Page 107 of Sweet Ruin

I held my breath as I waited for him to respond, praying I hadn’t imagined the noise. Praying he would open his eyes.

He let out a low grown, and I thought that one small noise might just be the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. I fell back to his side, placing my hands gently on his face.

“Noah, can you hear me?”

He slowly opened his eyes, and my whole body exhaled with relief. His expression was dazed, and his eyes looked dopey, but he smiled as he looked up at me. “If I’d known all I had to do to get your attention was fall and crack my head on the ice, I would have done it weeks ago.”

I released a laugh because it felt so good to hear his voice. “That’s not funny,” I said, but I was still smiling like an idiot. I’d never been more grateful to be able to look into his green eyes.

“Seriously, are you hurt?”

He lifted a hand to rub his head. “I banged my head, but I think I’m okay.”

He started to push himself up, and I wasn’t sure whether I should stop him. What if he’d really hurt himself?

“Should I call an ambulance?” I asked. “Maybe one of the guys? I’m not sure you should move after falling like that. I—”

“You’re stressing, Crash.” Noah waved me off. “I’m fine. Seriously, I…” He went to stand but stumbled and almost fell to the ground again.

I quickly moved to steady him. His eyes seemed unfocused, and he could barely keep his feet without my support.

“We need to get you to a doctor,” I said. “You were unconscious, Noah. Where are your keys?”

He looked like he might argue, but he must have felt worse than he was letting on because he nodded. “They’re in the truck.”

“Do you think you can make it back there if you lean on me?”

“I can walk.”

“I think you’ve just shown that you can’t. You nearly fell over again.”

With a sigh, he accepted my help. Noah was a big guy, and I was grateful we weren’t farther from the truck. I wrapped one arm firmly around his waist, and he rested his arm over my shoulder as we made our way back to the vehicle.

Any other time, I would have felt awkward being so close to him and my instincts would have resisted his proximity, but I was too worried about him to even consider how good he smelled or how nice it was to have his arm around me. I got him in the truck before I hurried round to the driver’s side and climbed in.

“Where’s the emergency room?” I asked as I fastened my seat belt.

“No idea.”

“Do you have your phone?”

He fished it out of the center console and passed it to me. I swallowed when I saw his background was a picture of the beach. It wasn’t just any beach though. It was the secluded beach in Rapid Bay where we’d shared our first kiss.

I did my best to ignore the idea that he looked at the picture every time he unlocked his phone, and I searched online for the nearest emergency room. As soon as I had the directions, I glanced at Noah. “It’s not far.”

But his eyes were shut, and my heart stuttered. “Noah!”

“I’m awake, I’m awake,” he groaned. “Just resting my eyes. My head hurts like hell.”

“Please just keep your eyes open.”

He slowly opened them once more and gave me a weak smile.

Seeing the pain in his eyes sparked me into action, and I started the truck. My hands were shaking as I slammed down on the accelerator, and we took off from the curb. I was so worried Noah was going to pass out again, and it was impossible to stay focused on the road.

I kept turning to look at Noah, checking he hadn’t closed his eyes again. Thankfully, he kept them open, but his face was tense, and he kept lightly touching his head and wincing in pain. It looked like he was feeling worse now that some of the initial shock had worn off.

It took us less than ten minutes to get to the emergency room. As soon as we pulled up outside, I jumped from the truck and ran around to the passenger side to help Noah out. I was in such a rush to get him inside the building it took me a moment to realize he was smiling at me as I was helping him from the vehicle.

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