Page 77 of Suddenly Yours

Please. Just tell me you’re okay.

The house felt too big. Too quiet.

When my phone rang again, my heart slammed so hard it hurt.

“Max?” I breathed.

“I found his truck,” he said.

Everything inside me went cold.

“What do you mean… found?”

“It’s off the road near the bottom of the cove,” he said carefully. “Down the embankment. Upside down. I can’t get to it from here.” He was talking in broken sentences and breathing hard.

I stood so fast the room spun. “Is he, did you see him?”

“No,” Max huffed out. “I’ve already called 9-1-1. They’re on the way. But, Missy…” He hesitated and huffed out a deep breath. “I think you should come. Now.”

I grabbed my keys with numb fingers, my vision blurring as tears finally spilled over.

“I’m on my way,” I whispered.

And as I ran for the door, one thought echoed louder than all the others.

Please let me get the chance to tell him that I love him. Please.

The drive took me less than five minutes. When I arrived, the road down to the cove was chaos.

Red and blue lights strobed against the trees, flashing across wet bark and slick pavement. The lights were bouncing off the dark water below the embankment, and the ocean looked alive and furious. Fire trucks lined the narrow turnout, their engines idling low and steady. An ambulance sat with its back doors open as light spilled out onto the gravel. I barely remember pulling the car over. Barely remember opening the door or getting out.

Max’s hand closed around my arm before my feet even hit the ground.

“Missy,” he said firmly, grounding me. “Hey. You’re here. I’ve got you.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t really listening. My eyes were locked on the edge of the drop-off, where the trees thinned and the ground fell away sharply toward the rocks and water below.

That’s where Cade was.

Somewhere down there.

“I need to see him,” I whispered, my voice shaking so badly it barely sounded like my own.

Max tightened his grip just enough to keep me from moving forward. “You can’t yet. They’re working to get to him. Let them do their jobs.”

Firefighters were clustered near the edge of the road with ropes and cables snaking around their boots. A winch from one of the trucks whirled as it turned slowly, the thick line disappearing over the side of the embankment. Someone shouted instructions. Someone else answered. It was all noise and motion and terror.

I could hear the ocean crashing faintly in the distance, steady and cruelly indifferent.

I barely took a breath. Barely registered anything but my heartbeat.

“How long?” I asked. I didn’t know who I was asking.

“They don’t know yet,” Max said quietly. “The truck… it’s bad, Missy.”

Upside down. That was all I could think. Max had said it was upside down.

My knees felt weak. I wrapped my arms around myself, my fingers digging into the sleeves of my jacket as if that could keep me from shattering into a million pieces. I forced myself to breathe. In. Out. In. Out.