She wasn't waking up.
Panicked, I touched her face, then felt for a pulse at her neck. It thumped there, weak but steady. Relief flooded me so fast I almost lost my balance. "Willa? Willa, Jesus, it's raining like a bitch out here. Wake up!" Her head lolled a little when I shook her, and I jerked my hand back. "Willa, wake the fuck up!"
Nothing.
Her face was bone-white except for the stark red river of blood that ran from a terrible gash on her forehead. The bleeding had spread all the way down to her white hoodie, mixing with the rainwater so that the fabric was now dyed a lurid pink. Already the gash was swelling, dragging her eyebrow up with it into a sardonic sneer that looked nothing like her usual smugly neutral expression. That expression was the one I was used to seeing across the big table from me every Thursday night at the Crown Tavern. That expression of hers was so annoying. But I'd gotten pretty comfortable with getting annoyed by it. To see her familiar face so utterly changed....
I had to swallow back the bile that rose from my stomach. "Jesus... Willa...." She looked so small and broken, I could hardly believe this was the same girl who’d gotten in my face less than an hour ago. I’d hated her.... But I never thought... never wanted…
“Jesus, you didn’t deserve this.”
Desperate, and not one-hundred percent sure of what I was doing, I unzipped her hoodie to grunt at the bright red scrape across her chest. I lifted her shirt, meaning to keep checking her for injuries. Then stopped when I caught a glimpse of the white lace on her bra. My face heated up. "Fuck." I turned my attention to her legs, pressing my fingers down them as I watched her face.
No grimaces. Her legs weren't broken. I brushed my hand down her left arm and then yanked it away like I'd been stung when I saw the odd way her forearm twisted. Her wrist was fucked. She must have landed on it, I thought. When she got hit.
A bright flash and then the rumble of thunder. When she got hit. I stood up and glared down the road as if it would give a clue as to who did this. But the night was dark and silent but for the storm.
She was walking home because of you. The flutter of guilt in my belly was a gut punch now. You could have given her a ride.
You promised you’d keep her safe.
"Shit." I dropped back down to my knees again and stared at her. Was the rest of her face swollen? Was her jaw messed up or did she always look like that? I'd known her my whole life, but I didn't know her well enough to answer that question. She looks like she could be sleeping. Except for the blood everywhere.
"Shit." I knelt down, barely noticing the rain soaking my jeans, and moved to pick her up, then stopped myself. What if she had a spinal injury? "Shit." I scrambled at my pocket until my phone was in my hands and dialed 9-1-1, the words spilling out of me even before the dispatcher could speak. "I'm on the side of the road... she's been hit... not waking up..." I took a deep breath and tried to collect my spinning thoughts. "She needs an ambulance, fast! Please hurry!"
The gap between when I called for help and when it finally came screaming down the rain-washed road seemed to stretch on forever. But when I heard that piercing wail, I stood up and rushed to my truck to flick those obnoxious high beams to signal our location.
"What happened?" An EMT leaped down from the driver's seat and sprinted to Willa.
I dragged my hand down my face. "I found her. She was walking home, and someone hit her and left her like this."
"Miss? Miss?" He knelt down next to her. “What's her name?"
"Willa."
"Willa? Willa, can you hear me?"
I winced as they jostled her onto a stretcher. "Careful, she's bruised! Her wrist... I think her arm might be broken. And her head, watch her head!"
"Sir, we're going to take care of her, but you need to step back and give us space."
Nodding, I took a dutiful step back and shoved my hands in my pockets to keep from balling my fists in frustration. "Is she going to be okay?"
He was speaking into his radio, not hearing me.
I promised she’d get home safe.
“Is she going to be okay?" My stomach twisted as they bundled her into the back of the ambulance. "Wait, don't close it!" I leaped forward. "I'm coming with you."
"Sir, we only allow family members to ride in the back."
Guilt was a knife-stab now. Willa looked crumpled like a wadded up piece of paper. I hated her, but I didn't want this. "You have to let me come!" My voice caught, and I choked. I looked at her again. "I am family."
The EMT waited for me to elaborate. I swallowed. "She's my girlfriend." When he didn't react, I kept going. "Fiancée. Please. She's my fiancée!" My voice caught as I looked at her again. "Sweetheart, I'm here. I'm right here, don't worry."
A blink, and then a curt nod as he moved to the side.
My heart was thudding so hard I could feel it everywhere in my body as I stepped up and into that brightly lit cab.
But when I looked at Willa, I nodded. I owed Liam this. I owed her this. ”You're okay, baby," I chanted. In my haze of anxiety and guilt, it was surprisingly easy to call her that. "Here we go, babe, we're getting started right now." The ambulance doors shut with a slam, and we started moving. "You're okay, sweet girl. I'm right here."
I reached out and slipped my hand over hers as the EMTs started an IV. Her fingers were long, her nails bitten. I'd known her almost twenty years, ever since kindergarten, and this was the first time I'd ever even noticed her hands, much less touched them. She had a freckle on her wrist and another one at the tip of her index finger. The cuff of her white hoodie was ragged and damp and probably cold on her skin. I moved to roll it up.
Her eyelids fluttered. Then opened. She blinked in confusion at the ceiling and then zeroed in on me. "Cooper?"
I nearly leaped to my feet. She was alive. She was talking. That meant she was going to be okay. "Yeah," I choked. "I'm here, baby. Here I am."
She narrowed her eyes. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Seriously?” I exploded. “I saved your life!"
I snapped my mouth shut when the EMT gave me a look. Willa was glaring at me like she wanted to kill me with her eyes. I held my breath, ready for her to sell me out. What the fuck was I doing here? I was here assuaging my guilty conscience. And covering my ass. I rode in the ambulance, I pictured myself explaining to Liam. I made sure she was taken care of. Don't worry man, I handled it. By the way she was staring at me, it seemed like she knew that's what it was.
But then her eyes softened, and her mouth went slack. "Painkillers," the EMT explained as Willa drifted to sleep. Then turned to me with an amused expression on his face. "Trouble in paradise?"
I blew out a relieved exhale. "We had a fight," I explained. "Before." Embellishing on the lie. "She stormed out and started walking home. I followed her."
"Good man." He nodded approvingly. "She's lucky to have you."
I nodded and looked at the girl on the stretcher. There was a softness around her lips now that was never there when she was awake. I tried to conjure my usual irritation and mistrust of her, but it was hard to feel anything but worry for the soft-lipped girl in front of me. Even remembering the night before prom, and how I'd caught her cheating on my best friend, wasn't enough for me to remember how to hate her. "She is," I agreed. “I’m lucky too.” Then smiled like how I figured an engaged man would smile.
Fuck. Liam was going to kill me.
Chapter