Page 67 of Whisper of Surrender (Whisper Lake 2)

“I know, Dad.” She pulled him into a hug. “Thank you.”

“There you are.” She heard her mom’s voice behind her and Jess thought she must be talking about her dad.

But when her dad separated from their hug, she saw that it wasn’t him her mom was looking at. Her mom was looking right at her and the moment Jess saw the expression on her face she knew something was wrong. Very wrong.

“What? What is it? What’s wrong?”

“It’s a four.” Her mom used the how-bad-is-it system that they’d devised for whenever one of them would want to talk about something. “Talks” in their house had generally involved bad news or critical life or death situations so their brains had started jumping to that expectation when someone wanted to talk, and many times it would turn out they were just discussing what was for dinner or if anyone wanted to watch a movie.

So, one was a simple, what-do-you-want-for-dinner type level and five was basically someone was dying or dead.

Her mom had said four. That was still pretty bad. Jess emotionally braced herself.

Her mom used her calm, everything-is-going-to-be okay-but-this-is-serious tone. “I just spoke to Daisy, she tried you first but when you didn’t answer she called my cell. There’s been an incident. Ethan was injured and they’re taking him to the hospital.”

“Oh, okay…” Jess was slightly relieved, remembering that he’d been shot the week before and been fine enough to show up for dance rehearsal. “But he’s okay, right?”

“I don’t know, sweetie. Daisy sounded pretty upset. She’s on her way to the hospital now. She got a ride with Doris.”

Jess nodded as the information she’d just been told swam in her head. “I’ve gotta go. I need to go…”

“I’ll drive,” her dad said as he was already pulling the keys from his pocket.

Her mom lifted her arm that had two purses hanging off of it. “I’ve got your purse, let’s go.”

Jess felt numb as she and her parents walked out to the car. Her dad was in full I’ve-got-a-mission mode, walking with purpose toward their SUV. Her mom was in support mode, walking beside Jess with quiet assurance.

The hospital was over an hour away, but thankfully, her parents didn’t try to talk to her. They just let her be in her thoughts and she appreciated it.

She texted Ali, who responded that she and Kade were right behind them.

Jess looked out the window at the trees passing by and she reminded herself that she and Ethan weren’t actually a couple, but whenever she did a small voice in the back of her head—that sounded a lot like Ali—would tell her that they were something. They might not be together, officially, but they were damn sure involved.

“Did she say what happened?” Jess heard herself ask her mom, even though she already knew the answer.

“No. I don’t think they gave her any information other than there was an incident, he was being transported to Grace Memorial, and that she should come.”

“They told her she should come?” Jess could hear the panic in her voice.

She knew that her mom had said that Daisy was going to the hospital but hearing that they told her she should come was a whole different ball game.

Her mom turned and looked at her in the back seat, her facial expression and tone calm and soothing. She nodded. “Yeah. They did, sweetie.”

Jess bit her lower lip as she turned her head and looked out the window again. She’d wasted so many years acting like she didn’t like him, masking what she felt for him with irritation, using the fact that she thought he’d “betrayed” her as an emotional crutch to justify her keeping him at arm’s length. And now she’d finally admitted, to herself at least, how she felt about him, what she wanted, and how incredible they could be together and it might be too late.

---