Page 60 of Forever Your Touch

Were all the Kincaids outright beautiful? She wanted to hate them or envy them, but she couldn’t. They’d been too nice to her and her family.

Nik didn’t touch Lily right away. He gave her a second, and she blew out a breath before nodding slightly. Then he pulled her to him, giving her a quick kiss. “Good morning, Lily Bells.”

“Good morning,” she whispered. “Is there any news on the baby?”

Nik looked over to them, and Keith shook his head. “Last I heard, the doc took Ava into surgery. There were some complications. I think your family is in the chapel right now.”

“Thank you. We’ll come back and see you in a bit, Jo.” Nik took his wife’s hand and led her out of the room, presumably to find the chapel.

“That is just awful.”

“We’ve been praying for them,” her mother said. “They have to be so scared.”

“About as scared as we were when Keith told us you’d let the lawnmower run over your leg,” her dad said, the anger still in his voice.

“I didn’tletthe lawnmower do anything.” She sank back against the pillow, starting to become irritated herself. “It decided to run away on its own.”

“How do you even fall and get your whole leg under the thing?” Keith leaned forward, propping his elbows on the bed. “I mean, I could understand a foot or something, but your whole leg? Lawnmowers are pretty close to the ground, Sis.”

“You know me.” She tried for flippant but failed miserably.

“Yeah, we do.” Keith laughed, his blue eyes alight with merriment. “I think you are going to die before you hit thirty in some kind of freak accident caused by you tripping over your own two feet.”

“That is not funny, Keith.”

He flashed his mother a smile, one that tried to be innocent, but totally wasn’t.

“So, what’s the prognosis?” She gestured to her leg. “How much damage did I do? I know the surgeon explained it to me yesterday, but I can’t remember any of it. I was too scared to pay attention.”

“You tore the main tendon that goes from your knee to your ankle in half. All the ligaments in your lower leg are pretty much shredded.” Her mother winced as she spoke. “They said you won’t be walking on it for at least six weeks, and then you’re going to have to go to physical therapy.”

“Holy shit.”

“Language, young lady,” her mother reprimanded her, but there was no force to it. This was a situation that called for cursing.

“What am I going to do about school?”

“Mason said he’s going to talk to the dean on Monday to see what can be worked out.” Keith sat back and stretched.

“Mason seems to be a stand-up guy.” Her father dragged the chair Nik had been in over to the one her mother sat in.

“He is. Stayed with me through everything. He was the only one with the sense to wrap my leg and hold pressure in the worst spots.”

“That boy saved your life.” Her mother gripped her hand. “You lost a lot of blood, Jojo. A lot. You nicked an artery, and had he not done what he did so quickly, they told us you could have bled to death before they got you here.”

Holy shit. This time she said it in her head, but holy shit. She’d been that badly injured? She remembered feeling woozy, but she had no idea she’d lost that much blood. Sure, the doctor had ordered blood, but it hadn’t registered with her why he’d done it.

She was a walking death trap.

Howhadshe survived this long?

There was a knock on the door, and Sara came in with what looked like a menu. “Good morning.”

“Hey, Sara.” Jo finally smiled. She liked Sara and Viktor.

“How you feeling, honey?”

“I’ve been better. How’s the baby?”

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