Page 79 of Wild Night

“Yeah,” he murmurs, then what feels like seconds later, the door opens, and I see her standing hesitantly in that doorway.

She’s wearing the same outfit as earlier, but streaks of her makeup have been removed from the tears rolling down hercheeks. She’s obviously been through hell, yet still manages to look absolutely fucking stunning.

“Hey, princess,” I rasp.

Those two words are all she needs from me. She hurries toward me, then stops at my bedside. She reaches for my hand, taking it in hers and gently squeezing my fingers.

“I was so worried,” Posey rasps. “I thought I lost you before I really had you.”

My lips twitch into a smirk. “You are not fucking getting rid of me that easily,” I growl.

“You’re okay?” she asks.

“I will be. You good with sticking with me for a while?”

She shakes her head once, then she sinks down so she’s sitting on the edge of the bed. Her hand leaves mine, but only so she can cup my cheek. Her eyes search my own, then she leans forward and touches her lips to mine. She doesn’t deepen the kiss before she speaks, her mouth moving against mine with each word she says.

“I’m not going anywhere, Justin. It’s you, me, and our baby for life.”

Fuck yeah, it is.

POSEY

Standing outside the room while Justin and his parents talk, I watch as Bullet and Dakota rush toward me. She throws her arms around me, pulling me close to her. We haven’t really spoken since this whole thing happened. She was focused on Bullet, as she should have been, and I was pacing, thinking, crying, and then sitting with Mae.

“He’s okay,” she breathes.

“He’s okay,” I confirm.

We cling to one another, and although it doesn’t feel exactly like it did with Mae, it still feels pretty damn good. Bullet stands off to the side, his eyes shifting between us, to the door, and then promptly flick down to his shoes.

Taking a step back, I smile as I look over at him. “He said he wanted to talk to you after Mae and Lloyd leave,” I say.

Bullet nods his head, but he doesn’t look up at me. I don’t know what he’s thinking. Maybe the same thing we all are, that this whole situation feels utterly surreal. That we’re thankful Justin is okay. But maybe he’s also thinking about how he could have died.

Honestly, he’s probably got a mixture of emotions and thoughts flying around in his head—I know I do. Dakota says something, her voice taking me away from my thoughts and my focus on Bullet.

I’m not sure what she said, but thankfully, she repeats herself. The second time breaks through, and I am able to not only hear her but understand her. My focus shifts from Bullet to her.

“Did you have a nice conversation with Ivy’s mom?” she asks.

“She’s really nice,” I say. “I wish I had met her under different circumstances, but she seems great.”

“They both are,” Bullet announces. “They’re good people.” He doesn’t sound as if he’s trying to convince me of anything, but rather that he’s lost in his own head and just chiming in when he can.

Before I can say anything else, a nurse approaches us. I watch her walk over to our small group of three, and I expect her to begin speaking with Bullet because he seems to know everyone here and can get the most information out of them in general. Though there’s no more information to get now that Justin isawake and able to tell me anything and everything about his medical care.

“Posey Bennet?” she asks, her gaze flicking from Dakota to me.

I raise my hand as if I’m being called on in school, and my eyes find hers. “I’m Posey,” I say.

She gives me a tight smile, her expression not friendly at all. I’m unsure what she could possibly want with me, and by name. “There is someone at the nurses’ station who needs to speak to you.”

My mind is jumbled, and I know I’m not thinking clearly, but who the hell would want to speak to me at the nurses’ station? Every single person I know, aside from some in Northern California, is here in this hospital and knows exactly where I am. They could come get me themselves.

But since I’m definitely not thinking straight, I follow her to the nurses’ station. Bullet and Dakota obviously don’t sense anything wrong with it, either. They don’t say anything and just watch me walk away.

The nurse’s footsteps are quick, and I practically have to run behind her to keep up. She passes the nurses’ station, and I call out for her, but she continues, not even pausing as she shifts to look over her shoulder at me, telling me to keep coming.

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