Page 34 of No Second Chances

“I brought clothes,” Parker pipes up again, pushing forward with a bag of clothes. “In case they had to cut anything off her.”

“Great.” Tyler nods his head and adds, “She also asked that no one be here when she gets out.” A round of snorts and denials fill the room and Tyler just stands there. “Point taken.”

He turns to leave but I step forward before I can stop myself. “Can I see her?”

My heart races while I wait for him to deny me. For him to tell me to go home and wait. After all, Kennedy isn’t mine. Not really. I don’t have a claim to her other than one from when my life wasn’t a complete wreck.

He bites his lip for a second and looks back over his shoulder briefly.

“Follow me.”

With my heart in my throat, my lungs on fire, and my future down the hall, I follow him and hope that Kennedy won’t kick me out without giving me a chance to tell her… Hell, to tell her that she is everything to me.

15

KENNEDY

The most embarrassing thing that ever happened in my entire life is waking up in a hospital with a hot guy looking under my hospital gown. A hot guy who looks a lot like one of my deputies.

“Oh, no.” He looks up at me with blue eyes and a smile that matches his brother’s. “Please don’t tell Travis you saw my goodies.”

Tyler Masterson laughs as he continues to inspect something under the gown and then rolls his eyes when I blush and pull away. There has to be something in the water in Birch County, because almost all the men in our town are good-looking, and I don’t want a hot guy poking around on my body.

“Kennedy, it’s literally in my job description. Plus, I figure you’d rather have me do it than Nurse Ratched, as you call her.” He nods toward the door, where Mallory stands in a pair of scrubs, staring at me with shock and something akin to fear.

“Why’s she look scared?” I whisper loudly.

Tyler finishes what he is doing and offers me a hand so that I can sit up, and then he helps me pull a sheet over my lap to help cover the hospital gown as much as possible. “Because you threatened to kill her when they brought you in. And then we had to sedate you to keep you from getting off the bed. Nothing major,” he adds when he sees the concerned look on my face. “Just enough to keep you from thrashing around while we got scans.”

I sit there, trying not to burst into tears at everything that has happened, and close my eyes to get a sense of peace.

“You’ve got a concussion, which I expect you know, and some bruised ribs. So you’re going to be in pain for a little while, but if you take it easy, you’ll be back to it soon enough,” Tyler prattles on, and I have to cut him off.

“I get it,” I say waspishly. “Am I allowed to work with the concussion?” My mind is already moving on from the accident to trying to figure out my schedule. If I’m out sick, dispatch will be down another person, and I don’t know how they’ll make it work.

“Since I know you’re going to ignore me if I tell you to stay at home, I’m not going to give you that mandate. However,” he adds when I perk up. “I will expect you to take it easy. Don’t try and do anything crazy, and let your body heal. No alcohol for a week, and no vigorous activity.”

“My family’s here, aren’t they?” I look around, surprised that no one has forced their way into my hospital room yet. “I can feel it. They’re hiding, aren’t they?”

Tyler nods. “I can keep them out if you want.”

“Yes,” I whisper gratefully as a steady staccato of pounding in my head starts to ramp up. “Can you tell them to leave? I don’t want any of them here when I get out.”

“I’ll go let them know now.” He leaves without another word, and I sit there surrounded by machines and think about how lucky I’d gotten.

The accident plays on repeat in my mind, and I can’t believe so much damage happened in less than ten seconds. When I close my eyes, trying to stop the room from spinning, I’m not prepared for the sudden onslaught of memories or the smell of Cassie’s perfume to hit me in the chest like a freight train.

She’d been there, a hallucination, along with Danny. Keeping me there, grounded in reality, when everything was wrong.

Footsteps in the hall catch my attention, and I turn to see Tyler standing in the doorway with a bag, but he doesn’t step into the room. Instead, he turns back.

“Stay here. I’ll make sure she’s fine with you coming in.”

“Tell them no,” I call out. “Whoever it is, unless they’ve got tacos, they can leave.” At the mention of tacos, my stomach starts to growl, and I realize I’m starving.

“Oh man,” I groan. “I can’t even get tacos because my car is wrecked.” I bite my lip and stare at Tyler, who is watching me like I’m a crazy person. “They can come in. I’m gonna need a ride home and to Taco Bell.”

“I can do that.”

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