Page 103 of Stay With Me

“Hey,” I whisper. I can’t stop myself from reaching my hand up to cup her cheek.

“Trina? Is she okay?” Emily’s voice shakes, and I know she’s afraid of my answer.

“Truth?”

“Always,” she whispers. “All of it.”

I swallow around the thick lump in my throat and nod. “She’s hurt pretty bad. She has a collapsed lung, a broken wrist, and her spleen ruptured from the impact of the car into her side. She’s lost a lot of blood, so she’s getting blood transfusions and she’s up in surgery now to take her spleen out. But they think she’ll be okay. Ben is upstairs waiting for her to come out of surgery. And I’ll wait with him once they put you in a room.”

Silent tears stream down her face. “About the other stuff… The stuff you said in the ambulance. Is it true? All those things you said when you broke up with me were a lie?”

I caress her cheek with the pad of my thumb and look her straight in the eyes, hoping she’ll see my sincerity.

“Yeah. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I thought you were afraid of me, and I’m scared I’m gonna end up just like my father and ruin everything beautiful about you. That you’ll lose yourself again because of?—”

“Stop.” Her voice is soft, but commanding. “You’re not him, Charlie. How could you think you’d ever been like him? Don’t you get it? You helped me find me again this year. You make me feel brighter and youseeme. I was never afraid of you. You were defending your mom. I was scared of your dad and the situation, but never you.”

Jesus, who knew words could be so healing?

“Will you come back home with me? Stay with me again?”

“Of course I will.” She smiles sweetly. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. I’ve loved you from the start. I don’t know exactly the moment it happened, but it didn’t take long after meeting you. It’s always been you for me, Emily. No one else.”

“Really?” Her voice is a whisper, her gorgeous eyes wide. “Y-you never told me. If you had, then m-maybe?—”

“No, sweetheart. Don’t do that. We’re gonna move forward, not think about the what ifs. Though I wish I had been more upfront, I wasn’t. But now we’re together, and that’s what matters.”

She nods, not taking her eyes off me.

Just as I’m about to kiss her, the curtain whips open and Shayna flies into the room like a hurricane.

“Em!” Shayna runs to the other side of Emily’s bed and grabs her hand. She searches Emily’s body with her eyes for injuries.

Just then, Dr. Adams walks in, surveying the three of us.

“Ms. Flynn, is it okay to talk in front of your…”

“My family. They’re my family. And yes, you can talk in front of them.”

“Okay. Well, as you know, your neck and back don’t have any fractures or we wouldn’t have removed the equipment we did. You did, unfortunately, break your right wrist, but it won’t need surgery. We’ll splint it here and have you follow up with orthopedics for a longer-term cast. It will probably hurt for at least a few days, though. Your CT scan of your brain shows no bleeding or swelling. But you have a concussion and, because you hit your head so hard, we’re going to admit you for at least forty-eight-hours to make sure there are no complications.”

We thank him and when Dr. Adams leaves, Emily looks at Shayna. “I lied to you,” she whispers.

Shayna’s forehead creases in confusion. “Really? About what? You always tell me everything.”

“Remember when we went and got waxed a few weeks ago and you asked if I was having sex with someone?”

“I should step out,” I say, standing.

“No. Stay with me, Charlie.”

“Ugh. This is gonna be embarrassing,” I mutter. But I sit back down.

Shayna looks between us, curiously.

“Remember?” Emily asks her.

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