Page 132 of Whenever You Call

“I’m not going to make promises we can’t keep. I don’t believe in that.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying we’re fighting like hell for him, and—woah there!”

My knees buckled, but he somehow held me up, and I tried again to look around him. To see Logan and go to him—to be there just in time for him to sit up, groan, smirk at me, and then crack an ill-timed joke that nobody would laugh at—but Jerry blocked my view and shook his head.

“We need to get him to the hospital now, Hannah.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“I know,” he said, his voice dropping quieter. “I know.”

Forcing down my own fears, I looked up at him, and I gripped his shoulders tightly, shaking them in my grip. “Don’t you do that,” I snapped. “Don’t you give up on him. He wouldn’t dare give up on you. He doesn’t give up onanyonehe loves. He’d expect you to fight for him the way he’d fight for you—for all of us!”

He let me shake him, but he never looked away as his jaw clenched and his eyes welled with even more tears.

“You’re the best paramedic he knows, and you’re wasting your time here with me?” I smacked at his chest, pushing him back. “Go to him. Savehim.”

Jerry’s eyes searched my entire face before he let me go. “I won’t let you down. Either of you.” Then he left, running back to the others who had brought a gurney in before they began to prepare for Logan’s transfer to hospital.

I couldn’t look away from him. A man who had always been so sturdy, so strong, now laid out on the ground, lifeless.

I didn’t care who saw me or who was looking on. The moment they’d strapped him in after so many checks were run, and so many commands shouted across from man to man, I ran to Logan’s side. The brace around his neck held him still, his face bust-up with so much swelling and blood, I hardly recognized him.

But I knew he was still in there.

I felt it in my heart; the one that now beat for him.

When they pushed me away and lifted him into the back of the ambulance, I stumbled back on unsteady feet, but before they closed the doors on me, I gave Logan my voice to cling onto.

“I love you, Logan Thomas!” I shouted above everyone and every noise that consumed the air. “I love you, and don’t you dare forget that. Don’t you dare leave me behind like this without telling me you love me too!”

The doors closed, and the men and women in navy uniform rushed to their vehicles, each of them desperate to save their friend without a second to spare, leaving me standing on the street, watching the man I loved being whisked away while other firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics worked on the distressed man in the sports car behind me.

I stood there alone in the streets of Beverly Hills, not caring who knew that I loved Logan now.

“Who cares about tomorrow when I need you today,” I whispered, allowing myself only a moment before I turned back toward my house, and I ran to my car.

Chapter48

HANNAH

Three days went by, and I didn’t leave the hospital, even though it brought back so many bad memories and emotions, I’d once sworn never to return. Now, though, I was willing to spend a lifetime here if being nearby somehow kept Logan’s heart beating.

Livia and Bella came by often, bringing me food I couldn’t bear to eat, drinks I couldn’t bear to drink, and comfort I couldn’t have survived without. Despite wanting to shield my daughter from everything, she had a fiery determination when it came to the new man in her life, and she’d been desperate to check on Logan, too. Every night she’d beg to climb into bed with Livia to share stories about him, and every morning she woke bright and early, like the lazy part of her genetics had simply disappeared, and she’d begged and begged and begged until Livia had no choice but to drive her to the hospital to see me.

It turned out my daughter had fallen in love with Logan as much as I had.

We clung to each other throughout the days, and I struggled to let her go on the nights. The doctors and nurses at the hospital tried to encourage me to go home and rest, but I’d shrugged them off as politely as I could, making it clear that, until I could walk out of there with the man I loved beside me, I wouldn’t be going anywhere.

They must have seen something immovable inside me because after a while, they simply stopped asking, instead wondering what they could do to make me more comfortable while I waited. I always looked at them the same way as if to say,Wake him up. Make him open his eyes, and I’ll never feel discomfort again,but their silent, sympathetic smiles were all they’d been able to offer.

Logan had been in a natural coma for the last three days.

Despite me not being his next of kin, the doctors had been generous enough to fill me in on what was going on with him. The blunt trauma had caused so much damage to his body, he’d no longer been able to stay conscious. Terms were thrown at me constantly:

Internal bleeding.

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