“Getting dressed.” I shrugged my shoulders as I stood in the center of his room completely naked.
“Please don’t leave.” He gripped my hands in his. “Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I need to know that you’re still here.”
“I’ll be here.”
He pressed another kiss against my lips then he walked out the door to her.
P A R K E R
Present
I was not prepared for walking into Emily’s room. All the nurse had told me on the phone was that she had been in a car wreck. She didn’t tell me any more details. She didn’t tell me what kind of condition she was in.
She was connected to so many wires and tubes that I couldn’t count them all. Bruises were already forming on her skin and there were bandages covering so many places.
“Are you Mr. James?” A voice called from behind me, and I turned to find a short nurse dressed in a pair of dark blue scrubs.
“Yes.” I cleared my dry throat. “Yes. That’s me.”
She nodded her head before making her way around Emily’s bed and checking the machines that were connected to her.
“Is she okay?” I looked around the room. There was a dry erase board on the wall that said the nurse’s name, Amanda, and under Goals, there was nothing listed.
“It’s quite early to know what all damage has been done, but yes, your wife should be okay.” She pressed a button on some machine that was pumping medicine into Emily.
“She’s not my wife. She’s my… She’s my ex.”
The nurse’s eyes got big but she quickly recovered with a smile.
“I’m sorry. I just assumed since she asked for you.”
“She asked for me?” My chest tightened at her words. Emily and I didn’t work out, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t love her once.
“Yes. She was very intoxicated when the ambulance brought her in, but she was demanding for you. Your name was just about the only information the emergency room could get out of her.” She straightened the blanket that lay over Emily as she talked.
“She was drinking and driving?” That didn’t sound like Emily. She would never do something so reckless.
“Yes. She completely totaled her vehicle, but she was the only one involved. Thank God.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and looked at Emily. She looked so fragile lying in that hospital bed. So… broken.
“She should wake up soon. I gave her some pain medicine a few hours ago that made her really sleepy.”
I nodded my head as the nurse spoke.
Why would she drink and drive? What would make her be so reckless? Then it hit me.
Me.
Guilt flooded me, and I tried to pay attention as the nurse continued to talk about concussions and cuts.
She would have never done something like this before. Before I cancelled our wedding and broke her fucking heart.
“I need to call her family.” I sat down next to Emily and ran my hand over hers.
“Okay. I’ll give you some time alone.” The nurse shut the door behind her, and I felt like I was suffocating. I wished I was still at home in bed with Livy, but just that thought ate me alive with guilt.
Livy was right about me from the beginning, I fucked everything up. I’ve had two girls that truly loved me in this life, and I broke them both.
Neither one of them deserved it. Neither one of them should have ever been with me to start with because I was where good girls go to die.
L I V Y
Present
Parker had been gone for five hours.
I knew five hours was nothing.
But I hadn’t heard from him. Not one call or a text, and I’d be lying if I said that my chest wasn’t tight with panic.
I sent him a text to let him know that I was here if he needed anything, but he hadn’t replied.
I pathetically watched the screen to see those three little dots that meant he was typing, but they never came.
I was wearing nothing but one of his t-shirts. My clothes were in the washer. Even if I wanted to leave. I couldn’t.
But I wouldn’t.
I had run from him before, but I wouldn’t let my fear win again.
But I couldn’t stop my imagination from running wild. What was he doing? Was he comforting her? Was he thinking that he had made a mistake by choosing me over her?
Had he?
I sat down on his couch with a cup of hot chocolate in my hand and stared out to the back porch where I had fallen apart under his touch yesterday.
When everything was perfect.
I curled up in a blanket and watched a movie. When I still hadn’t heard from Parker two hours later, I became even more worried.
I pressed his name with a trembling finger and held the phone to my ear. When I heard his voice through the other end of the phone, I finally breathed.
“Livy.”
“Parker, is everything okay?” I tucked my knees into my chest.
He took a deep breath and I heard it through the phone. “She’s beat up pretty badly. She has a concussion, and she had to have six stitches in her forehead.”
I could hear how worried he was through the phone.
“What happened?”
“She was drinking and driving,” he said softly.
“Wow.”
“She was… She was drinking because of me. We would have been on our honeymoon right now, Livy.”
“Don’t do that, Parker.”
“Do what?” He sounded frustrated.
“Do not blame yourself for this happening to her.” His guilt was so tangible that even I could feel it, but it was misplaced. “She made the choice to get behind the wheel of her car. Not you.”
“I need to go. Her parents are just now getting here.”
“Okay.” I nodded my head even though he couldn’t see it. “I’m not leaving, Parker.”
He was silent, and that silence scared me far more than his words.
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Livy.”
P A R K E R
Present
“Parker.” She reached out for me.
“Hey, Emily.” I sat down beside her hospital bed.
“What happened?” She looked around the room, confused.
“You were in a car accident. Do you not remember?”
She blinked her eyes, her face black and blue from the wreck.
“I remember going out drinking with the girls. I remember.” She stopped and looked at me. “I was drunk.”
I nodded my head, and she closed her eyes.
“I’m such an idiot.”
I didn’t say anything because she was right. Drinking and driving was idiotic. She didn’t need me yelling at her for her to realize that.
“Where are my parents?” She looked toward the door.
“They went downstairs to get some lunch. I told them I would stay here in case you woke up.”
She looked up at me, so much hope in her eyes. “Why are you here, Parker?”
“They said you kept saying my name over and over when they brought you in.”
She tried to bring her hand up to her face, but all the cords and tubes stopped her.
“I’m sorry, Parker. That’s so embarrassing.” She chuckled, but it was completely fake.
“I’m the one who is sorry, Emily. I never meant for things to be like this. I never wanted to hurt you.”