Willow was second in line at the coffee shop, with a whole bunch of people behind her also needing their fix—er, coffee.
Luna was one of them, two people back, not attempting to talk to her. Willow’s own doing, so there was no use getting butt-hurt about it. But she still did. It was the first time Luna hadn’t tried to approach her.
When the line shifted and she was up, Mandy looked right through her to smile at the man behind her. “What’ll it be?”
Willow scowled. She needed coffee stat or there would be dead bodies. “Are you kidding me?”
“Your usual?” Mandy asked the man.
Hell no. Not today. “Seriously, Mandy? You dated Shayne one night twelve years ago when we were on a break and you’re still mad? He’s mine, get over it.”
Mandy handed the man behind her his order and then smiled at Luna. “Looking good, babe. You working out?”
Luna laughed. “Does carrying baby goats around count? Because then yes, I’m working out.”
“No, it’s not that,” Mandy said. “You’ve got a certain . . . glow.”
Willow whipped around and stared at Luna. And damn, Mandy was right. Luna was definitely wearing a certain glow. Just how long had she been wearing it while Willow hadn’t been paying attention during her long pity party for one? But then her phone rang and distracted her because she had trouble finding it in her purse.
Finally she got a hand on it and looked at the screen. It was Eddie, one of Shayne’s firefighter buddies. “Let me guess,” she answered. “He can’t find his keys. No, wait—his wallet, right?”
“Willow.” His tone, unusually serious, alerted her before his words. “There’s been an accident. Shayne’s on his way to Sunrise General.”
Her heart had stopped, but her body was halfway to the door so she must still be breathing. “How bad?”
He paused.
“Eddie, how bad?”
“We’re not sure . . .”
Oh, God. “If he let you guys take him to the hospital, it’s bad. I’ll meet you there.” She was running to her car when she realized someone was right alongside her.
Luna, who took Willow’s hand, redirecting her to Luna’s truck, pushing her into the passenger seat before running around the front to get behind the wheel. “Which hospital?”
Willow could barely hear over the blood whooshing in her ears. Nor could she speak past what felt like cut glass in her throat. In fact, for a beat, she thought she might get sick as Luna started her truck.
“Willow?”
“Sunrise General,” she managed.
Luna whipped out of the parking lot. Willow had to grab the oh-shit bar as Luna took the next turn on two wheels.
“What do we know?” Luna asked.
We . . . She sniffled. “Do you have any tissues?”
Luna opened the center console, pulled out a small stack of napkins, and shoved them into Willow’s hand. “He got hurt at work. I don’t know how bad.” Her biggest nightmare coming true . . .
Luna reached across and squeezed her hand. “He’s going to be okay.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you’ll kill him if he’s not.”
She choked out a laugh. God, she was so relieved she wasn’t in this alone. She’d been such a bitch, and Luna was still willing to be her rock. If Willow hadn’t been so panicked, she’d have been swamped with gratitude, but she couldn’t think about anything other than Shayne right now. Why hadn’t she pressed Eddie for details? It could be anything. Shayne had once screw-gunned his hand to the ceiling while trying to install a fan above their kitchen table and had refused to go to the hospital, saying he just needed a Band-Aid for the hole through his palm. Another time he’d been playing touch football with the guys and had twisted his ankle, which had ballooned to triple its normal size, and hadn’t gone to the hospital for that either. So this . . . this must be bad. “What if . . .” She closed her eyes. “What if something happens and he doesn’t know how much I love him?”
“He knows.” Luna weaved around a car going ten miles an hour under the speed limit. “I promise you that.”
Willow wasn’t so sure. She’d let her fears of losing him guide her, and it was possible she could lose him anyway. “I pushed him away. Why did I do that?”
Luna glanced over at her, eyes tight with worry but still managing a smile. “Because men are dumb and he took the job here in Sunrise Cove without talking it through with you.”
Right. Only now that didn’t seem like as big a deal as she’d made it out to be. “He’s impulsive. I knew that about him when I married him. There’s traffic, turn left onto Lake Drive, it’ll be faster.”
Luna didn’t turn.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Okay, first, yelling at me isn’t going to make the truck go faster. And second, they’re repaving Lake Drive. Trust me, this is the best way.”
Willow sagged back against the seat, hands to her quivering stomach. She hadn’t had breakfast yet, not even the coffee she’d never gotten, and her belly was revolting. “I feel sick.”
“Breathe slowly. In through your nose and out your mouth—”
“Pull over.”
“What?” Luna whipped her head to her. “Why?”
“For the love of God, just pull the eff over!” she yelled, and started gagging.
Luna jerked the truck to the side of the road. Willow barely got the door open before she was throwing up. When she’d emptied her already empty stomach, she straightened weakly.
Luna handed her some more napkins, a water bottle, and a piece of gum, not saying anything until Willow had caught her breath. “Are you okay?”
“It’s stress. Everything feels out of control.”
“Not everything,” Luna said, and squeezed her hand. “You okay to get going again?”
Unable to speak, she nodded. And five minutes later they were running into the ER. At the front desk, Willow panicked. But Luna slipped an arm around her and spoke to the guy behind the glass, telling them they were here for Shayne Green, and that Willow was his wife.
“Just a moment,” he said, and vanished into the back.
Willow waited in numbness.
“This is Shayne we’re talking about,” Luna said, rubbing her back. “He’s going to be okay.”
Willow nodded, then shook her head. “Remember when he was hurt in that flood rescue and almost drowned?”
“And you made him promise to get out of that Swift Water Rescue unit, and he did. Hold tight, I’ll be right back.”
Willow’s knees felt wobbly, so she sank on her haunches and put her hands over her eyes, trying not to throw up again. “This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happ—”
“Willow.”
Luna crouched in front of her and pulled her hands from her face. “Come on, let’s go see him.”
“You got us in?”
“Yes.” Luna pulled her upright, keeping a hold of her hand.
“Where is he?”
“Bay number four.” And though neither of them knew this hospital well, Luna led her there and Willow felt so grateful she almost started crying. Which was annoying because she hated to cry.
They hustled down one corridor and then another, and then Luna stopped in front of a closed curtain. Willow’s heart was thundering in her ears, but the rest of her had frozen.
Appearing to understand she’d turned into a helpless idiot, Luna squeezed her hand and used her other to open the curtain.
Shayne lay on the bed, eyes closed, face gray. He had stitches across his forehead and his left cheek. He was bare chested, which allowed her to see that his ribs were wrapped and the rest of him bruised and cut up.
Taking a deep breath, Willow straightened her spine and walked over to him, taking his big hand in hers.
He immediately opened his eyes. “Hey.” Lifting his other hand, he ran the pad of his thumb over her cheek, swiping a tear away. “I’m okay.”
“You’re in a hospital and you’ve got stitches and God knows what else, so no, you’re not okay!” Spent, she very carefully dropped her head to his chest.
One of Shayne’s big hands settled on the back of her neck. “I’m going to need more Advil if you plan to keep yelling at me.”
She both laughed and cried, then lifted her head. “What happened?”
Shayne drew a deep breath, but didn’t speak. He closed his eyes briefly, and Willow, hating seeing him in pain, leaned in close, gently pushing his hair back from his face just as Eddie spoke. She hadn’t even seen him in a chair on the opposite side of the bed.
“It was a Swift Water Rescue gone fubar. Some idiots thought they could raft the Truckee River with the current at an all-time high from that surprise storm.”
Willow stilled, then looked at Shayne. “But you don’t do Swift Water Rescues anymore. That was the deal.”
“Babe—”
“No.” She pulled back. “Don’t babe me.”
“We were stretched thin,” Shayne said. “I was the only one trained to lead the rescue.”
Willow took a big gulp of air and instead of screaming, let out a completely involuntary half-hysterical laugh.
Shayne looked relieved. “Thanks for understanding—” He broke off when Luna gave him a warning headshake.
“Dude,” Eddie said. “When a woman laughs during an argument, it means the psycho part of her brain has been activated and you should abort.”
“Thanks, man,” Shayne said, eyes never leaving Willow.
Her knees were weak again, but for a different reason entirely now, and she dropped into a chair.
“How can I make this okay?” he asked her.
“Stop changing the rules on me.”
“The rules? What rules?” Eddie looked confused. “The captain always takes lead on these rescues.”
Willow pointed at him. “Not now.”
Eddie shrugged, then stood to offer Luna his chair. “How’s it going, Chica? You never returned my calls.”
They’d met at one of the station’s fundraising events. That particular one had been held at the Olde Tahoe Tap, where Eddie and Luna had danced. Nothing more had happened, which Willow knew because up until the past months, she and Luna had shared everything.
“Work’s just really busy right now,” Luna said.
Eddie waggled a brow. “Maybe we could try again sometime when things slow down for you.”
“Look,” Willow said over the span of Shayne’s bed. “This isn’t about you right now, okay? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m in the middle of a breakdown here. Respect for the breakdown, please.”
A nurse poked her head around the curtain, looking stern. “You all need to keep it down in here.”
“Absolutely,” Luna said. “Apologies.”
Willow looked at Shayne. “No promises.”
Shayne grinned at her, and dammit. That smile. It was going to be the death of her. Unable to help herself, she brushed a kiss to his bruised jaw. Then lightly across his lips.
The nurse was taking his blood pressure. “Huh,” she said.
“Huh what?” Willow demanded. “Is it too high? Is he going to die?”
“No.” The nurse smiled. “It’s lowered since you got here.”
Shayne took Willow’s hand in his and stared into her eyes. “My wife lowers my blood pressure by walking into the room.”
Willow wanted to both hug him and murder him. How was that even possible? “Tell me everything.”
When Shayne didn’t speak, she looked at Eddie.
He nodded. “A kayaker got into trouble on the river. And don’t get me started why he was even on the water since we were under a wind advisory, plus the recent snowmelt on top of spring runoff. Suffice it to say, every mistake this guy could’ve made, he did. And our boy here paid the price. Victim nearly drowned Shayne trying to crawl over him to the shore.”
Shayne turned his head and stared at Eddie.
“Right,” Eddie said. “Keep my trap shut about the rescue details. I remember now.”
Willow was trying to take deep breaths to dissipate the image of Shayne drowning. “Oh my God. You could’ve died.”
“But I didn’t.” He looked at the nurse. “So when can you break me out of here?”
“You’re staying overnight. Everyone out except one person of his choosing.”
“Obviously that’s me,” Eddie said.
Willow gave him her impressive Evil Eye and he laughed. “Call me if you need anything, Cap. The rest of the guys’ll stop by later.”
“He needs rest. Tell them to wait until tomorrow,” Willow said. “Unless they’re bringing food.” Then she settled herself into a chair for the long haul, because She. Wasn’t. Leaving.
She was only vaguely aware of everyone filing out of the room, including Luna. Willow was too busy looking Shayne over.
Belying his injuries, he snagged her arm and pulled her to the bed at his hip, holding on to her tight. “You always yell at me right before you kiss me.”
“There will be no more kissing today,” she said. Probably.
“How about tomorrow?”