Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
I knocked again and waited a couple more minutes, but she didn’t answer. Hustling back to my car, I got back behind the wheel and turned on the engine for some heat. Then I called her. It went to voicemail. Without leaving a message, I hung up and texted.
Hey, cupcake. I have a surprise for you. Are you home?
Five minutes went by. Then ten.
A bad feeling had worked its way beneath my excitement. Something prickled at the back of my neck. I wasn’t usually someone who overreacted or assumed the worst, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. What if she was in the house but she couldn’t get to her phone or the door?
Blood pumping, I jumped out of the car and strode back onto her porch. I banged on the door with both fists. I called her name. I went around to the back door and pounded there too.
Nothing.
“Fuck!” I tugged on my hair, which I hadn’t even combed before leaving my apartment.
I was heading for my car again, trying to decide what to do, when another car pulled up in front of Mabel’s house. Hidden behind my SUV, I watched as the driver got out and hurried up the front walk.
It was Ari.
“Ari!” Again, I waded through half a foot of snow to get to the porch. “Where’s Mabel?”
Ari squealed and jumped, placing a hand over her heart. “Oh my God, you scared me!”
“Where is she? Is everything okay?”
“Jesus.” Ari took a couple deep breaths. “She’s okay. They’re just keeping her for observation for twenty-four hours.”
My blood pressure spiked as I pictured my girl in a hospital bed hooked up to machines. “Who’s they? Where is she? Observation for what?”
“She passed out in her bedroom this morning and hit her head on the dresser. She’s at Northern Medical Center.”
“Oh my God.” My heart. My heart. “Tell me she’s okay.”
“She’s fine. A bump on the head. Austin arrived within minutes and called 9-1-1. She was confused when he found her but was awake and talking by the time paramedics got here.”
“And the baby?”
“Baby is fine too.” She pulled a key from her pocket and stuck it in Mabel’s front door. “Let’s go inside. It’s freezing out here.”
“I want to go see her!”
“I’m here getting together a bag of things she wants. You can take them to her.”
I fidgeted, glancing at my car, but reluctantly followed her into the house. If there was something Mabel needed, I wanted to bring it to her. Following Ari inside, I caught sight of Cleo in the front hall. I crouched down to pet her while Ari removed her shoes.
“I’m sorry about the outburst yesterday,” she said. “I’m just protective of Mabel.”
“It’s okay.” I straightened up. “I needed to hear those words. After you said all that stuff to me, I couldn’t think about anything else. I couldn’t even focus on hockey—thank God I’m not back on the ice yet, because I watched an entire game without seeing a fucking thing. I went home and couldn’t sleep. Because I realized you were right about one thing—I love her—but wrong about the other.”
“The other?”
“You said Mabel wanted a love story. You said she wanted to meet the one and be swept off her feet. But then you said she didn’t meet the one—she met me.”
Ari tilted her head. “And?”
“And you’re wrong. I am the one. And I drove here at four in the morning to tell her that.”
Her eyes widened. “You did?”
“Yes! I love her, and I’m so mad at myself for waiting until now to tell her. She should not have been alone this morning. She shouldn’t be living alone. She should be living with me.”
“She needs to hear all this, Joe.”
“She will. As soon as I can get to her.”
“Right. Okay, come on.” She disappeared into Mabel’s bedroom, and I followed.
Moving quickly, she gathered things from Mabel’s dresser and then from the bathroom, tossing them all into a cloth bag she took from a hook on the back of Mabel’s door. I stood by the foot of the bed with guilt pummeling my chest as I imagined her losing her footing and falling to the floor, her precious head hitting the dresser.
I should have been there.
When the bag was full, Ari handed it over to me. “Here,” she said. “Northern Medical Center. You’ll have to sign in when you get there, and they’ll give you the room number.”
I grabbed the bag and was halfway to the front door before I turned around again. Poking my head back into the bedroom, I looked at Ari and touched my chest. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Joe.” She smiled at me. “Go get her.”
After parking in the hospital structure, I ran as fast as I could for the stairwell, taking them down three at a time. I bolted into the lobby, skidded to the reception desk, scribbled my name on the sign-in, slapped a visitor tag on my chest, and raced for the elevator. It was about to close when I yelled, “Hold the door!” A hand shot out, and I slipped inside the car.