Page 65 of An Uphill Battle

“No. Never,” he tells her, gently brushing her hair back from herforehead.

“Sir, we’ve gotta get her loaded up. You’re welcome to follow us.” The three of us watch as they load Magnolia into the back of the ambulance, Seraphine’s face a mask of worry and Simon’s jaw clenching inanger.

“Jesus Christ,” Simon mutters, rubbing his hands over his face. “Driveme?”

Seraphine nods, and Simon looks to me. “Take care of shit here and lockup?”

“You know it, brother. Get outta here.” Simon and Seraphine load up into her RAV4 as I head back to theporch.

The minute Azalea sees me, she takes off at a sprint. “What happened? The police officers wouldn’t let us leave the porch. Is Magnoliaokay?”

Wrapping her in my arms, I drop a kiss to the top of her head. “Take a breath, Little Bit, and I’ll tell y’all what I know.” Together, we walk back to the porch, and I gesture for everyone to follow meinside.

“What in the hell happened?” Cash asks, pacing the length of Simon’s livingroom.

I catch them up on what Seraphine told us, and without anyone asking if I need a hand, they all spring into action, helping me clean up, the Super Bowl long-forgotten, and once Simon’s house is spotless, I pull out my phone and dial himup.

“Hey,” he answers after a few rings, soundingweary.

“How is she? Want us to comeup?”

“Banged up, a few cuts and bruises, a possible concussion. They’ll be discharging her in a little while. Y’all just go on home. She’s resting, and I kind of want to bealone.”

“I hear ya. I’ll tell everyone. You send Seraphine hometoo?”

“I did. I’ll update y’alltomorrow.”

“All right, let me know if y’all need anything before then.” Simon promises he will, and we end thecall.

“Simon says they’ll discharge her in a bit and that she’s resting. He also asked us to stay home.So...”

Myla Rose walks over with a sleeping Brody and presses a quick kiss to my cheek. “Keep us in the loop, D.” Cash follows behind her, offering a handshake on his way past, a somber look on hisface.

“My place or yours?” Azalea asks, resting her head on my shoulder, as if she can sense I need thecontact.

“Yours is closer. I’ll follow youthere.”

36

Azalea

It’s beenten days since Magnolia’s accident, and while her physical injuries were minimal, it seemed to have a huge emotional impact on her. Myla Rose and I told her to take as much time as she needed in getting back to work, and we truly meantit.

The only down side is how busy I am tending to both my clients and hers. In the short amount of time she’s been here, she’s built herself up quite a following, and most days, I’m working from eight in the morning until nine atnight.

It feels like the only time I see Drake is for a quick dinner before I crash into bed each night, and I miss him like no other. Luckily, he made sure well in advance that I would be off no later than four today for whatever Valentine’s Day surprise he has up his sleeve forme.

I’ve been an anxious mess over it. Because while I generally hate surprises, he’s never let me down with one ofhis.

“Do you know what he has planned?” Myla Rose asks as she wraps my hair around the barrel of her curlingiron.

“Not a clue. It’s killin’me!”

“Hmm. Something tells me you’ll likeit.”

“Wait a damn minute! Do you know?” I glare at her reflection in themirror.

“Ma-a-aybe,” she singsongs, drawing the wordout.

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