Page 33 of Amelia and Her Prince Charming
“The wedding party, including Rosie and Dylan. And a reporter from that Hot Goss magazine that keeps trying to do a story on you.”
“Well,” I said, sounding as exhausted as I felt, “I guess I gave him a story on a silver platter.”
“How nice of you,” Elm joked dryly.
Hot Goss was going to write whatever they wanted about me. I only cared about making sure Hudson was okay. I’d never beenhappier to see someone than when they’d brought Hudson out of the treeline and onto the beach.
“Have you heard anything about Hudson at all?”
“We spoke to his doctor downstairs for a minute before they let us up here to see you,” Anita said. “Hudson broke his collarbone, probably when the boat went down. That combined with mild hypothermia and dehydration, and his body was in shock. He’s stable and is going to be okay.”
He’d saved me from drowning and carried me to the cabin with a broken collarbone? Somehow that did not surprise me. Hudson was … he was everything.
“I need to see him.” I swung my legs off the bed, and we all looked down at my bandaged foot. “I’ll hop.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Elm said, looking concerned.
“I’m going to see Hudson,” I insisted.
Quinn popped her thumb out of her mouth, and her eyes lit up. “Uncle Hudson? He’s here too?” She turned to me. “I have to tell him about staying up alllll niiiiight looooong.”
“Please,” I told the nurse.
Elm and Anita shared a knowing look, and then Elm stood. “I’ll track down a wheelchair. Don’t move.” He left the door open, and his conversation with the nurse drifted in. Well, one part at least.
“She should rest,” the nurse said.
“She won’t until she sees him. Love is irrational,” he said fondly.
Love?
The word felt like a slippery fish in my stomach—ungraspable and completely unfathomable.
I couldn’t meet Anita’s questioning look.
IheldQuinnbackas Anita and Elm pushed the door open quietly to Hudson’s dark room. “Let’s let him see his mom and dad first, okay?” I whispered softly to her.
“Can I sit on your lap?” she asked in a tiny voice. The whole thing must have been so confusing to her. I didn’t know how much she remembered from when Shiloh died, but that was the last time she’d visited a hospital. And now to be here because I was hurt? I gathered her onto my lap, wincing only slightly when her knee hit my stomach and her elbow snagged my IV, pulling on the tape. We got adjusted, and I inhaled her familiar scent of baby shampoo and sugar. Quinn was all the best parts of me and Shiloh.
It was too dark to see Hudson from the doorway, and Anita and Elm were blocking him anyway. But I saw them both lean down and hug him. They remained there for a long time, bent over their son, and I could hear their sniffles. The Blaires had been through so much the last few years, and it had changed them. Loss had changed all of us.
“Why is everyone crying?” Quinn pulled her thumb from her mouth to ask.
“Everyone was worried, and we’re so happy to see each other.” I nudged her head off my shoulder. “Want to run in and see him?”
“I’m scared.”
“Of Uncle Hudson?”
“No.” She held me even tighter around the neck. “It’s dark in there.”
Elm came back out to the hallway, his eyes wet and red. “Sorry we abandoned you out here.” He took the handles of the wheelchair to push me in. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dim room. Hudson was lying on the hospital bed, attached to even more wires than I was. His right arm was in a sling and resting on his stomach. His eyelids were heavy, but he managed to smile when he saw us. I had never been so happy to see someone in my entire life.
I wanted to throw myself off this chair and onto his bed next to him, wrap my arms around him, and assure myself that he was there, real, and okay.
Quinn buried her face in my chest before I could enact my plan.
My eyes hungrily took in every battered, beautiful inch of him. “I can’t believe we’re wearing the same outfit,” I teased to keep myself from tearing up.
