Page 104 of You Met Me There

Samantha speaks up through tears. “I’m right here, baby boy. We’ve been here since they brought you in the ambulance. We love you.”

I step aside, letting Luke’s parents have a moment with him.

After a couple minutes, they say they want to give us time together, and they head back to the waiting room. Juliet peeks in to check on Luke and scan the nurse board on the wall before telling Luke she’s glad he’s okay and following his parents out.

“Are you feeling alright? Do you need anything?” I ask, holding his hand again. Mike pulled a chair over to the bed before he left, and I sit in it with my legs crossed under me.

Luke shakes his shaggy blond hair, grimacing at the motion. “No, I don’t need anything. Only you. You’re all I need.” His words are slow and slurred from the drugs that kept him asleep during surgery.

I smile through the tightness in my chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’m tired,” he murmurs.

“Go to sleep. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

His eyes slip closed, opening again and again like he’s fighting to keep me in his sight. But after a few seconds, they drift closed for good, and I hold his hand until he wakes.

Chapter 52

Natalie

Istay with Luke for hours. When he wakes up, I’m still in the chair beside his bed. He’s more alert than when I first saw him. His voice is stronger. A nurse comes in to check his vitals and administer pain medication. When we’re alone again, I help him sip from a water bottle the nurse brought in.

“Do you want anything else? Are you comfortable enough?” I don’t know what else I could do for him, but I can’t help worrying over him, desperate to make him as comfortable as possible.

“As long as you’re here, I’m fine.” His eyes bounce over my face, seeing all the things I want to hide from him—how scared I was of losing him.

Tears heat behind my eyes. “When the hospital called, I didn’t know what to do. I was spinning, freaking out, I was just … in a fog, and I didn’t know how I’d get to you in time in case something hap—” The sentence breaks off on a sob. I press my teeth against my knuckles and lean my face onto the bed beside our entangled fingers, my body quivering with sobs.

Luke squeezes my hand weakly. “I’m fine, baby. I’m alright. I’m sorry you were scared.” His voice is still hoarse, but no longer slow. “And you’re here now. We’re together. I’m glad you made it.”

My head turns, my cheek resting against the back of his hand. “I had to make it here on time. I had to be here when you woke up.”

He grins, the cut on his lip lifting. “You’re so beautiful. Even when you cry.”

I roll my eyes, the corner of my lips twitching. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m serious.” Luke rests his head back against the pillows, watching the ceiling. “All I could think when I got hit was how much I wanted to see you. How I couldn’t let that be the way I went, without getting to say goodbye.”

I bite the inside of my lip, shaking my head. “Don’t say that.”

His eyes find mine. “I didn’t know how it was going to play out out there.” An unbidden image of him on the road flashes behind my eyes, crumpled and broken, waiting for help, not knowing if that was the end for him.

“And now you’re here,” I say, trying to give him a brave smile. “With me, just how it always should be. The doctor fixed you up, and he said you’ll make a full recovery. I’ll be your in-home nurse and take care of you. Our summer in Maple Lake was almost over anyway. I won’t go back.”

“I meant what I said about us visiting your family. I want to be a part of that family as much as you’re a part of mine.”

I flip his hand over and kiss the sensitive skin on his palm. “I’d like that,” I say.

“And I want us to have a baby.”

I look up at him, unsure if I heard him correctly. “You what?”

“When I was hit by that car and I was flying through the air, I saw it all—my life the way it is and how it could have been. It was so fast—just a flash of images and thoughts, but I saw it. I saw the kids we talked about having. I saw the big backyard and the swing set and the laughing children. I saw you and me.”

A tear rolls down my cheek to land on the white sheet. “What were we doing?” I ask him.

“We were smiling, watching our kids. And they looked just like they did the first time I saw them.” The angry red skin on his cheek and jaw stretches as he speaks, but even with his cheek scraped raw, he’s still the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.