Page 74 of Willow Vale

I couldn’t imagine a world with Finn unless Wren was in it too.

“You should head to Silver Hill and get some rest,” I told my brother as he walked over to ruffle River’s hair, which made the kid pout up at him. Finn grinned at his reaction before frowning at me. Before he could say he had no intention of leaving this hospital, the sound of a soft groan slicedright through my heart. Finn spun to face the hospital bed to find Wren stirring.

“Holy shit,” Finn whispered, with relief dripping from each word. We both hurried to her side. I heard Delilah wake my parents up and then we were all surrounding my sister as she opened her eyes.

Dad gently took Wren’s hand in his when she saw him first, blinking up with tired, glazed eyes. “Hey there, honey.”

“Dad…” Wren frowned as she looked around the room.

“Are you in any pain?” he asked her.

She released a shaky breath that resulted in her grimacing in pain. I held River a little tighter to me when he tucked his face into the crook of my neck.

“It hurts…” she murmured.

Behind me, Desi wasted no time offering to get the doctor before she disappeared into the hallway.

“You scared the shit out of me, you know that?” Finn said to her when she gave him a small smile. He kissed her cheek, and she whimpered slightly, making him pull away. He glared at the bandage around her head like it was the enemy. “What would I have done with you, huh?”

“I have to keep you on your toes now that I’m here. Can’t let you have all the attention.” She tried to joke but it fell flat. Finn was the only one who let out a shaky laugh, dropping his head between his shoulders.

Wren looked to Dad and saw him barely keeping it together, a tear rolling down his cheek.

“Dad, please don’t cry,” Wren pleaded. “I’m okay.”

Dad nodded, wiping his face before placing a kiss on the back of her hand. “I love you, kiddo.”

I placed a kiss atop her head before my sister said, “Man, you guys look like shit.”

This time we all couldn’t help but laugh. Leave it to one of the twins to pull out a joke at the worst time.

“Bad word,” I heard River whisper to Delilah.

“Better than you, that’s for sure,” Finn tried to joke too. I rolled my eyes at them until Finn grew serious and murmured with affection, “You really had us worried there.”

“Do you remember what happened?” Mom asked her.

Wren frowned and said after a beat, “I remember the rodeo. We were roping and then…I-I don’t know. It’s kind of fuzzy.”

The doctor walked in right at that moment to check her vitals. He asked her a few questions before he explained that, with her head injury, loss of memory was bound to last for a few hours. It would be something we’d all have to keep an eye on. Wren seemed all right with that, probably because she was too disoriented to understand. However, she understood what he meant when he said her leg had been broken.

We all understood what it meant to her to hear that she wouldn’t be able to ride.

Just like that, I saw a light flicker in her eyes and die all in less than a minute. There were no jokes after that. No smiles from her. All she did was fall right back to sleep, leaving us all to worry once more for what was to come.

CHAPTER 31

Lila

Two weeks had passedsince Wren’s accident. The whole town seemed to know exactly what happened and where she was staying in the hospital because, before we knew it, there were flowers, teddy bears, and cards delivered to her almost every day.

It was the end of June, which meant there was a little less than a month left of summer break for River. I got him officially enrolled in kindergarten and started doing some school shopping to prepare for it so I wasn’t running around like a chicken with its head cut off a week before school started.

I also needed to get him some new clothes since he’d been growing out of them in what seemed like the blink of an eye. That was why I was currently hunting down clothes in his size at the general store that had pretty much everything anyone could need.

I stopped by the grocery store on the way back to the ranch. Lately we’d been spending a lot more time on Silver Hill with Travis and his family.

We’d spent three separate nights at Travis’s house since Wren’s accident.

---