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  “It’d be best not to. We need to know—”

  She pointed to the Coast Guard ship that was making its way toward them. “They know the details. We called it in. The coordinates of where we were fishing. The rod jammed and my husband was pulled into the water. Evan rescued him, but he wasn’t fast enough. A shark… She was there. She came up out of the water and…and…” Get a grip, Rie. Get a goddamn grip. “She bit him.” Nausea rose from her stomach to tickle the back of her throat. “That’s what happened.”

  She was panting by the time she blurted all of that out. Thankfully, the only other information the officer wanted to know was how to contact her. After she rattled off her name, her cell number, Garrett’s cell number and where they were staying in Inlet Beach, she was free to go.

  She grabbed her bag out of the cabin and took off like a blue streak for the parking lot. It took forever before she could grip the key fob the right way and find the unlock button. It took even longer to move the driver’s seat up far enough to accommodate her shorter legs. The precious thirty seconds she spent inputting the hospital’s address into the SUV’s GPS seemed as if it lasted a hundred times longer.

  Finally she was on her way. The hospital was only a few miles out, but for her, it might as well have been on the moon. She couldn’t find the flashing lights of the ambulance further ahead on the road, but she forced herself to take what the EMT had said to heart. Slowing down was one of the hardest things she’d ever done, but the last thing she needed was to crash and hurt herself—or worse, hurt someone else.

  By the time she arrived at the medical center and parked, the ambulances had already been unloaded. Despite her legs feeling as if they were filled with lead, she still managed a full-out run toward the ER doors.

  She burst through the entrance. “The two men who were just brought in?” she shouted, practically bashing into the front of the reception desk and performing the Heimlich maneuver on herself on the high-top counter.

  “Ma’am, easy. Are you related to them?”

  God, she didn’t need this right now. Fucking HIPAA.

  “Garrett’s my husband. Where is he?” When Riley started around the desk, the woman sprang out of her chair as if something had bitten her. She held out her arms, and met Riley at the corner to keep her from going any further.

  “They’re in triage right now. You’re related to them both? To the other man as well?”

  “He’s…” What was she going to say? He was her and Garrett’s lover?

  Fuck it, yes she was.

  “I’m with him, too. Please. You have to let me see them.”

  Surprise flashed across the woman’s face, but the shock didn’t stick. “Ma’am—”

  “Don’t ma’am me. Take me to my husband!”

  A woman in dark-green scrubs stuck her head out of the door leading to the rear exam rooms. “It’s okay, Sue. Let her back. He’s asking for her.”

  Riley didn’t give Sue the chance to back off before she sidewinded around her and sprinted through the door the other woman held open. “Who’s asking for me?”

  Was Evan awake?

  “Mr. Watson. Garrett? He’s in here,” she said, leading her through a set of automatic double-doors and into a treatment room.

  Garrett sat propped up on the stretcher. He had a white blanket wrapped around his shoulders and his thick hair was still damp, but was here, and he truly was okay. She’d never seen such a beautiful sight. “Oh Garrett…”

  The blanket fell away as he held his arms open for her. She sank into his hold, doing her best to wind her arms around him too. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I yelled at you.”

  “No, no, no. Don’t be.” The breath from his hushed words brushed across her ear. “It was a fluke, Rie. A crazy fluke that none of us had prepared for.”

  “I don’t know what I would have done…” A sob effectively ended that horrid train of thought. She couldn’t let her mind go there. Not ever.

  “Shh, shh, shh. It’s okay. I’ve got you, and I’m never letting you go.”

  “Please don’t,” she said, squishing her face into the crook of his neck. “I’d die if something happened to you. I love you. So, so much.”

  “Ah, babe. You know I love you more than anything.”

  They were quiet for a long moment, just squeezing the bejeezus out of each other. Then Garrett kissed the top of her head and said, “Where’s Evan? Did they tell you anything?”

  She shook her head, snuffling back her tears as she stepped out of his arms. “No, the nurse brought me straight in here. She didn’t say a word about him.”

  Two nurses came into the room then, both going straight for the supplies sitting on the short sink counter at the side of the room. They were silent as they each yanked and snapped a pair of the blue rubber gloves on—so closed off and stoic that it made Riley’s stomach lurch.

  “The other man who was brought in…” Riley started.

  The nurses looked at each other but didn’t say anything or even look her way. That wasn’t good.

  “Where is he?”

  “They’re working on him now,” the tall, skinny nurse said. Riley couldn’t believe she got even that much out of her, not with the clammed-up way they were both acting.

  At any other time, Riley would appreciate the staff’s discretion, but this definitely wasn’t one of those times. She knew the laws, the ones regarding patient privacy. Hell, she defended them every day. But right now, those laws could go straight to hell.

  She needed to find Evan.

  She met Garrett’s stare. When he simply nodded, tiny fireworks inside her heart went off. “Go,” he whispered. “Find him.”

  She didn’t wait even a second before she turned tail and bolted for the door. One of the nurses ran after her, shouting, “Ma’am, you can’t—”

  “Oh yes, I can. And I will.” Out in the hallway, she jerked to the left, peeking into each room as she searched for the one holding Evan, all while the nurse frantically scurried behind her.

  She came to the door three down from Garrett’s, and froze.

  There were at least five or six people in the room surrounding the stretcher. All Riley could see was the crown of Evan’s head. His short, sandy-blond hair had dried before Garrett’s longer and thicker locks had, and she couldn’t help but notice the red streaks of blood running through the strands. Some sections stuck up on end, as if he’d gripped the shit out of them in an attempt to battle the pain.

  That meant he’d come to, right?

  “Evan?” She tried to run into the room—for the love of all that was good in the world, she needed to be with him—but the nurse who’d come after her held her back just as a man in a gray coat calmly peered over his shoulder at her.

  “You should wait outside.”

  Oh, she didn’t like the sound of that. Not one bit. “No! Let me go. Please.”

  “Let them do their jobs,” the nurse said just as evenly.

  They could. They could absolutely do their jobs—as long as she was in there too.

  Evan let out a gut-wrenching cry then that curled Riley’s toes. Yes, yes, yes, he was awake, but the pain he had to be in…

  All hell broke loose at that point. The nurses scrambled. The doctors yelled. But Evan didn’t make another sound. It wasn’t long before she knew why.

  One skin-on-skin slap cracked though the uproar. Then another. And then a third. “Evan,” the doctor shouted. “Come on back. Evan!”

  Riley clutched the metal edge of the treatment room’s sliding glass doorway. I’m losing him, she thought.

  It couldn’t happen this way. Please, please not this way.

  It was then she made a pact with herself.

  Let him be okay and I’ll give him what he wants.

  Let him be okay and I won’t fight for him.

  Let him be okay and I’ll let him go.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Come on back. Evan!”

  The muffled shout swam in Evan’s e
ars, along with a whole lot of incessant bell-ringing. For a moment, he didn’t have a fricking clue where in the hell he was. He blinked repeatedly, but shadows kept crowding the corners of his vision. Jesus, why was someone slapping him? He turned to his side to curl into himself in a lame attempt to fend off whomever was whaling on him. Searing pain ripped through his foot when he moved, and everything came rushing back to him all at once.

  Holy. Shit.

  “We’ve got him.” The man’s voice wasn’t as muted as before, and whoa, the ringing in his ears ramped up in intensity as well. “Evan? Hey, hold still for us, okay?”

  The hospital. He had to be in the hospital. Because he’d been attacked by a shark.

  Oh fuck.

  “Riley,” he croaked. “Garrett?” Where were they?

  “I’m here!”

  Riley’s sweet, sweet voice soothed him like an elixir to his soul. But she sounded so far away. He couldn’t see her. He couldn’t feel her. He reached out, fighting to sit up, fighting to get to her.

  “Hold on. Plenty of time for that.” The man—the doctor?—wrestled his arm back down on the stretcher. “Let us take care of you first. Open that IV all the way,” he said. “Let’s push those fluids. Type and cross him too. Just in case.”

  Oh hell. Had he lost that much blood?

  Just as that thought speared his brain, the doctor came into his field of vision. “Bear with us, Evan. It looks as if she missed the foot’s main blood supply, but I need to make sure there’s no debris in there and that she didn’t crush anything. We’re going to numb you first and then get this stapled up. You’re going to feel every bit of the needle when we do that, but I promise it’ll be better afterward.”

  Yes, yes, holy hell, yes. Anything had to be better than the pain slicing through his foot right now.

  “X-ray’s here,” one of the nurses announced.

  The room cleared out, except for the mobile X-ray tech rolling in the machine. Evan clenched his teeth and hissed when the tech jostled the table as she set him up for the X-ray, but she was apologetic—quick and efficient, too—and at that point nothing else mattered to him.

  Except seeing Riley.

  After the X-ray, with fewer people clogging the room, he finally caught sight of her by the door. Their stares collided and his heart nearly stopped. She’d been so mad at him on the boat, but all he saw in her eyes now was fear—and, God help him, a healthy dose of L-O-V-E.

  She was wringing the shit out of her hands and holding her breath as tears slid down her cheeks. The doctor returned, looking from him to Riley and back again before motioning toward her. He had to have seen the terror in her eyes, because all he said was a quiet, “Come on in.”

  She rushed for Evan, cupping his cheeks and kissing him, over and over, all across his face. “Oh my God, I was so worried. Are you okay? You are. You’re okay.”

  Was she trying to convince him or herself?

  He didn’t get to say anything before she started kissing him again. This time, though, instead of hopping around from spot to spot on his face, she went for his mouth. And damn, he was so on board with that. Her lips were the perfect distraction, her frantic kiss the ultimate pain medication.

  When she pulled away, Garrett came hobbling through the door. His knee had been wrapped from mid-thigh to mid-calf, but he didn’t look any worse for the wear. He fell in beside Riley, sliding his arm around her shoulders as he gripped Evan’s hand in his own. He held on tightly, his smile tense and forced.

  “You had us worried.”

  Yeah, he’d had himself a bit concerned, too. “They stitched you up?”

  As Riley dropped her head against Garrett’s chest, he said, “Nah, I didn’t need any. The cut was mostly superficial, I’m guessing from the fishing line when I got caught up in it after she dragged me in.”

  The doctor picked that exact moment to poke at the edge of his gash—a gruesome, eight-inch fleshy tear that went from his ankle bone down to his little toe. Evan reflexively squeezed Garrett’s hand and tried like hell to breathe through the pain. Garrett squeezed back and Evan couldn’t have been more grateful that they were both there with him.

  “Okay, give us just a few more minutes,” the doctor said, stepping back. “Let me go check the X-ray. There’s no sense in closing this up if there’s internal damage. We’d just have to turn around and go in to repair it if there is.”

  Evan let out a long breath as the pain from the doc digging around abated some. “Yeah, sure. That makes sense.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  As the doctor hurried out of the exam room, Evan eased up on the grip he had on Garrett’s hand, but he didn’t let it go.

  “I can’t believe this,” Evan started.

  Garrett shook his head before Evan even finished speaking. “No. Don’t fucking do that. You and I both know that accidents happen all the time. Neither one of us did anything wrong or did anything to cause this.”

  Evan stared him down for a moment, knowing in his heart Garrett was right. But damn…

  Riley leaned in closer, sliding her cheek next to his while cupping his other in her shaky hand. She didn’t say anything, she simply kissed his earlobe and held him gently. They stayed like that for long moments, with Riley’s cheek warming his and his hand clutched firmly within Garrett’s.

  When the doctor returned the second time, Riley let him go, but only long enough for her to settle her palm over the top of his and Garrett’s entwined hands.

  “Good news.” The doctor tapped the pedal on the floor in front of the sink with his Croc-covered foot. He soaped up and disinfected each finger individually as he glanced over at Evan. “The X-rays are clear. You, my friend, are one incredibly lucky man.”

  Evan knew he was, and that luck showed itself in more ways than one. Coming away from a shark attack without losing his entire leg and bleeding to death was clear evidence of that.

  Garrett and Riley working their way deep into his heart was too.

  As if thinking that was its cue, Evan’s pulse ratcheted higher. Sure, he could blame the acceleration on the pain. He could blame it on the adrenaline that kept loopty-looping through his bloodstream. Or he could come clean with himself and realize that his sky-rocketing heart rate was because, right here, right now, he knew he’d fallen in love with them.

  Dear God…

  The now gloved-up doctor hovered over his foot at the far end of the stretcher. “Ready?” he asked, holding a big-ass syringe in his hand.

  As far as distractions went, Evan wholeheartedly preferred Riley’s kisses. But there was no avoiding this—or his hot-off-the-presses feelings—so he nodded, then turned his head and covered his eyes with his arm. He’d heard before how painful needles in the foot were, but, motherfucker, nothing could prepare him for the reality of it. Riley grabbed onto his shoulder, digging her fingers in as he clutched Garrett’s hand harder.

  She closed in on him once more, her lips brushing his ear. “Breathe,” she whispered to him. “Please breathe. Or you’ll black out again.”

  He was trying. Lord have mercy, he was trying. The last thing he wanted to do was puss out, but Jesus.

  “You’re doing great, just a couple more,” the doctor said.

  Evan uncovered his eyes at that point and latched onto Riley’s anxious stare. He needed an anchor, something to hold on to.

  “That’s it,” she said. “We’re here. We’re not going…”

  Anywhere was what he expected her to say. But she didn’t. Instead, she let the statement hang, and he couldn’t help but wonder why.

  “Done,” the doctor announced. “Great job. We’ll let it sit for a few minutes. I’ve ordered some Dilaudid for you too. Then we’ll get this flushed out and staple you up.”

  Evan’s breaths rasped in and out of his lungs from the pain. “Can I go after that?” Fuck, he sounded like a whiny little kid afraid of the doctor. Screw it, though. He didn’t give a shit how he sounded. He just wanted to get the hell ou
t of here.

  When the doctor hesitated, Riley spoke up. “I’m a physician’s assistant in Chicago.” She dug through the bag hanging from her shoulder and presented the doctor with a laminated card. Her hospital ID. “I can keep a very good eye on him.”

  “Normally we’d admit him at least overnight for observation because he lost consciousness.” After a long moment, however, the doctor acquiesced. “Under the circumstances, and because his pressure is up and his color is good, I’ll let him leave—but only because the X-rays showed that nothing is broken or crushed. You know the drill, though. Bring him back if the bleeding starts up again or he shows any sign of distress or infection.”

  “Yes, absolutely. We will.”

  Halle-flipping-lujah. And wow, double hallelujah when the nurse injected the pain medication into his IV. His head instantly lightened while the rest of his body felt as if it weighed at least a thousand pounds—but in a totally good way. The pain seemingly floated out of his body, replaced by a warm, drowsy, mind-numbing sensation.

  “Whoa. Whoever invented this shhhtuff should bottle it.”

  The most stunning smile he’d ever seen brightened Riley’s face. Hellfire, she was so beautiful. And Garrett was so handsome. And they were so sexy. And interesting. And kind. And…and…

  “I’m sure the manufacturers never thought of doing that,” she said, clearly teasing him. “Feeling good?”

  Wait, what? Oh, yeah… “Mm hmm. Verrrrry good.”

  He hadn’t even realized the doctor had left until he came sauntering back in the treatment room. “All right, let’s do this.”

  Okie dokie. That was fine by him. “Yesshhh. Yesshhh, let’s do thisssss.”

  The doctor gave him a quick smile. “I see the Dilaudid has kicked in.”

  Evan let his eyes drift shut on another breathy “Mm hmm.”

  And thank God for those killer meds, because whoo hoo, they went a long way toward making the injury flush, the dozen or more internal stitches and the twenty surface staples afterward, along with the overkill wrap-up of his foot, go by in a flash. He drifted along that billowy in-and-out stage as they waited a little while longer for his discharge information, his antibiotic and pain med prescriptions, and a pair of crutches and a stylish medical boot to be brought in before he was given a perfunctory heave-ho.