Page 34 of Forbidden Lyrics

There are too many emotions filtering through me. I felt like I went from zero to sixty in two seconds and started to come down when Gibson and I were flirting before my nerves were ratcheted right back up again when he left. But Ashton doesn’t need to worry about me right now. I’ll be fine, but I need to know that Reese is okay.

Please let her be okay.

With a deep breath, I force myself to nod. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Can I have Gibson’s number? He promised to keep me updated.”

“Sure thing.” He pulls out his phone, rattling off the numbers as I type them into my cell.

“Keep me updated, too,” he orders.

“I will.”

He leaves, and my hands shake as I type out a text.

Me: Hey, Gibson. This is Dove. What’s going on? Is Reese okay? PLEASE keep me updated.

I stare at the screen, begging him to respond, but he doesn’t.

Not yet.

And it only fans my anxiety.

Please be okay.

Chapter Nine

Dove

I wake up to my phone buzzing against my Ikea nightstand. Blinking away my sleepiness, I slide my thumb across the screen without bothering to see who’s calling me in the middle of the night.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me,” Gibbs returns.

“Hey,” I croak.

“Shit, did I wake you?”

I smile as I check the time on my alarm clock. “It’s three in the morning.”

Pause.

“Shit,” he repeats under his breath.

With a light laugh, I roll onto my side and press the phone to my other ear. “It’s fine. You never texted back.”

“I know. Sorry.” He pauses, then sighs. “It’s been chaos.”

“What’s going on? You freaked me out leaving like that.”

“Sorry,” he repeats, his voice thick with remorse. “There was an accident.”

I sit up in bed, my earlier amusement vanishing into thin air. “What kind of accident?”

“A car accident. Reese is okay. Broken wrist and a couple of bruised ribs.”

“And River? Was he in the car with her?”

“Yeah. He uh”––Gibbs clears his throat––“he was burned pretty badly.”

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