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“I could keep you company,” I offered with a lame shrug.
Tears filled her lashes, but she blinked them away. “That’s so sweet. But no.” She waved her hand, shooing away the very idea. “You’ve already done more than enough. And it’s late. You should go home. You got me where I wanted to be, and that was what I needed most.”
“Okay,” I whispered, only to turn toward the doorway just as a nurse entered it.
We both pulled up short to gape at each other.
“Where did you come from?” she demanded. “You can’t be in here at this time of night.”
“I—I’m sorry. I just…” I glanced back at a cringing Raina in the chair.
She hugged herself and sent me a commiserating glance. “Busted, sorry.”
Turning back to the nurse, I said, “I didn’t want her to be alone.”
“Well, you need to go,” the nurse informed me, taking my arm and manually escorting me from the room. “We’ll check on her and take care of everything, I promise. If you come back during visiting hours, you can spend as much time with her as you like.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I nodded, only to glance back at Raina through the doorway. “Goodbye. I hope you wake up soon.”
“I do too,” she told me with a sad farewell wave. “Goodbye, Foster.”
Not seeing or hearing her, the nurse walked me to the elevator. “Do I need to call security to escort you out of the hospital completely, or are you going to be a good boy and leave on your own?”
“I’m leaving on my own,” I assured her. “I’m sorry I broke the rule. I didn’t mean to cause a ruckus. I just?—”
I motioned lamely toward Raina’s room.
The nurse sighed. “Yeah, I remember young love,” she muttered wistfully, only to level me with a stern frown. “But we have rules in place for a reason, young man. It’s not safe for her if just anyone and everyone goes in and out, willy-nilly, with no rhyme or reason, carrying all manner of diseases and infections with them. If you really care about Miss Bollen and want her to get better, just follow the rules, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I answered with an obedient nod, not even trying to correct her about the wholeyoung lovemisconception. The truth was far too complex to spend the rest of the night trying to explain.
When the elevator door opened, I stepped inside and tipped my head to the nurse as she stood there, making sure I really left. “Evening, ma’am.”
Her expression softened. “Visiting hours are from eight in the morning to nine at night, now, you hear?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She smiled. “And good game this week,” she told me just as the doors closed.
I exhaled, wishing everyone didn’t recognize my face so easily, and I shifted my gaze up to the numbers above the exit, half-expecting Raina to poke her head through the metal doors and scare the crap out of me.
When she didn’t, a pang of loneliness echoed through my chest.
On the first floor, I walked the darkened corridor to the front entrance, where the doors let me outside without an issue. My footsteps echoed through the parking lot, reminding me just how alone I was. It had been completely different when I’d had Raina with me, egging me along and assuring me that breaking into the hospital was for a good and noble purpose.
God, I missed her chatty presence.
Smiling fondly to myself as I remembered how she’d blatantly tried to get me to take my shirt off in my bedroom, I climbed into my truck and started the engine.
She was such an exuberant, upbeat thing, even when she wasworried about what was happening to her physical body. It made me wonder if she was like that in real life.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so resistant when Oaklynn had tried to set the two of us up.
I sighed wistfully and turned out of the hospital parking lot, praying that Raina pulled through this and woke up so I could get to know the true her. Then, I flipped on the radio to fill the silence. Braking for a red light, I quietly sang along with Luke Combs about fast cars.
When the light turned green, a familiar voice from the passenger seat said, “Ooh, I love this song!”
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