Matt released her hand and turned to face the doctor. “How’s Pete?”
“He’s going to pull through. You can come on back now and I’ll talk to you about his condition. I’ve spoken to Mrs. Winslow, who’s still almost an hour out, and she said I could update you. He’s not awake right now, but you can sit with him.”
Matt looked at Hailey, and she could see his desire to get through those doors in his eyes. “Go. I’m glad he’s going to be okay. Just go.”
“Thank you for coming, Hailey.” He didn’t look back again as he followed the doctor through the doors.
*
ONCE PETE’S WIFE and daughter arrived and the doctor had given them the good news Pete would be in the hospital for a few days, but would make a full recovery, there wasn’t much reason in Matt sticking around any longer.
There would be reports to write and so much paperwork he’d feel trapped in red tape hell, but that was for tomorrow. Or maybe, if he was very lucky, the next day. For now, he felt as if he’d been dragged for miles by a runaway horse, so he kissed Pete’s wife on the cheek and made his escape.
He felt a pang of regret when he thought of Hailey. It was a four-hour round trip for her and he’d given her maybe five minutes before he disappeared. He’d gone out into the hall at one point, but he hadn’t seen her and she hadn’t been in the waiting room. He didn’t blame her for leaving. He’d run off and left her with barely a goodbye and that was after he’d been a total asshole the night before.
Even though he’d acted like a jerk, she’d taken care of his dog and then driven two hours to make sure he was okay. He wasn’t sure what to make of that, but he’d be giving it a lot of thought when he wasn’t halfway to being a zombie.
He could either scrounge around for a ride back to Whitford, or he could dig deep and summon enough charm to sweet talk the ER nurses into giving him a bed or a cot to crash on for the night. He was leaning toward the latter, but he wanted to get some fresh air first.
As he passed the waiting room, he happened to glance in and saw Hailey curled up on the sofa, reading a magazine. He stepped inside and she glanced up.
“You’re still here,” he said.
The wave of unexpected feeling almost staggered him. He hadn’t realized until he saw her face how much he didn’t want to be alone right now. Staying with Pete’s wife and daughter had seemed intrusive, and so did calling his family, but he wasn’t ready for silence after the day he’d had.
But Hailey had waited for him and he could see the concern in her eyes just as clearly as he’d seen the relief when she spotted him earlier and realized it wasn’t him who’d been hurt. She cared. And so did he. More than he’d wanted to admit to himself. He’d known he was falling, but he hadn’t realized just how far.
She tossed the magazine onto the side table and stood. “You came on the helicopter with your friend, so I wasn’t sure how you’d get home.”
“Somebody would have given me a ride.” He kept his words tight, not trusting the emotions he felt to stay put so he could analyze them rather than them pouring out of his mouth. “A local officer, maybe.”
“Oh. Well, no sense in anybody going out of their way. You live next door to me, so it’s not out of my way. Maybe a little, since I have to drive by my house to get to yours and then backtrack, but it’s only fifty feet or so. And you’d probably be a decent guy and offer to walk that far.”
He smiled. “You’re babbling.”
Her expression grew serious and she shrugged one shoulder in an embarrassed kind of gesture. “I couldn’t leave you here all alone.”
Those words hit him in the gut and he wasn’t sure what to say.
“I know there’s nothing I could do,” she continued, “but I couldn’t just turn around and drive home, either, you know?”
“I was going to crash on a cot somewhere here. I’d rather go home.”
“Do you need to talk to anybody first? Or get anything? Do you have stuff somewhere?”
She asked the questions in a take-charge kind of way, and Matt felt his muscles ease a little. He could relax with Hailey and she’d make sure he got home okay. “I’ve already said goodbye to Pete’s wife and talked to his nurse. I have everything, I guess. I took off my vest before I started CPR. I tossed it somewhere, so somebody grabbed it, I’m sure. And my helmet was there, too. I’m ready.”
“I moved my car to the visitor’s lot,” she said, and he realized she’d probably been doing that when he’d looked for her. He felt like such an idiot. “I wasn’t sure how long you’d be and I didn’t want to take up an ER space. Do you want me to go get it and pull it around?”