AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The waiting room is filling up outside. Do you want to go update everyone?”
My brows pinched. “At seven in the morning? They just left a couple hours ago.”
“Yeah. Adam and Michael are out there, and Greg and Cooper walked in with me. Callum and Declan are out of town, or they’d be here too. Jackson and Marcus are on daddy duty this morning, and so is Dom. Jesse and Aidan are at the office trying to get some information from the police. And Alex has gone to see Greer Rowan.”
I just looked at him, and he smiled. “You should be used to this bunch by now, Cole. You know how we roll. Like a big party bus, minus the party.”
“But how do you know all that?”
“Group chat.”
I huffed out a small chuckle. That was an accurate description, and I was tired as fuck.
“Go talk to everyone. I’ll stay right here with him.”
I looked at Patrick. Leaving him right now wasn’t an option. I couldn’t walk away from him like I did in Seattle. And if he woke up, I was going to be here.
“Can I use my phone in here?”
“If you can get a signal. Might be difficult, though.”
I dug into my pocket for my phone and pulled it out to see it was almost dead. Tapping the screen, I saw there were hundreds of notifications from social media and quite a few messages in my texts. The one from Laura, Patrick’s mother, caught my attention. She and Mark, his father, would arrive in a few hours from Michigan.
I texted her back to let her know he was stable, but still unconscious. She’d get it when their plane landed.
Then I texted Adam to let him know what was going on and asked him to tell the others. I’m sure I’d need to leave at some point when his parents arrived. But until that time came, I wasn’t leaving his side.
CHAPTER 10
PATRICK
God, my head hurts. And my arm.
Fuck.
The monotonous low beeping sound, along with murmured voices, registered somewhere in my head. My body felt so heavy and I couldn’t open my eyes.
What the hell was going on?
My brain hurt too much to think about it. But the melodic voice speaking to me was familiar. Cole. My Cole. I’d know his voice anywhere.
“I’ve had a lot of random memories pop up lately,” he said. “One was about when we were in middle school, and Lisa Rankowski asked you to the Valentine’s Day dance. She was so pretty with her long blonde hair and blue eyes, and she had a big crush on you. I mean, who wouldn’t? You were the one all the girls liked. Every time one of them tried to talk to shy Patrick Griffin, you’d turn red in the face, and Adam and I would laugh and tease you.”
I could feel his fingers on my skin that didn’t ache as much as the other one. They were rough, like he used them for something. And his voice was calming to me, even though he sounded like he had a sore throat.
“I remember how you looked at me and ran your hand through your hair to push it out of your eyes. I felt a little flutter in my stomach that I’d never felt before, and then you turned and told her no. I don’t know what you saw, but I’m so damn thankful you did. You said you were going with me. And Adam. I think that’s the first time I knew I loved you as more than my big, football playing friend.”
The crackle was back in his voice.
“I don’t know why I never thought to tell you about that day, but it made me so happy to feel like you chose me. But it was never really a choice for us, was it? We were always meant to…”
I started to fade back into unconsciousness, even though I wanted to keep listening. I needed to wake up and look at him. But my brain refused. Maybe I would see him in my dreams.
Until next time, angel.
PATRICK- FIVE YEARS AGO
My phone vibrated as I walked in the front door of my high-rise condo in downtown Seattle. Making my way to the laundry room, I dropped my bag of sweaty workout clothes on top of the washer, then unceremoniously dumped them in to wash. There was no way I’d let those rank things hang around for Cole to find, even if he was used to them. Just the thought of my musician boyfriend made me smile.
