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I turned and noticed a room full of our friends quietly waiting for news. Marcus and Jesse had arrived from Seattle, as well as Alex Hayes. Cooper and Greg sat in the far corner.
They were here for us, and I needed to thank them. So I walked over and each man stood, then pulled me into a hug.
“Patrick is strong,” Alex said. “If we can do anything, just ask. Please.”
“I will.”
They didn’t know what to say, and neither did I. It was a matter of waiting to see how he was when he woke up.
“I’m here if you want to talk,” Cooper said. “He’s going to make it, Cole. He’s too strong not to.”
“Yeah, I hope you’re right.”
It wasn’t long before my parents, Claire and William Bradley, came in the door. My mother made a beeline to me and took me in her arms. “Oh my god, sweetheart. Have you heard anything?”
The tears came automatically and wrecked me again. “The OR nurse called to say he was stable, but ortho still hadn’t started working on his arm.”
She smiled and rubbed my cheek. My eyes were heavy and gritty again. “That’s good news, right?”
I nodded. “Yes. But this is all my fault, Mama. He came to the concert, and I pushed him away. I was so selfish, and I didn’t give him a chance to talk. I put my fans before him.”
“Sweetheart, it’s not your fault. You didn’t cause this.”
I was going to lose it. “But I did. If he’d been with me, this wouldn’t have happened.”
My father wrapped me tightly in his arms. “It’s not your fault, son. And Patrick is going to tell you that.”
Someone handed me some tissues for my eyes and runny nose. I cleaned up my face as best I could as my parents comforted me.
I sat for a while, then got up and paced before stopping to stare out the window again. All he ever asked of me was to love him, and I couldn’t imagine life without him. But I sure as fuck had put all that in jeopardy. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I sure as hell didn’t deserve him. And he doesn’t deserve this.
“We’re going to go get some coffee, sweetheart. Do you want some?”
“No. I’m okay.”
“Alright,” my mother said. “I got in touch with Laura and Mark. They’ll be here tomorrow, or today. They had to get a flight.”
I nodded, still kind of numb to everything.
My father kissed me on the head like he did when I was a kid before they walked out to get coffee. “We’ll be right back.”
I hadn’t even thought about checking my phone in the hours we’d been here. I needed to know if news about the accident had been posted yet.
I dug into my back pocket at almost four a.m. to find my phone had blown up with notifications from The Sports Network, every social media outlet we were on, as well as the local news. I didn’t want to read about what happened yet. I’m sure the police were going to tell me when they came to notify me about my car. I sure hope they don’t think it was stolen. And what was I going to say when they asked why Patrick Griffin was driving my car?
I couldn’t say he was my boyfriend.
I couldn’t say we lived together. Or used to.
I couldn’t say he was the most important person in the world to me.
That line of thinking stopped in its tracks when I sucked in a shuddered breath as my blue Audi Q7 appeared mangled on the back of a flatbed truck. The driver’s side door was missing and all the air bags had deployed. I didn’t want to know anymore right now, so I turned off the screen and stuck it in my pocket.
My parents had returned a little while later with their coffee, but gave me the space to process on my own. The only person who didn’t give me space when I was like this was Patrick. At least until last night.
Bent over with my hands in my hair, the soft murmurs of our friends talking stopped as the door opened again. I looked up as a man who looked to be in his early forties came in. He was wearing blue scrubs and looked tired. “Mr. Bradley?”
I stood up. “That’s me. I’m Cole Bradley.”
