Page 130 of Holiday on the Rocks
I pulled them on and smiled as she gave me the little bouquet of pink and purple flowers.
FIFTY-NINE
EVAN
THE END
I sat in the chair next to John. I’d visited them in Brazil last summer and knew he regretted how Levi was raised. That it took him so long to get into a good place with Levi. But they’d grown close.
John stood. “I’m going to grab some coffee. You need anything, Evan?”
“No, I’m good.”
He exited, and I grabbed my phone and walked down the hall. As I leaned against the wall and texted Rachel, beeping at the nurse’s station across from me filled the air. A nurse tore around the counter and ran into Levi’s room.
I followed and when I went through the door, my cousin was sitting up in bed pulling tubes from his arm. “Allie!”
“Sir, you need to stop!” The nurse tried to hold his hands when I sprinted to the other side of the bed.
“Levi, stop it, calm down!”
“Allie!” His voice was filled with pain and anguish.
“Calm down!”
He groaned and held his head with his hands for a second as he threw his feet over the side of the bed as the nurse yelled.
“Sir!”
“Allie!” He grabbed my shirt and pulled me to him before putting his arm around my neck as he groaned. He stood, leaning against me, at the same time John ran into the room.
“Levi, she’s not here?—”
He looked over at me. “She’s here. I can feel her.”
He leaned on me and led me to the door as a second nurse appeared in the hall. “Sir, you need to stop this. You had surgery.”
We stood just outside the door in hall when Levi yelled with such a primal urgency it shook the walls. “Allie!”
She stepped out of a door down the hall and froze as if she’d seen a ghost.
Instantly Levi let out a breath. “Allie.”
She took off running toward us and threw her arms around him. “Levi.”
She pulled back and kissed both cheeks and then his lips. “You’re here.”
A relief washed over me as he grinned. “I’m here.”
The nurse waved her arms in the air. “We need to get the groom back into bed, please.”
SIXTY
ALLIE
A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
The thank you prayers were overwhelming my brain as Levi leaned on Evan to get back to the bed, but he didn’t release my hand.
