Page 106 of Theirs

“Are you and Luke ok?” The worry in his tone was genuine.

“Yes we are,” I said.

“I’m sorry we didn’t call to give our condolences, we th?—”

“Have you heard from Genevieve?” I interrupted him.

“Not since the wedding. What's wrong?” He sounded even more worried.

“She was supposed to come today, but she never made it and her texts aren’t going through,” I said after hearing Luke come into the room.

His eyes were wide and I hated that he found out like this.

“Shit, I’m not in Denver,” Easton said.

His words deflated any hope I might have had.

“Let me call Cheryl and I’ll call you back,” he said hanging up.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Luke came into the room taking off his mud-caked shirt.

“I wanted it to be a surprise and when she didn’t call when she got to the airport, I initially assumed she got cold feet,” I said, gnawing on my lip. “When my texts didn’t go through, I don’t know, something didn’t feel right.”

“She could have gotten cold feet, I mean I wouldn't be surprised if she did,” he said, his shoulders slumped forward, and I hated seeing the defeat in his body.

“I don’t know, but this doesn’t feel right,” I said. “She was supposed to go have dinner with Cheryl. What if…”

I couldn't bring myself to say an accident, and I hated that I was worrying him. He stared at me with a look that said everything he was thinking.

“Get your stuff, we are leaving now,” he growled, marching to his bag, grabbing a new shirt and putting it on.

“Cariño, we should?—”

“No, I want to see with my own eyes if she is ok, even if it means that this might be the last time we see her,” he said, grabbing things and stuffing his bag. “I’m tired of this whole worrying about what happens when we get back to Denver. When we find out she is ok, we are talking and I don’t care if I have to tie you to a chair and make you talk.”

I didn’t move, stunned that he was so adamant about driving back now. Except that this is what I wanted too. I needed to see her, even if it was a possibility that it would be the last time. If she had gotten cold feet, at least we knew where we stood with her. We packed in less than ten minutes, and were on the road in twenty.

His brothers or sister didn’t question what the emergency was. I don’t think we were ready to tell them because we didn’t know if there was going to be a reason to tell them at all. My mind went to the darkest places as we drove and we still hadn’t heard from Easton.

We made a stop about an hour outside of Denver. It was the fastest stop we had ever taken and even though I was starving, a bag of chips and a Diet Coke would have to do. The second we got back on the interstate my phone rang with Easton’s name.

“Hello,” I said a little too loud, putting the phone on speaker.

“She’s at the hospital,” he said immediately.

“Fuck, what happened?” I said, as tears gathered in my eyes.

“Shit,” Luke whispered.

“No, she’s fine, it's Cheryl,” he said.

Relief coursed through me and I felt like an asshole.

“Is she ok?” If anything happened to Cheryl I didn’t know how Genevieve would survive.

“I don’t know details, but I do know she’s in surgery again,” he sighed. “Vincent’s friends at the station were going to do a wellness check for us when Cheryl wasn’t answering her phoneeither, but he recognized her address,” he said. “He found her wallet at the scene of an accident along with her phone.”

I clenched my jaw, keeping my emotions at bay, watching Luke tense up.

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