Page 14 of Divorced from Number Thirty-Eight
“I—”
I squeeze her hand. “Your lungs hurt, and it hurts me to hear you trying,” I murmur. “So, just rest and let the doctors and nurses take care of you.”
“Gray—”
Stubborn.
I didn’t expect that from my shy, quiet next-door neighbor—especially when we’ve spoken all of a dozen words to each other over the last four years.
“Baby,” I murmur. “I’m going to need you to stop hurting yourself.”
Her eyes go wide again, her cheeks now bright pink.
But she falls quiet.
I take advantage of that and turn to the nurse, asking, “Am I right?”
He’s slightly less distrustful than five minutes ago when I was considering imparting my Wine Night knowledge instead of her allergies. “Your…” A pointed look in my direction, telling me that even less distrustful, he’s still going to be watching me. “Husband is right.”
Faye jerks in the bed, mouth opening again.
But he talks over her, saying, “You need to rest.” His eyes come back to mine. “I’ll grab the doctor. Then you’ll need to step out so she can be examined.”
I nod.
A trickle of relief trailing across his face—likely because I’m not going to make this shit difficult—then he’s stepping from the room, flicking the curtain shut behind him.
“Husband?” she asks quietly.
“It was the only way for me to ride with you in the ambulance.”
A blip of humor in her eyes before they grow serious and she lifts the oxygen mask from her face. “You saved me.”
It’s still mostly a rasp but when I go to tell her to save her voice, her fingers wrap around my wrist, squeeze lightly. Fuck, but her eyes are pretty, a warm brown with flecks of gold and green, and so full of emotion my lungs seize for a moment.
Then her words slam into me.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“You almost made it out,” I whisper back.
She had.
But she also hadn’t.
Something I know she knows when she shakes her head. “I tried. But I wasn’t going to get there.”
“The firefighters were on their way.”
“They wouldn’t have made it in time. Not with how intensely the fire was burning.”
“They would have.” But I’m not so sure. They arrived not long after I carried Faye out, the ambulance on their heels, but her house was already completely engulfed.
I don’t know how the fire started.
I do know it burned furious and hot and fast.
I’d only gotten there in time to save her because I was awake and chastising myself about being an idiot about Courtney.
