Page 116 of The Arrangement

My bottom lip quivers.

“I know he’s going to be fine. I feel it. And I need you to feel it, too. Wherever he is right now, he’s thinking about you. He might lose an arm, but he’ll just be pissed he can’t use it to hold you.”

Sobs wrack my body, and I try so hard to keep them in check.

“But you did marry me. And I fell in love with you. Hopelessly in love with you, Chloe. I’ve fallen so fucking hard for you that I can’t breathe.”

“What do we do? Just sit here?” I ask, feeling helpless.

“We sit tight and wait on a call,” Gannon says.

“And we pray,” Tate says, gazing out the window as if he expects Jason to pull up at any moment.

I look over my shoulder to see Ripley sitting on the floor beside Mimi, her hands in his. Tears streak her cheeks, too.

“Where’s your mother?” I ask, wondering how she’s holding up.

“She’s with Renn at the hospital,” Tate says. “A doctor there gave her something to keep her calm.”

“How’s Renn?” I ask.

“He was telling Arlo stories about Jason the last time I talked to Blakely. Jason’s going to be a living legend in that kid’s mind. I don’t know how we’re going to even the score,” Ripley says.

I laugh through my tears.

Tate turns to us. “Anyone want a cup of coffee?”

“Come help me up,” Mimi says. “I’ll put on a pot.”

It’s going to be a long, lonely, terrible night.

You have to come back to me, Jason Brewer. There is no other option here. You can’t leave me—you promised you’d always be here.

I need you.

I love you.

Always will.

Chapter 29

Jason

“Has anyone called my wife?” I ask as I’m wheeled into the ER. “Is anyone listening to me?”

“Your family is en route to the hospital, Mr. Brewer,” one of the medics says. “We’ve told you this ten times.”

“And I’m now asking for the eleventh time.Has anyone called my wife?”

My head feels like it might fall off my neck, and my left shoulder screams in pain. It feels like a hot poker is being jabbed into my clavicle repeatedly, but at least I can walk.

I’m pushed into a secure bay at the far end of the ER. Nurses and doctors come in immediately, hooking me up to lines and machines and getting a game plan in place to check me out.

All I want is to see Chloe.

Once they’re sure I’m not going to die on the bed, they begin to filter out, leaving me with one short, dark-headed doctor that can’t be much older than Chloe.

Chloe. Where are you, beautiful?