The creek sounded like voices sometimes. Like your parents’ low voices on the floor below you, while you lay awake upstairs straining to make out individual words from the murmur.
I listened to those murmuring, muttering voices now with my eyes closed, tilting my face up to the sun. "What are they saying?" Liam asked. He was sitting next to me, his fretful hands breaking a stick into small pieces. I could hear them now, snap snap snap.
I listened again and caught the words, "asleep." "I think they want me to wake up," I joked, opening my eyes again to look down at his hands.
But they weren't Liam's long, delicate piano-playing fingers. These hands were stronger, the fingers thicker, with a sheen of golden hair at the wrists. I dragged my eyes up, already knowing whose face it would be, but when I saw Cooper's blue eyes, I was startled anyway. "What are you doing here?"
He looked right at me.
I snapped awake.
The murmur of the creek in my dreams really was voices. A whole, whole lot of voices. And the warmth of the sun on my face was my mother's hand as she patted me gently. "Baby, you have visitors."
"What?" I stretched awake and groaned as all the pain in my body flared to life. Like it had been lying in wait, ready to pounce as soon as my eyes opened. "Oh!" My head fell back, throbbing, and I tried to gasp, but the pain in my ribs made that impossible. "Shit that hurts."
"I'm so sorry this happened to you, honey," said an unfamiliar voice.
No. Not unfamiliar at all, just... unexpected. "You're here?"
Roxane Ryan was standing in my hospital room, wearing her trademark pearls, trademark grin, and trademark pink pantsuit. On TV it looked bubblegum, under the unflattering yellowish fluorescents, it really looked more salmon-colored. "I'm here, honey."
"Wait... why? What the hell is that camera doing here?"
"Honey, Roxane wants to help us track down the person who did this to you." My mom was patting my hand, but watching the news anchor with a slightly unhinged smile on her face. Even minor local celebrities were enough to render my Mom completely star struck and Roxane Ryan was not minor. "She's here to help us!"
"That's right," Roxane agreed, with a smile that made my mother's hand tighten over mine. "I know you're probably worried about not looking your best..."
"It's not that -"
"But trust me, you look lovely," she kept right on talking over me. Her voice was as warm as it was when she reported the news, and for some reason, hearing it made me want to cry. "When I asked at the front desk, they sent me right up. They didn't tell me you were sleeping."
I sat up straighter and tried to grin stoically through the throbbing pain in my head. "It's fine. Of course." My mother patted my shoulder, asking a silent question, and I nodded in answer. "I'm awake."
"We're going to try to appeal to the audience tonight. For anyone with information to come forward." I knew it was all trained schtick, but damn was she good. I was starting to believe she really took this personally. "I just wanted to ask you a few questions.”
I licked my lips and nodded.
"Great." She turned and waved over her camera guy's head to someone I couldn't see. "Just go in and stand over there, okay?"
Around the cameraman stepped Cooper Grant. He lifted his gaze from the floor as he stepped towards me, and met my eyes. Something instinctual and uncontrolled inside of me panged helplessly at the dark circles under his sunken, bloodshot eyes. Even the normally brilliant blue looked faded and washed out. A scratchy line of blond stubble glinted on his cheeks. I'd never seen him without a fresh shave before.
"Get in there, honey," Roxane called. "Stand right next to your fiancée, there."
I stiffened at the word and glared up at Cooper. What the fuck? I mouthed.
Cooper smiled at Roxane. A big, bright, false smile. That faded into sheepishness as he looked back in my direction.
"Let me get out of your way, I look a fright." My mother kissed me and leaped up, reacting to the cameras the way a vampire reacts to sunlight. "Don't film me, you're not filming, right?" She patted her hair as she dashed out of the line of sight.
Leaving me alone with Cooper. "Fiancé?" I hissed at him. He still hadn't explained.
Cooper kept his smile pasted on his face. "Hi," he said, settling into the chair my mother had so willingly abandoned. He put his arm up on the pillow behind my head.
And leaned in.
I gasped as his lips lowered towards mine. My whole body broke out into goosebumps and I felt like my blood was fizzing. On instinct, I shied away from the kiss even as a part of me was anticipating it... for some reason... wait...
Just as I came to my senses, Cooper’s lips veered sideways, away from my mouth and towards my ear. "I'm sorry," he breathed. The warmth of his breath on my ear made me shiver. "I'm just... I'm sorry. Please. Just... play along?"
"That's sweet. Get that," Roxane's voice urged.
The bright lights hit us. I made a sound of protest and tilted my head to glare up at Cooper.
He was looking down at me. His eyes, they were full of apology. I'd never seen him look like that before. Penitent. Begging. "Please," they said. "Help me out here."
And to my surprise, I suddenly wanted to do just that. I ran my tongue along my teeth. Then gave him the barest of nods.
Relief flooded his face and for a second I thought he really might kiss me.
But instead, he reached out and gently laid his right hand over mine.
And we both turned to face the camera. "Just a few questions, for human interest," Roxane explained, her warm voice all coolly clipped and professional now. "It's going to be cut in with snippets from Jim Crowthers." She turned her head and hissed something at her cameraman who nodded quickly. Then her warm smile returned as she counted down. "I'm here at Reckless Falls Hospital, where hit and run victim, Willa Harlow, is now recovering under the watchful eye of her fiancé, Cooper Grant." She turned and smiled at us. "How long have you two been engaged?"
Cooper felt me flinch and patted my hand. Reminding me to stick to the story. Why? Well, I intended to find that out. He looked at me, and then carefully spoke. "Well, we've known each other forever."
That was... Not a lie. I nodded, adding, "It just sort of...happened."
Also not a lie, though not true in the way Roxane probably understood it. She was nodding, her warm smile looking more genuine than ever.
Holy shit, it was working. "Honestly, I was completely blindsided," I went on, giving Cooper a significant look.
He was giving me a look right back. Another one I'd never seen on him.
Was it... fondness? His fingers jerked a little, then pressed more strongly over the tops of mine. The pressure felt... nice.
"What was it like?" Roxane's full attention was on Cooper now. She seemed a little taken with him. "Seeing her on the road like that?"
His face crumpled. His jaw worked. If that was an act, he should win a damn Oscar. "It was... scary. So scary." My heart was lurching around in my chest as I watched him. His blue eyes shone unnaturally bright for a second. He blinked.
Without thinking, I put my hand up on his shoulder. It rose and fell under my hand. He was warm, almost hot to the touch, but soothing in the same way a bonfire was. I could feel the way his muscles played under his skin and the feel of it fascinated me so much I almost missed the question Roxane directed at me. "And you, Willa? What was it like?"
I blinked. "I didn't know anything until I woke up here but..." I looked at Cooper and exhaled the long, painful realization. "He saved my life."
"And what about your ring?" Roxane asked.
The tone of her question implied she was looking for a tragic reason as to why I wasn't wearing it. But Cooper stiffened anyway. I could feel the tension in his shoulders and had to resist the urge to rub it away with my one good hand. Instead I smiled at Roxane. "It kept slipping off, so he took it to be resized. I'm so glad I wasn't wearing it." I gazed up at Cooper who was watching me, amazed. "I'm really glad you thought my fingers were fatter than they are, honey!" He looked shocked as I lightly bopped him on the nose.
From the other side of the room, where she'd apparently been watching the whole thing unnoticed, Chrissi suddenly lost control. "Oh my goodness!" she squeaked. "You're so devoted to him!" The cameraman swung around to catch her just as she was pressing her hand to her heart. She looked right into the lens with the practiced air of a born movie star. “They’re so good together. It’s been such an honor watching this young man caring for his beloved so carefully. Isn't young love so beautiful?”
Chapter