Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
The entire audience, even the cop who’d come to do crowd control, was weeping silently.
I wasn’t crying.
I had no tears left to cry.
Just a permanent ache in my heart that was always there. Always pulsing and reminding me of what I’d lost.
“You may think it’ll never happen to you. To your kids,” I said softly. “But it does. It happened to mine. It could happen to yours. And that’s why I created this company. I wanted to make it to where no other parent had to go through what I did go—and am still going through.”
“I, uh, I…”
I looked over at the opposing school board member and said, “I’ll do everything I can to make this as affordable as I can for y’all.”
He nodded. “I don’t think we need to vote anymore. When can you start?”
There wasn’t a smile on my face as I headed out the door ten minutes later with my laptop tucked underneath my arm.
I rubbed at the aching spot on my chest and closed my eyes as I moved, wondering if the pain would ever ease.
Or would it always feel like this?
My phone rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it. “Gunner Penn.”
“Um, Mr. Penn?” a worried sounding voice asked.
I immediately stopped walking. “This is he.”
“This is a nurse at Dallas Memorial. I’m calling because we have a patient by the name of Sutton Sway here…”
It took me eight hours to get home.
It should’ve taken me nine.
I’d driven like a bat out of hell and luck was on my side, because I hadn’t seen a single police officer the entire way.
There was a different ache in my heart as I all but ran into the hospital.
A security guard buzzed me in and told me what room.
I was skidding around a corner when I heard it.
“…sure she’s okay?”
“She’s more than okay,” the doctor said right when I rounded the corner to a curtained-off room in the middle of the emergency room.
“Good.” An older woman looked so relieved at the news. “Oh god.”
My gaze went from the man to the woman before I said, “Mr. and Mrs. Sway?”
Both of Sutton’s parents turned toward the opening in the curtain, but it was Mrs. Sway who was bustling toward me with her arms outstretched long moments later.
“Oh, Gunner,” she said quietly. “I’m so glad that you’re here.”
I hugged her back, my gaze going to the empty bed before I said, “Where is she? Is she okay?”
“I knew that you should’ve called him.” Mr. Sway held out his hand for me to shake when Mrs. Sway finally let me pull away. “She’s fine. Pissed as all get out because she sprained her ankle and can’t train for a few weeks. Even angrier that someone took out her brand-new car.”
I could imagine.
“And she’s…”
“Right here,” a rough sounding voice came from behind me.
I turned to find her smiling sadly at me as she hobbled toward me in a pair of ripped leggings and one of my sweatshirts.
I moved toward her and gently lifted her up off the ground, holding her close for long moments while I forced myself to calm down.
I’d driven long hours back to Dallas while in a state of panic.
I’d called a few of the guys, and they’d stopped what they were doing to head down to check on her.
They’d all said that she was fine, but hearing she was fine, and seeing that she was fine, were two completely different things.
“What happened?” I rasped.
She turned her face so that it was buried in my neck, and I held on just a little bit tighter.
“A car hopped the curb and headed straight for me,” she explained into my neck. “I jumped to hide behind a concrete barrier that blocked a fire hydrant, but my ankle didn’t get the memo. It twisted into an unnatural angle, and in the fall, I banged my head really hard on the ground.”
“She has a mild concussion. They didn’t say that she needed to be woken up every hour, though. They said to bring her back if she started to exhibit any more strange signs, however.”
I nuzzled the side of Sutton’s neck, then carried her to the bed. “You should be using crutches.”
“They haven’t brought me any yet,” she grumbled darkly. “Though, Audric asked some doctor friend that they know, and he’s on his way with some. But my bladder was screaming.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “And I’m not getting my dad to carry me to the bathroom. I’m too old for that.”
“I’ll carry you when we get home,” I promised.
She scrunched up her nose. “Absolutely not. Those are husbandly duties, and you’re not that yet.”
I tilted my head to the side slightly before saying, “Well, your parents are here. And I live really close to city hall.”
She scoffed. “Sorry, Charlie. But if we’re ever together for long enough that you want to ask me for real, and not because you’re scared, I want it the right way. I want you down on one knee in the middle of a park with geese and ducks and butterflies all around. I want a huge ass wedding where I’m not maimed at the reception. I want the whole nine yards, and I want it with a man that’s so absolutely in love with me that he cries when I walk down the aisle toward him.”