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“You don’t need me anymore,” she replied. His mind protested every word of that statement. Groggy from sleep, his brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders and scrambled to find a reason to keep her withhim.
“They might need information.” Grant directed his question atBlaire.
“About what?” Liam cut in. “We found you. You have a concussion, maybe a respiratory infection, bruised or cracked ribs, and a sprained ankle. End ofstory.”
Blaire hugged her biceps as if she was suddenly chilled. “You guys need to get going. Another round of snow is on its way and the roads might not stay open.” She turned away and walked into thekitchen.
“Get moving, Thorne,” Liam said, coming up beside him and, for the first time since he’d known the older man, concern showing on his face. “I’m sure your folks are worried. The sooner they see you’re okay, thebetter.”
How could Grant argue withthat?
* * *
“End of the road, big shot,”Liam informed him when the SUV pulled in front of the emergency roomentrance.
“Shouldn’t you come in with me?” Grant said, not willing to lose his last link to Blaire. “They might havequestions.”
“Tell them a good Samaritan found you,” the other mansaid.
“There might be a reward,” he pointedout.
Liam’s jaw tensed. “Blaire and I were just doing what normal human beings would do.” He nodded to the entrance. “Go on. There’s another storm coming and I’d appreciate not getting stuck init.”
The older man’s expression was flinty; it was obvious that Liam couldn’t wait to get rid ofhim.
Grant couldn’t recall a time when he’d taken a person’s order, but he felt honor-bound to respect Liam’s wishes. Fornow.
He tentatively stepped down from the vehicle, but nearly retreated back into it when people loitering around the entrance paused, gasped, and started murmuring amongst themselves. It felt as though his face had been on posters everywhere. As soon as he shut the door to the SUV, Liam screeched away from the curb, leaving Grant standing in the clothes he’d been foundin.
“Mr. Thorne?” A woman dressed in green scrubs approached him with tentative steps, head tilted to the side with bright eyes taking him in from head tofoot.
Grant, still feeling like death warmed over, longed for the coziness of Blaire’s cabin, but he wanted to get this over with, so he simply nodded and followed thewoman.
After hours of prodding,scans, and needles, Grant was ready to check himself out of thehospital.
Within half an hour of his appearance at the Summit County Hospital, his parents—Senator Marcus and Amelia Thorne arrived with an impressive entourage of family, friends, and a security team. It was the Thanksgiving holiday weekend after all, and they’d been keeping vigil at the family residence inVail.
Grant experienced a pang of guilt. As everyone worried, he’d been selfish in his reason for wanting to stay with Blaire. Seeing his family, he wondered if how he felt about his time with her would change. Maybe the isolation of the cabin had magnified the significance of his moments with her? Grant squashed that assumption. How could he easily forget a woman who had saved hislife?
The first person to hug him was Val. He had never seen his sister’s face so ravaged before. He found out from his mom that she’d been crying non-stop since they’d discovered his wrecked snowmobile with no trace ofhim.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Teddy,” Val cried. She uttered her childhood nickname for him—from his middle name Theodore. She did this when she was highly emotional and that moment qualified as one of those times. Val would have climbed into his hospital bed if the nurses didn’t warn of his possible injuries. After about ten minutes of being fussed over by his mother and sister, and to a certain extent, his dad, a series of medical testscommenced.
The final verdict was Grant was battling a respiratory infection, he had two bruised ribs, a sprained ankle, and a concussion but, luckily, no cerebraledema.
“You gave us a scare, son,” his dad said while his mother and sister sat on either side of his bed. “A state trooper found Valerie; we had to pick her up from the sheriff’s station. Even then it took forever to get to her. The roads were a mess. It was hours after the blizzard hit that we were certain something had happened toyou.”
“I don’t recall much except my snowmobile struck something and I flippedover.”
“They almost didn’t locate your ride because the snow had come down heavily and covered all other tracks. We had to rely on Val’s recollection of her route to find you,” his dadexplained.
“We thought you were buried under eighteen inches of snow and we’d never find you,” Val sobbed. “I wasn’t thinking when I took off. I was just so mad at Paul.” Grant adored his sister, but he wasn’t blind to her faults, especially her choices in men. The siblings often clashed because he had yet to approve of a single guy his sisterdated.
“Please tell me your son of a bitch boyfriend is gone.” Even in his bed-ridden state, he wanted to wipe the floor with that bastard for putting his sister indanger.
Val nodded. “He left this morning. I’m done withhim.”
His sister linked her hand with his. “I’d never forgive myself if we lost you.” She hiccupped as wet misery trailed down herface.
