Page 112 of Gravity of Love
Liam was already heading to the bathroom. “My dad had to go to the hospital.”
“Hospital?!” She sprang up. “What happened?”
He was pulling out clothes from his duffle bag as Frankie padded into the bathroom, the throw blanket wrapped around her.
“Your mom said that when they left the reception, my dad said he was tired. She took a shower, and he decided to lie down. When she came out, he was non-responsive. They called an ambulance, and she went with him.”
“What was wrong with him? Is he okay?” she asked as she pulled on her underwear and then snapped her bra in front ofher at her waist, shimmied it around to her back, then pulled it up in place.
“They said it’s his heart. That’s all the information I have.”
“Why didn’t they call you? Why didn’t they callme?”
“They tried. There’s no signal here. They thought I was at home. I wasn’t. They tried you at your cabin, you weren’t there.” Liam took a breath. “Niko saw your clothes. He knows you were here.”
“Oh, okay.” Frankie looked at her dress then back to his oversized sweatshirt and sweatpants, her two clothing options.
“Do you want to go to your cabin to grab clothes?” he asked as he stepped into his running shoes.
“No.” She opted for his sweats, rolling the bottoms before slipping on her heels. “It’s giving Rihanna.”
He sighed with relief that they wouldn’t have to make another stop and grabbed his keys and phone. They left the cabin and headed down the walkway. He knew he was walking fast, but Frankie, being Frankie, was not about to be left behind, she was keeping up even in her heels on the wet stone walkway. He was not going to have her break an ankle trying to keep up with him, so he bent down. Without saying a word, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and he carried her piggyback.
“This was when I fell in love with you,” she said quietly in his ear as he carried her down the path.
“What?”
“The day that I fell from the tree and hurt my knee and you rode up on your bike and then you carried me piggyback to the house, that was the day I fell in love with you, if you were wondering.”
Warmth exploded in his chest, and it spread through his entire body. Hearing her say those words felt like a hug for his soul. Knowing that someone had loved him that long. All thattime, he was sure he was unlovable, someone had loved him, the best person in the entire world loved him.
The silence loomed big enough to be another passenger in the car on the 30-minute drive to Pine Ridge. The highway was empty but for wildlife skittering along the shoulder, a coyote, some deer, the red flash of a fox’s tail under the moon. Liam kept both hands on the wheel, knuckles bloodless. Frankie, in the passenger seat, now barefoot pulled his hoodie over her legs and tucked her knees up to her chest. She stared out the window, chewing the drawstring of the sweatshirt, as if the motion might slow her pulse. He appreciated her not making small talk. Every five minutes or so, she’d reach over and touch his arm, letting him know she was there for support.
The hospital sign cut through the night with its own brand of cold, fluorescent light. He parked in the visitors’ lot for the first time, where the spaces radiated out from the main entrance like spokes on a wheel. Frankie slid her heels back on and tried to smooth her hair, but it sprang away from her hands in wild spirals. She wound it in a bun on top of her head as they walked at a brisk pace, in silence.
Inside the ER waiting room, everything was both familiar and wrong. The air held that signature blend of antiseptic, old coffee, and recycled anxiety. Zeta, was on as night charge nurse, and the first to spot him as they entered. She made a beeline for Liam, her face the neutral mask of a professional bracing for family. Frankie veered to the left, intercepting her mom, who rushed towards him with Yaya by her side. He saw Niko and Tristan were there too, both with the shell-shocked look of men who’d spent the last hours pacing and cursing.
From Zeta’s expression, he knew it wasnotgood news. He walked straight past his family and continued to the double doors. Zeta paused, a moment of confusion crossed her face before she pressed her lanyard to the key card reader and thedoors opened. He stepped into the safety of the emergency room, knowing his family could not follow him there without being buzzed back. When the doors clicked shut, he looked to her for an update.
“They took him up for surgery twenty minutes ago.” She glanced toward the security doors still confused, then back at Liam, her lips pressed in a thin line. “Dr. Khan’s on call. She brought in Valdez to assist. They’re scrubbing in now.”
Valdez was the best vascular man in three counties. That should have been comforting, but it only made the stakes more real. “Aortic?” Liam asked, voice hoarse.
“LAD,” Zeta answered, using the acronym for left anterior descending, the artery that killed more men than any other. “Stemi. Massive.”
Fuck. What she wasn’t saying was what they actually called it. The widowmaker.
Liam’s jaw tightened so hard it ached. “Was he stable?”
“Not when he got here.” She looked down. “They got him back.”
Got him back. Which meant he was gone.
He closed his eyes for a moment, fighting the urge to run down the hall and break into the OR. Instead, he took a deep breath. “Let me see the chart.”
Zeta hesitated. “You know I’m not supposed to?—”
“Please,” he said, and the word came out as a rasp.
