“This isn’t about me!” I hissed, trying not to let my heart warm at the thought of Easton fighting something as strong as death to be with me. It was romantic in a dark, twisted way. “It’s about Easton and Ethan living.”
“I know, I’m just saying, Easton has an anchor.”
Ethan didn’t.
No, that wasn’t right. He had friends, me, his brothers loved him, the people of this town loved him. Surely that could be an anchor.
Knowing Easton was on the verge of life or death made me wish all the years we spent apart, me being angry and bitter, didn’t happen. It wasn’t worth it now. It all seemed so trivial, so unimportant. Was I ready to jump into his arms and trust him? No. Did it mean I wanted to move forward? Yes.
I’d never forgive myself if something happened to him without setting things right.
Actually, setting them right. Not just wanting to end the conversation because I didn’t want to talk to him.
I pressed the heel of my hands to my eyes as I let regret wash over me. I should have been stronger and faced him years ago. Instead, we acted like children over something that happened when we were just children.
Time ticked by slowly. The gloomy sky had just darkened to the pitch of night when the doctor came out of the double doors. Every single person in the waiting room stood, and the doctor paused, overwhelmed by the number of people squeezed into such a small room.
“The Moore family?” the doctor called out, standing in the middle of the hallway. The green scrubs had soot on them, and he ripped off the scrub cap on his head as he waited for people to approach.
The Moore family stood immediately, and I did too, but then I dumbly remembered that my last name wasn’t Moore. A wave of disappointment hit me. Maybe I could have had the last name already if Easton and I hadn’t been ignoring each other over the years.
“You coming?” Evan asked me, holding out his hand for me to take. “You know damn well you’re just as much a part of us as we are of you.”
I gave him a wobbly smile and gave him a small nod. I winced when he squeezed too hard on my injured palm, and as we walked down the white-tiled hall, he flipped my hand over to see the scratches where I fell. I had forgotten all about that until right then.
“Wow, all of you are here for Easton and Ethan Moore?” the doctor asked. All of the brothers surrounded the doctor, along with our parents, and of course, London and Oliver were on my heels. “I’m Doctor Titan. Both men are stable—”
All of us let out a breath of relief and cheered. Evan picked me up in a big bear hug and spun me around before dropping me back on my feet.
“—But! But!” Doctor Titan yelled over the ruckus of early celebration. “Ethan has some significant burns over most of his body. Easton, even though the medics said he was covering Ethan, has a few third-degree burns, but they won’t need the extensive care that Ethan’s will need. Ethan broke a leg while Easton broke his arm. Both have severe smoke inhalation. They are on oxygen until I declare otherwise. Ethan is in a medically induced coma to help with the pain of his burns. They cover sixty percent of his body.”
“My baby. Oh, god. My baby,” Brooke, the mom of the boys, caught her face with her hands and sobbed. “My boy. My baby boy.” Her shoulders shook, and the agony ripping from her chest made a few waves of emotion bubble up in my chest. “No!” she yelled, and Noah held on to her tight when she buckled over, clutching her head to his chest. His fingers ran through her hair, and I knew he was trying to stay strong, but water crept out of the corner of his blue eyes. He was devastated and about to fall apart too.
“Easton is awake if you’d like to see him. He’s pretty out of it. We have him on a lot of pain meds, but his third-degree burns are on the arm that isn’t broken.” Doctor Titan said. When I heard that Easton was awake I wailed, but this time it was with relief.
Evan held me as I wept. The emotions that burned through me were so intense, they nearly forced me to my knees to pray, and I wasn’t the praying type, but I was then. I was in that moment.
“Um, I say family only, but he has
a lot of family.” The doctor looked at us with tired eyes, not really sure what to do with us all.
“We will be quiet,” my mom said, pleading with the doctor to let us all go, and Brooke reached to her left side to take my mom’s hand. They had remained friends after all these years, and I was glad that they had each other. “Please,” her voice trembled, reminding me of tremors before an earthquake broke the ground.
The doctor’s dull blue eyes, lifeless and tired, softened around the edges as he looked at a devastated mother. He had a soft spot for her, or maybe it was a soft spot for sad women. I didn’t know. “Okay, but you have to remain calm, okay? I know it’s scary and seeing them in the hospital beds will be a shock.”
Everyone nodded, and I took the first step toward Easton. I didn’t know what the future held for us. I just hoped it held more than pain and kept his heart beating along with mine.
Chapter Twelve
Easton
Holy shit, I felt like I fell through a floor and landed on a person.
Oh, wait.
Yeah, that did happen. I blinked my eyes open; the cold hiss of the oxygen inflated my lungs, and severe pain radiated throughout my entire body. It was like someone ran me over with a truck, then reversed for the hell of it. The lights were low, so my eyes adjusted easily to the room. An annoying beep came from my right, and I grunted, wishing the damn thing would turn off. My arms were killing me, and when I looked down, I noticed my left arm was broken and a bandage covering half my arm on the right.
My brows pinched together for a minute before I remembered what happened.