Page 48 of Escape

I could have sworn I heard a soft chuckle escape from Huck. I wished it wasn’t dark and I could have seen his face. Seeing and hearing his laughter, mixed with the way he was touching me, would have made my whole year. For now, all I could do was use my sense of sound and touch to get me through.

“You’d be surprised by what so many of the guys have endured over the last couple of years,” he shared. “In fact, it wasn’t that long ago when nearly every member of the team was single. Now, more than half of us are either married, engaged, or in a very seriously committed relationship.”

“Us?” The word slipped out of my mouth before I had the chance to stop it. Surely, he wasn’t already married or engaged, was he?

“Us as a whole, Josie. Not me. I’m very single. But everyone who is in a relationship hasn’t had an easy time of it.”

It felt like a lead weight had been lifted off my chest. Huck was single. Technically, despite my overwhelming desire to get out, it was only a matter of days ago when I’d told him I was engaged. Sure, I didn’t want to follow through with the wedding, and I had checked out of the relationship from an emotional standpoint a long time ago. But did it make me a hypocrite to feel any type of way about the possibility of Huck being in a relationship? If anyone deserved happiness, it was him.

Not willing to ask that question, I went another route. “What do you mean? Did something happen?”

“A lot of things happened,” he said. “I won’t get into all the details of some of them, but I’ll give you a snapshot of it from the beginning if you’d like.”

“I’d like that.”

Huck didn’t hesitate to give me what I wanted. Without thinking twice about it, he dove in and told me about his coworkers and the battles they’d needed to face when it came to the women in their lives. He started at the beginning and told me about the first four men who’d fallen hard—Royce, Nixon, Jagger, and Brix.

I was taken aback by how horrible some of the stories were. The women had been through some very traumatic experiences, but I couldn’t overlook how Huck shared the ways in which the men had stepped up for the women in those scenarios. Of the four, the one that stuck with me the most was learning about Liv and Brix.

There was something that hearing a story about two people who’d known each other since they were kids did to me. To learn that they’d come out the other side years later, having hidden their feelings for one another but ultimately finding a way back to each other, gave me hope.

I didn’t think I was ready to jump into something else right now. I needed time to get past all that had happened, but it was encouraging to know we could have the chance I’d longed for years ago.

“I can’t believe all of that happened,” I said when Huck had finished telling me about Liv and Brix. “And to know that after all they’ve been through, the fact that two of the couples are now expecting their first child is wonderful. It gives me hope. Maybe things really will get better for me.”

“There isn’t a doubt in my mind that things are going to get better for you, honey. That’s a promise I’m willing to make.”

“Thank you, Huck. Thank you for saying that and for sharing some stories with me. It really helped to distract me, but now I’m feeling a bit exhausted.”

“Give in to the exhaustion, Josie. I’ll be right here with you for the rest of the night,” he promised.

Huck hadn’t stopped running his fingers through my hair. And after having been distracted by the stories of his coworkers for so long, that gentle touch mixed with his comforting presence and reassuring words about being here with me allowed me to drift off peacefully.

TWELVE

Josie

When I woke up again, I was shocked.

Numerous things had left me in a state of surprise, the first of those being that I could open both eyes for the first time since before Kurt had made it otherwise. It seemed the swelling around my eye had gone down enough to allow me to open and close both eyes again.

As amazing as that was, it wasn’t the thing that left me feeling so stunned.

Nope.

My eyes had drifted to the side of the bed, where I expected to see Huck. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found.

In any other scenario, I might have gotten myself worked up, but in this case, I couldn’t. Because even if Huck wasn’t there, I wasn’t sitting alone in the room.

And just as I was about to say something, the other person in the room spoke. “He’s going to be so mad at me,” the woman muttered.

“Mrs. Davidson,” I gasped.

A warm smile spread across the face of the woman I hadn’t seen in ages. Her eyes were immediately wet with tears. “Hello, Josie. It’s so good to see you awake.”

“What are you… what are you doing here?” I asked, wondering how long she’d been here while I slept.

“Well, I do work here at this hospital,” she answered. “But if you’re asking why I’m here in your room and not working, it’s because my shift hasn’t yet started, and I made a promise to my son.”