“I have a headache.” I’m honest with her. “At least … it feels like a headache.”
“That’s normal,” she says, and I smile at her. “If it gets worse, or you have trouble keeping your eyes open, you need to come back. Now I need to know that you will have someone with you to help you.”
I’m about to tell her that I’m leaving as soon as I get to Casey’s house and pack my stuff. I’ll go stay in a hotel and hire a nurse if I have to. “She’s with me. I’ll check on her.”
The nurse smiles at me and then turns to Casey. “She should be woken up every two hours. Just make sure she is coherent and stays hydrated.”
He gives the nurse the smirk that I’m sure makes all the girls go crazy. “I can do that.” She walks past him out of the room.
Kallie looks at me, then looks at Casey. “Why don’t you go get the truck?” She hands him the keys and pushes him out.
“Make sure she uses a wheelchair,” he says right before she closes the door on him, shaking her head. But he just knocks, and I have to laugh when I look over and see his face pressed to the little window. “Wheelchair,” he says. Kallie sticks up her middle finger at him. He looks at me, smiling, and just like that, he’s gone.
“Okay, missy,” she says, coming over to the bed and sitting down beside me. “I need you to promise me that you aren’t going to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night.” I look down at my hands.
“I’m not kidding.” When her voice goes low, I look over at her, and she has tears running down her face. She’s been my best friend and as close to a sister as I have ever had. I would do anything for her, and I know she would do anything for me, which is why we’re back in the town she ran away from eight years ago.
“Olivia.” When she presses for an answer, I swear all my words are stuck in my throat. Knowing she put aside her heartache to come back to this town for me is everything, and I could never repay her for it.
She takes my hand in hers. “You know, if we don’t get out of here, Casey is probably going to drive the truck in here.”
I nod at her, getting up, slipping off the hospital gown that they made me change into when I threw up to put my clothes back on. “I don’t think I could ever repay you.”
“What are you talking about now?” Kallie looks at me.
“For all this. I don’t …” The sob comes out, and she comes over to me, holding my face in her hands.
“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have the love of my life back,” she says. “If it wasn’t for you, I would still be existing and not living life.” She wipes my tears away with her thumbs, just like her brother did not too long ago. “I should be the one thanking you.”
She’s about to say something else when my phone rings in her pocket, and after she looks at the screen, she shows me it’s Casey. Putting it on speaker, she doesn’t even have time to say anything before he barks out, “What’s taking you so long? Is she okay? Does she want me to come in and carry her out?” I smile at the sound of his voice. I have no choice.
“Relax there, cowboy. I’m changing my clothes. We’ll be right out,” I say. Taking the phone from her, I hang up on him when he starts issuing orders about the nurse and the wheelchair. “Is he always like this?” I ask, and she shakes her head.
“Never,” she says, and I’m afraid to ask her what she means. The door opens and the nurse comes in with the wheelchair. “We just got a call at the nurses’ desk about you needing a wheelchair.” She tries to hide her smile, pretending she’s annoyed, but I can see it written all over her face. She is another one who has fallen for Casey’s charms.
I roll my eyes and shake my head as I go take a seat in the chair. She wheels me out, and I see him leaning against the truck with one foot up. He’s wearing blue Levi’s with his white T-shirt. He looks to the side, and I have a second where I watch him. He must sense that I’m watching him because he turns and looks at me, his whole face lights up with a smile.
“There you are,” he says with his Southern accent, making my stomach flip. He holds out a hand for me, and I take it, expecting him to hold my hand while I get in the truck, but instead, he picks me up like a baby and places me in the front seat. I’m so shocked I have nothing to say while he buckles me in and then closes the door. Walking over to the nurse, he kisses her on the cheek, making her blush. “Now you bring your granddaughter over to the farm, and we’ll get her riding some horses.”
“Will do,” she says, turning to walk back into the hospital with the empty wheelchair. Kallie gets into the truck.
“He’s lost his mind,” I say as she fastens her seat belt. I watch him walk around the truck and get in.
“Shall we go home?” he asks. I want to tell him that my home is in Los Angeles, but I just nod. I look out the window into the dark night as he makes his way home. When we pull up to his house, all the lights are on, and his parents are sitting on the porch waiting for us.
“What a shocker,” Kallie says from the back and gets out of the truck. I reach for the handle, but the door is being opened by Billy.
“Hey there, pretty girl.” He puts out his hand to help me down, and I take it. I don’t know what to do with all these people around me trying to help. I’ve never had this before.
He holds my hand, walking with me to the porch where Charlotte stands with tears in her eyes. “I was so worried,” she says, taking me in her arms, and I hug her with the one hand I have available. “Are you hungry?” she asks me.
“I think I just want a hot shower,” I say. I would actually kill for a bath, but I’m not going to ask Casey to sit in his bathtub. Billy releases my hand, and I walk into the house with Charlotte, her arm around my shoulder. She takes me straight to my bedroom, and I see that the bed has been turned down.
“I didn’t know if you were hungry or not, so I just left you some water and a couple of muffins by your bed.” She points at the huge basket of muffins and the two water bottles beside my bed. “In case you are too tired to get out of bed.”
“Thank you so much,” I say, smiling at her. Walking over to the bed, I sit down, not admitting that it took way more energy than I have just to walk into the house. Over the years, she has come to visit maybe once or twice. I knew right away that she was the mom I wanted to be when my time came, whenever it did. A mother who puts her kids first, a mother who nurtures and loves unconditionally. Not just because you won first prize or were selected to walk in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
“You didn’t have to do that.” She wrings her hands in front of her, looking like she wants to say something, so I take all my remaining strength to get up and go over to her.
“Are you okay?” She looks at me, and she has tears in her eyes.
“I’m just …” I want to tell her that I’m sorry that I brought all this to her. “I was so scared that you were going to be hurt.” She blinks, but a tear falls anyway. “But now I see for my own eyes you’re okay.”
My own tears gather in my eyes when I look at her; this woman, who is as simple as can be, and all she wants is to have her daughter home. My mother, on the other hand, has everything that she can buy at her fingertips, and the last thing she wants is for me to come home.