breath, I scrape a hand over my head.

It doesn’t matter how I explain it, all that matters is that I have to. I owe it to Wyatt and Cherry. To be honest.

Finally, I press call.

Wyatt answers almost instantly. ‘Dude, where the hell are you? Have you heard from Cherry? We’ve been trying to get a hold of both of you.’ The faint panic already lacing his words forces me to blow out another deep breath. When I don’t respond immediately, his voice hardens. ‘Duke?’

‘I’m at the hospital,’ I explain.

‘What – are you okay? Is Cherry okay?’

Keep breathing, Duke. You can handle this.

‘We’re fine. But we got in an accident. On my bike.’ Each word comes out laboured, the hand not holding my phone scrunched into a tight fist.

‘ Rory, grab my keys!’ Wyatt suddenly shouts, the scuff of footsteps across the wooden floor already audible as he hurries around the house.

‘What’s happened?’ Rory’s voice rings out distantly on the end of the line.

‘We need to go,’ Wyatt insists.

‘Neither of us are seriously hurt,’ I try to reassure him, knowing that despite her seizures, as far as the paramedics were aware, Cherry’s injuries weren’t serious. ‘But Cherry … she – she had a fit after the crash and—’

‘Why the hell was she on your bike, Duke?’ There’s a gravelly edge to his voice now, like subdued thunder, the same kind I listened to only a couple of days ago with Cherry in my arms. ‘Duke?’

‘She’d been wanting to learn to ride for a while—’

‘Why does that matter to you?’ Exasperation makes his voice rougher.

‘Hey,’ it’s Rory’s voice again in the background, ‘let me drive.’

The jingle of keys sounds before a front door thuds. Pounding rain fills the phoneline, rushing sounds and heavy footfalls, until Rory and Wyatt must reach the safety of their truck. The distant rumble of an engine cuts in.

‘Jesus, Duke.’ Wyatt breathes out on a sharp, shaky exhale. ‘You know I wouldn’t want Cherry putting herself in danger like that.’

‘I know, I’m sorry. I thought the roads would be fine. We were coming over together, to talk to you—’

‘Talk to me about what?’ Wyatt asks.

My throat is too tight, too blocked up to push the words out.

He presses again, ‘About what , Duke?’

‘About … us.’

Wyatt’s only response is to whisper back, repeating the word us, as if it’s a foreign word he’s trying to decipher, when in truth it’s a reality he never expected. Perhaps even never wanted.

I push on, ‘Look, I can explain better when you get here, just – they won’t let me see her unless there’s family and—’

‘You’re supposed to be my best friend,’ is all he says, his voice stripped bare of all the previous anger, leaving it hoarse and drowning with disappointment. ‘What have you done?’

Then the phone line goes dead and my heart drops.

All those years worrying about Wyatt finding out I liked Cherry crumble away as if they were nothing.

Insignificant in the present moment while his little sister lies unconscious in a hospital bed because of me.

Especially when he storms into the hospital, taking one look at me, my bloodied clothes, and walks straight to the desk without a word.

Rory mouths to me, I’m sorry , as the nurse directs Wyatt to Cherry’s room, but she doesn’t get a chance to say more as her hand is interlinked with Wyatt’s and he whisks her off, leaving me alone in the waiting room with nothing but my world shattering around me.