Page 63 of The Devil in Blue Jeans
“Hi, Miss. Henwood, this is Dr. Leo from Arizona General Hospital,” the doctor said. Charly’s heart now skipped a beat, a thousand thoughts racing through her mind all at once. “Do you know Marcel Boucher?”
It took her a second to absorb her question. “Yes,” she responded in almost a whisper. “He’s my ex-fiancé.”
“I see,” the doctor said softly. “We have your name listed as his next of kin.”
“What’s happened?” she managed to ask. “Is he okay?”
“Unfortunately, Mr. Boucher was in a bad car accident last night. His car collided with a transport truck after a drunk driver blew through an intersection. He came into the ER around three o’clock in the morning.”
Charly held her breath, feeling like she was floating. There, but not there. “Is he seriously injured?” she asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.
“It is gravely serious, I’m afraid,” the doctor advised. “I suggest you contact his family and get to the hospital quickly.”
Charly swallowed against the emotion tightening her throat, trying to make her mind work. “Yes... I can call his sister, but she is in France right now.” She thought back to Marcel’s parents’ travel plans. They had always been wanderers, traveling all over the world. “I believe his parents are on a cruise around the Mediterranean.”
“It is important you get his family here,” the doctor said. She paused, hinting at what Charly didn’t want to hear:Marcel was dying.
“I’m in Montana right now,” Charly told the doctor. “But I’ll be on the first plane to Phoenix.” Her voice caught in her throat as she mustered up the courage to ask, “Is he going to make it?”
The doctor’s pause answered her question:no. “He will have as much time as we need for you and his family to get here,” she explained gently. “He is currently intubated and on life support. I’ll see you when you arrive.” The line went dead after that.
Charly made an unfamiliar noise deep in her chest, anguish cutting through her heart with an intensity that she couldn’t control. She didn’t know if she should scream, cry or do both. She was supposed to forget Marcel and move on, and it felt like some sick joke that her heart and strength was being tested even further.
“What is it?” Willow asked when Charly dropped her phone onto the bed with shaky hands.
She could barely choke out the words. “Marcel...he was in a bad car accident.”
“Is he okay?” Aubrey asked, her voice trembling.
Charly shook her head slowly and replied, “He’s on life support. I—I don’t think he’s going to make it.” Her strength began to sway with this truth and her friends wrapped their arms around her in a hug. They were murmuring words of comfort, but all she could make out was herself saying, “I wished for this to happen. I did this.”
Willow leaned away from Charly, taking her hands in hers. “You didn’t want this to happen,” she said firmly. “What are you talking about?”
Charly’s breath hitched, her welling eyes spilling over. “I wanted him to hurt. I wanted him to suffer for what he did to me. I made this happen.”
Aubrey interrupted with a sharp voice. “Stop it! You couldn’t have made this happen. It was just a car accident. This is not about you. Don’t put that on yourself.”
But why did it feel like it was? Why did it feel like she had somehow brought this fate onto him?
Charly felt her whole being break apart. She had been so ready to let go of the past hours ago...until now realizing that past would be gone forever. With jelly legs and panic coursing through her veins, she pushed the blanket off her body and slid out of bed.
“I need to go,” she muttered while grabbing her cell phone. “Please help me get a flight ticket. I need to leave as soon as possible.”
Willow took Charly’s cell out of her hands, nodding in agreement. “I’ll find you a flight, go pack.”
Aubrey rushed into the closet saying, “I’ll help you.”
Charly barely felt the ground under feet as she moved absentmindedly and pulled out clothes from her drawers with shaking hands. She’d wanted to say goodbye to Marcel for closure and to put him behind her, but she wasn’t ready to say goodbye forever.
Twenty
The day had come and gone, and Jaxon was losing his damn mind. Less than twenty hours had gone by since he last saw Charly, yet he felt like he was going to explode. He’d spent his entire life without her, and now he wasn’t sure how he could spend another minute without her near him. It didn’t make sense. He’d never needed anyone this bad—but he needed her.
He’d ridden two horses this morning and both hadn’t gone well. Likely also due to his wicked hangover. His head was not in the game. He couldn’t remember the last time in his life when he was so indecisive. He usually knew how to manage things and what he wanted, but now he was running his hands through his hair, pacing along the front of his house, while spitting out every curse word in his vocabulary.
“What’s he doing?” Gunner asked, as Jaxon paced in front of the steps leading up to his porch.
Leaning against his truck, Eli replied, “Having a possible breakdown.”
