“Keep trying him. Olive has a dog that needs to be taken care of.” Griffin was a wreck, and his hands were shaking quiteabit.
After finding her room, we congregated outside, none of us too sure what we should do. We didn’t know Olive well, but she was important as hell to Griffin, and he was practically my little brother. I wasn’t going to leave his side until he told us to get the hell awayfromhim.
A young doctor came up to us. “You all must be Olive’sfamily.”
Without even missing a beat, Jessica responded, “Yep. Can you tell us how she’sdoing?”
“She is definitely banged up from the accident. She’s kind of out of it, but you are more than welcome to wait in her room for when shewakesup.”
We all funneled into the tiny space, most of the guys taking seats by Olive’s bedside with Griffin. Myla, Jessica, and I all huddled in the corner, trying to keepourselveswarm.
“Why are hospitals so damn frigid?” Myla complained, pulling her jacket tighter around hermiddle.
“Holy crap!” Shaw burst into the room with Simon right on his heels, and both of them were out ofbreath.
Griffin got up to explain to them what had happened. I could not imagine what either of them was going through. Griffin had just found Olive, and now he had to watch helplessly as she lay in bed, bruised and broken from an accident she’d gotten in after leaving him. Shaw seemed to be as close with her as Gavin and I were, and I could totally empathize with him. If I got news that Gavin had been seriously injured, I would go fuckingballistic.
Shaw and Griffin left the room briefly to get more information from the doctors and so Shaw could fill out some paperwork for Olive’s insurance. Once they were back with coffee for all of us, we hunkered downtowait.
After about an hour, I heard Griffin’s soft voice coo, “You’reawake.”
Myla’s head was resting on my shoulder as she snored softly while I continued to eavesdrop on Griffin’sconversation.
“What happened?” Olivecoughed.
I watched as Shaw sank down on the foot of her bed to explain. “You fell asleep at the wheel and hitatree.”
Olive gasped and said, “Ohfuck.”
Griffin grabbed her hand as a tear rolled down his cheek. “Other than a beat-up car and a dislocated shoulder, you’re all right. The doctor said if you had been going any faster, you might have really done some serious damage. Thank Godyou’reokay.”
“Otis!” Olive was in a panic aboutherdog.
Shaw patted her leg. “Rhonda has him. I called her right when Griffin got aholdofme.”
“Thank you.” She looked at Griff, who was wipinghiseyes.
“Anything, babe. When you didn’t call, the gang sprang into action and got here as they were doing their initialtests.”
Olive sat up as much as she could to look around the room. “You guys didn’t have tocomehere.”
Myla rubbed her sleepy eyes, pulling away from my shoulder. “You’re part of the family now, Liv. You better get used to having us around. For better or for worse, you’re stuckwithus.”
Griffin kissed the back of Olive’s hand. “That is, as long as you’llhaveus.”
It was the sweetest sight I had seen in ages and my heart was bursting with the love that was palpable in the room. It all sank in so hard—we truly were a family. Blood or not, we were all there for each other nomatterwhat.
Chapter7
Crosby
Talk about a long ass night.Once we knew Olive was going to be all right, our group groggily parted ways, each of us heading to our respective homes. With the craziness of everything that had happened, Jordan and I didn’t have a chance to talk about anything. I hated feeling like we were in such limbo, but I didn’t want to seem too eager or pushy during a crisissituation.
Sitting at my dining table, I picked at the eggs and bacon I had just made. Completely consumed with what my next move should be, I stared at my phone, barely able to eat a damn bite. I didn’t know how it was all supposed to work. If I called her the morning after, would that be too soon? Would a text be too informal? I was a ball of nerves and utterly shameful of myactions.
Kissing Jordan Bates was something I had thought about countless times over the years, and drunkenly forcing her against a wall in front of my entire team and all of our friends had never been one of the scenarios my brainconjuredup.
I had always pictured us going to a hole-in-the-wall bodega or something of the sort, drinking sangria and talking about books and movies for hours on end. I knew how cheesy that sounded, but I craved the chance to sneak away with her. I longed for companionship more than anything else, and I’d realized it was something I hadn’t truly had even when I wasmarried.