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I reached down to turn on my truck. “See ya,” I told him as I rolled up my window, cutting the conversation off there. He stepped back, giving me enough berth to pull away from my parking spot, but he remained watching me as if he was seeing an alien.
I rolled my eyes and started home. And every time I glanced over toward the passenger seat and didn’t find Raina there, pain gripped my lungs all over again.
30
RAINA
I’d always hated hospitals, but now I knew why.
Everything here sucked.
Wait. No. That technically wasn’t true. I’d only been awake a day, and this seemed like a very nice, clean, and pleasant place. The nurses were complete angels. They helped me get everything I asked for. And the doctor could use a better bedside manner, but he seemed to really know his shit because my mind felt clearer with every passing hour.
But I was still absolutely miserable. Nothing in my body felt comfortable. It was as if I were a brand-new inhabitant in my own skin. Sometimes my hands and arms didn’t work right. My vision still got blurry and left me dizzy and almost wondering if I was upright or lying down. And my head. God, it ached constantly. Plus, my throat felt raw enough to make me wonder if I’d swallowed a cup full of sand. And I was beyond ready to have this catheter out of me.
I really wanted to go home. I wanted to be able to walk and move on my own, and I wanted to mourn my sister in peace.
That had to be the worst part. Every time I thought of her and cried, someone was alwaysthere, and it was driving me crazy. Couldn’t a girl just curl into a ball and weep in peace by herself for a few minutes?
I couldn’t believe Kinsey was just…gone, though. She’d been the most alive person I’d ever known.
It felt so wrong.
Shivering over this new reality, I stared at the doorway to my room, wishing with all my might for her to just cross the threshold and tell me the news of her death had been nothing but a bad joke.
But the only person who entered was my nurse.
“Good morning, sweet Raina,” she greeted with a big, encouraging smile, only to shake her head. “Man, it is so nice to see you awake and alert. I hear we’re going to try walking today. Or at least standing.”
I nodded as she started to take my vitals, listening to my heart and lungs. “The doctor was just here,” I told her. “He said my brain function was doing well, but I think he was most surprised about the fact that I didn’t have any bed sores.”
Miss Darlene only scoffed as she wrapped the stethoscope around her neck and then pulled out a thermometer. “Well, I would’ve been surprised if youdidhave any,” she told me as she swiped the reader across my brow to take my temperature. “As often as that boyfriend of yours was here, bending and moving your arms and legs to keep you exercised and limber, you should be in better shape than me.”
“Boyfriend?” I repeated in confusion.
Pulling out the blood pressure cuff next, she said, “Yeah, that cutie football star of yours.”
I blinked. “You mean,Foster?”
“Yes. Him.” Chuckling over my surprise, she shook her head as she strapped Velcro around my arm. “Who else did you think I was talking about?”
“But he—he’s not my boyfriend.”
Was he?
The nurse only laughed. “You sureheknows that?”
“But—” I shook my head as she pumped air into the cuff and choked my arm. “What even makes you think so?”
Darlene lifted her eyebrows at me in censure, only to motion to the table full of balloons and stuffed animals and cards stationed against the wall. “You mean, other than the fact that he brought you most of that stuff over there?”
I frowned at the assortment of get-wells and shook my head in confusion. “Really?”
“Yes, ma’am. And he visited more than anyone else, plus one of my coworkers caught him sneaking in after-hours just to see you. Heck, he even found a blood clot in your leg the rest of us had missed. You might not be here today if it weren’t for him.”
“Weird.” I blinked around the room, trying to make sense of that before just straight-up admitting, “That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t even know Foster Union.”
“Well.” She shrugged. “I just know he’s one dedicated fellow. If heisn’tyour boyfriend, I recommend you tie him down and make him yours before he gets away.”
