Love in a Small Town (Pine Harbour Book 1) (21 page)

“I’m here, honey.” Her friend wrapped her long, slim arms around her from behind and she turned on the spot, returning the embrace. “He’s going to be okay, really. But he’s a bit messed up right now, and he needs surgery, so they’re going to airlift him to London.”

“I want to go with him.”

“You can’t, but we’ll drive you.” A silent conversation was taking place over her head between Dani and Dean, she could feel it, but she didn’t care. “Come on, you can see him for a minute before they load him up.”

Dani squeezed her hand, both reassuring and prompting. Olivia followed, the noise and bright lights of the hospital swirling around her in a surreal tapestry. Through one door, then the next, and when they got to a closed curtain, she heard him groan and started crying all over again. 

“Rafe—!” She cut herself off, not trusting herself to hold it together. He couldn’t see her like this.
Pretend you’re strong for thirty seconds
, she ordered her heart. Dani gave her a questioning look and she nodded and blew out her cheeks. “I’m okay.”

On the other side of the curtain, five people in scrubs had their hands on him.
Oh my god
. In him, it looked like as well, from the amount of blood on their gloves. Pieces of his uniform lay on the floor, cut off in chunks, and large medical packs lay open on his chest. He was moaning as the man touching his shoulder barked orders to the others. Dani silently guided her around the gurney so she could see his profile. Eyes squeezed shut, jaw clenched and teeth bared, he looked gloriously alive—a true fighter.

“Sweetie,” she breathed, and his eyes popped open.

“Baby,” he groaned. “You’re here.”

“I hear you’re going to take a helicopter ride.”

He grunted.

“I’m going to follow.”

“Dani—” He swore as one of the nurses did something to his hand.

“What did that feel like, Rafaelo?” the doctor asked.

“Fucking cold,” Rafe muttered, and the nurses laughed. 

“Okay, we’re good to go whenever the chopper gets here,” the doctor announced. “I’ll give you a minute, but then we need the room.”

She moved closer, hands shaking, not knowing if she should touch him. Thankfully he didn’t have that same fear. He reached out with his left hand and she squeezed his fingers. “Be brave.”

“I always am.”

“I was talking more to myself there, sweetie.”

He groaned. “Don’t you dare make me laugh.”

“I love you.”

“Never get tired of hearing that.”

“I’m never going to stop saying it.”

“Is that a promise?” He flicked his eyes over to his sister. “Dani, you’re my witness.”

“I’m right behind you, we’ll find you in London.”

A tortured look twisted on his face. “Listen, Liv…”

Behind her, Dani cleared her throat. “I’ll tell her, Rafe.”

The team moved in around them again, and Dani tugged her back out in the hall. 

“Tell me what?”

“Three other people were also shot. One of them was Lynn Howard. She didn’t make it.”

Olivia heard the words her sister-in-law said, but they didn’t make any sense. “What? How?”

Dani shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know.”

Lynn was dead. Panic swelled inside Olivia’s chest and she started crying again. Would she eventually run out of tears? Was that possible? “Where were they?”

Dani looked at the ground. “Rafe’s team executed warrants at a grow-op today. Lynn was there. We don’t know why.”

“Who…” She couldn’t ask the question—she didn’t want to know the answer.

Dani shook her head. “That’s all I know.”

Her kids
. Olivia’s stomach heaved and she pressed her lips together, willing herself not to hurl in a hospital corridor. She lurched across the hall to an empty bathroom, barely shoving the door closed behind her before she lost her lunch.

When she came back out, Dani and Dean were waiting together, arguing quietly.

“Look, Dani, I’ve got to stick around for the SIU investigation. But I don’t want you driving down by yourself.”

“The last thing Olivia needs is a crowd of people—”

“Jake’s not a crowd, he’s her friend. He’s Rafe’s best friend. He’s going.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. She so did not have time for this. She stomped across the hall. “Dani, suck it up for one day. Dean…where’s Ryan?”

Pain lanced across her friend’s face. Ryan was his best friend. There’d been no love lost between Dean and Lynn, but that felt petty to remember in this moment. “In a quiet room, uhm…” He pointed vaguely in a direction away from the Emergency ward. “He’s with Lynn’s parents right now.”

“And the others?”

Dean shook his head. “Don’t know. Both guys are from the tactical unit. You probably don’t know them. One got hit in the thigh, but it missed the bone. He’s staying here. The other guy…” He looked at Dani.

“No news yet. He took the first chopper out.”

Olivia shuddered. She needed to sit down. This was just all too much to process. She turned in a small circle, but there weren’t any chairs.
No
. She needed to be strong. “Okay, let’s go to London.” She gave Dean a quick hug and headed in search of Jake.

— —

The car rolled to a stop and a drive-thru intercom crackled to life. From the passenger seat, Jake glanced back to where Olivia was pretending to sleep. “You want anything?”

She shook her head, but then her stomach gurgled. “Maybe a bagel and tea.”

She pressed herself up and glanced through the window. She recognized Listowel immediately. Another hour to London.  

They ate in silence as Dani accelerated out of town. Olivia had expected…not fighting, exactly, but there was always a crackling tension between Jake and Dani. Not today. Somber worry and grief wrapped around all of them. Jake hadn’t even complained about Dani driving. Her car had been the obvious choice. The back seat was more comfortable and Jake’s truck was full of lumber—a stupid load to haul south for no reason. 

But it wasn’t like a Foster boy to ride shotgun and not bitch about it.

As they neared London, Jake’s phone rang. “It’s Dean,” he explained, glancing at the display quickly before answering.

His end of the conversation was mostly listening noises. Grunts and affirmative hums. Olivia’s pulse ratcheted up. She leaned forward between the front bucket seats, her hand squeezing Jake’s upper arm. He hung up and quickly reassured her that all was fine. Dean had arranged for a London city police officer to meet them at the hospital entrance and help them find the surgery waiting room.

“So he’s gone in, then? Any update on how long it might take?”

Jake shook his head. They’d find out soon enough.

Their destination was the level 1 trauma hospital in the south end of town and Olivia thought that drive through the city took almost as long as the rest of the journey from Pine Harbour. They parked not far from the helipad where Rafe would have landed and the thought sent shivers down her spine.
Please let him get through this alive.
So much could still go wrong in surgery and they really didn’t know anything about his condition. She tried to take comfort in the fact that she’d seen him. Talked to him. Touched him.

At some point on the drive, night had fallen and she’d missed it. Now it was dark and cold, that biting early winter temperature drop that annually surprised everyone. Jake and Dani introduced themselves to the waiting officer, but Olivia had tunnel visioned on the sliding glass doors in front of her. Somewhere on the other side, Rafe was in an operating room.

She was done sobbing, but a few quiet tears slid down her cheeks as they headed inside. In the waiting room, case numbers were displayed on small TV screens mounted around the room. The officer who’d met them had Rafe’s case number and handed it over before leaving to find someone to talk to them. A resident came and introduced himself, explaining that they expected the surgery to wrap up within the hour, and that Rafe would probably spend the night in the ICU before moving to a private room.

Dani asked a few questions about that, knowing more about the details than either Jake or Olivia, and Olivia pretended to listen like she understood. Really, she was just looking for the key words.
As expected. No complications. Physical therapy. Additional surgery. Follow up in clinic. Anticipate six months recovery.
 

“He’s going to hate that,” she whispered.

Once they were alone again, Dani pulled her in for a hug. “He’s going to be thankful he’s alive. And I’ll kick his ass if he forgets.”

Dani’s shoulder was just the right height for Olivia to rest her head. “You should call your mom,” she said after a minute.

Jake laughed. “I’m texting Tom, he’s practically sitting on her and Mr. M to keep them from getting in their car and driving here.”

Dani sighed. “We won’t get to see him tonight, so we might as well get a hotel room.” She quickly corrected herself when Olivia tensed against her. “Not you, honey. You’ll be able to sit with him for a bit, and stay here…and then you can sleep tomorrow. I know I won’t be able to drag you off. But Jake and I might as well take shifts. And then you’ll have a quick place to shower and change tomorrow.”

“I didn’t even think of a change of clothes,” Olivia said quietly.

“I brought my gym bag from my locker, and I can probably hit an open-late Wal-Mart tonight too. Don’t worry about that.”

Jake disappeared for a few minutes, returning with a cardboard tray of takeout coffee cups and a couple cookies. They munched and flipped unseeingly through magazines. At some point Jake noticed that Rafe’s case number now read out that he was in recovery, and then Olivia’s heart rate took off. How long until she could see him? 

Too damn long, she decided by the time a nurse called out her name. She jumped up.

“Rafaelo Minelli is your husband?” She nodded. Minor technicalities didn’t matter. “He’s still in recovery, but he’s the only person in there right now, and he’s asking for you.” 

Olivia whispered her thanks and followed along meekly, as if the gift of seeing him might be yanked away at any second.

The nurse led her into a large room, empty save for a single gurney partially obstructed by two curtains pulled shut to the patient’s toes.

Rafe.
Olivia’s heart leapt into her throat. She edged forward, nervous at what she might find. 

The first thing she noticed was how pale he looked. Dark stubble and harsh, bruising circles under his eyes made the white of his face even starker. His eyes were closed, and she held her breath for a minute, wanting to collect herself fully before she had his attention. Her gaze raked over the huge white bandage and cast contraption covering his right arm and much of his chest. He had an IV in his left hand, but he didn’t look like someone on his way to intensive care.   

For the second time that day, she was scared to touch him, but it was her turn to be strong. She pulled up tight against the gurney and leaned in close. “Hey, sweetie. I’m here.”

He slowly blinked his eyes open and offered a weak smile. “They keep taking me away from you. That has to stop.” His words were slow and slightly slurred.

“I’m not going anywhere tonight.”

“I’m going to marry you again, Liv. And I want to have babies.”

She tried to tell herself the words were driven by drugs and life-altering trauma, but they still took her breath away. She wanted that more than anything. “Whatever you want, sweetie.”

“Four kids. And a dog.”

“That’s sneaky, adding the dog on after I’ve said yes.”

“Did you?” he murmured, his eyes drifting closed again. “Did you say yes?”

The silent tears returned and she nodded, but he couldn’t see her.

— —

He was sick of the beeping. And even though Liv was a constant visitor, between his temporary cast and the drain and the damn pain medication, he felt like it had been weeks since he’d properly held her. Not to mention the stream of doctors, nurses, medical students. And earlier that day, he’d had to put up with an SIU investigator as well. Forty-eight hours had somehow stretched into an eternity. He was being released in the morning, but they weren’t going far. He needed to stay close to the hospital for a week of outpatient care before transferring his care back up north, so the police association had arranged for a short-term furnished condo rental. Dani and Jake had driven home the day before, and his parents arrived today. He would have insisted they stay in Pine Harbour, but they drove down separately, his mom bringing Liv’s car so they’d have a vehicle in London.

And they’d promised not to stay long.

The door to his private room swung open and the glorious scent of deluxe pizza made him drool.

“How’s my boy?”

Rafe grinned at his dad’s booming voice. Probably wanted a pretty nurse to come and tell him to keep it down. “Hungry.”

“We brought you pizza and salad, I can only imagine what blech the hospital served you for dinner.” His mom moved the pile of papers and oversized water cup from the moveable table and plunked down his food.

The Jello had actually been pretty good, but Rafe wasn’t about to tell her that. He took as deep a breath as he could manage without jarring his shoulder. His parents stood side-by-side at the foot of his bed trying really hard not to look worried. He smiled. “Thanks.”

“Gianni, go ask one of the nurses for another chair.” His mom offered him a polite smile. “Olivia will be here in a minute. She drove herself.”

Shit
. “Did she tell you I asked her to?” No, of course she hadn’t. That silly ninny. “Ma, I appreciate you guys offering to drive her back and forth from the hotel yesterday and helping her get settled at the condo today, but we haven’t had any time alone since this happened. She’s going to stay here for a bit tonight after you go.”

“Visiting hours—”

“Don’t apply to my wife.” He made sure his tone left no room for negotiation. He might be a temporary invalid, but he didn’t need Liv to put up with any flack on his behalf. “Got it?”