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Max was already headed toward the hospital door by the time Hunt slammed the hatch closed and rushed after him.
They were greeted by a receptionist at the desk in the small lobby area. Emergency only consisted of five cubicles, so Kenna had to be close.
“How can I help you, Officer Wilde?”
“I’m looking for Kenna Baker.”
“The doctor is in with her. Cubicle two. Drapes open. You can go over.”
Max followed Hunt to the partially opened drape. He spotted Kenna immediately, wearing a hospital gown, a sheet covering her legs up to her waist. She was lying on her side, her head propped up on two pillows, her bloody blond hair partially covering her way too pale face. The doctor sat behind her, sewing a four-inch gash closed.
The need to go to her and comfort her was so strong, he barely contained it. The relief he felt, seeing her awake and alive, nearly sent him to his knees.
Hunt approached her slowly. “Kenna, honey, do you feel up to talking to me?”
“Don’t move,” the doctor warned Kenna as he sank the curved needle into her skin again.
“Is he really—” Choked up, she couldn’t finish the statement. Her voice sounded so desperate and anguished.
It cut Max deep to see and hear her like this.
Hunt grabbed a rolling stool like the one the doctor used, shifted it next to the bed, sat, and put his hand on Kenna’s forearm, avoiding the IV line going into her hand.
Max wanted to be the one that close to her. He wanted to be the one who comforted her.
He wanted to go back to the way things used to be.
But that was never going to happen.
So he stood back, just out of her sight. There, but unable to do anything other than appease his need to see for himself that she was okay. Alive. Well. In this world, where, every once in a while, he got a glimpse of her and it made him feel better to know she was still here.
“I’m sorry we keep meeting like this.”
“Me, too,” Kenna said weakly.
It took Max a moment to remember why Hunt would have seen Kenna recently, and then it hit him. A couple of months ago Max had seen Kenna and Sean, the guy she’d been seeing then, leaving the diner. Not even an hour later, Sean died in a car accident after dropping Kenna at work. Hunt made the notification to Kenna, because everyone in town, including him, had heard that they’d recently started dating.
And then it was over.
Max hated why it ended, but he was also glad he didn’t have to see her with someone he knew either.
Hunt cleared his throat. “Can you tell me what happened?” Hunt whispered, trying to keep things calm.
“I... I don’t know. It happened so fast.” Her bottom lip trembled.
The doctor put in another stitch and began knotting it.
Hunt tried again. “Why was Marcus there? Did he come to pick you up? Was he dropping you off?”
A single tear slid down Kenna’s cheek. “We went out to dinner.”
“Okay. Did you have a good time?”
Why the hell was Hunt asking that? Max didn’t want to hear about her out with some other guy.
“We didn’t even order. I asked him to take me home.”
“Why? Were you sick or something?”
