Page 33 of Serious Cowboy
Amanda stared at the screen of Callie’s phone. “But…” She glanced between Callie and the text. “This doesn’t seem final to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll never claim to be an expert on Zeke Knight, but knowing this came from him, I’d read this as him wanting you back.”
“How do you figure?”
“One, because he responded at all. And two, because he said that he missed you, too. He wouldn’t have confessed to such a thing if he’d been trying to shut things off between you altogether. If that had been his intention, I doubt you would’ve ever heard from him or seen him again.”
“He wants to get back together?” Callie repeated, having a hard time absorbing the concept.
“Yeah, I think so.”
This time, Callie embraced Amanda. “Thank you. Thank you for telling me.”
Her sister-in-law snickered at her. “I’m not sure how this helps.”
“If he wants to get back together, then it gives him a reason to wake up. It raises his odds, you know?”
“I hope you’re right.”
Callie hoped she was right, too.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
After a week,Zeke’s condition stabilized, and they moved him out of the ICU. He still hadn’t awakened, but this change to a different room meant that Callie could now go in to see him. At first, she’d been staggered by his appearance.
His face had been bruised that it looked like he’d gone one-on-one with a prize fighter. He wore one of those neck braces and had a cast on his left leg from his hip to his ankle. The break in his thigh bone had been so severe that they’d had to add screws and pins, and once he could get up and around, he’d require physical therapy just to walk again.
Ifhe could get up and around again.
But no, he would. She was convinced of it. She refused to believe anything else.
Every single day, she’d drag over one of those awful plastic chairs and sit next to him. At first, she’d been nervous about touching him—it looked like any physical contact might be painful—but eventually, she couldn’t stand not having some sortof confirmation that he was still in there. She reached for his hand first, it was bruised too, but not as severely as his face.
His fingers were warm, and this simple sign of life nearly made her lose it all over again.
Then, she spoke to him. “Zeke, it’s me. It’s Callie. Just wanted to let you know I’m here. I hope you don’t mind.” She swallowed. “So, you’ve been here a week now, but you need to wake up. The weather will be warming up, and you don’t want to miss that. The flowers will be blooming soon.”
As the days progressed, she let more and more intimate details enter their one-sided discussions.
“I found out more about Maria. And your lost baby. I’m sorry, and I promise I didn’t go snooping, but Erika said you were in school together, and she knew about it. Don’t be mad at her for telling me, okay. I’m sure she didn’t know you wanted that kept under wraps. Just like I didn’t know. I care about you a lot, and I hope we get another chance—that I get another chance—to prove that to you.”
Another five days passed with him remaining in his coma, but Callie kept showing up anyway. She stayed as long as she could each day, but she wanted to be there for him even if he might not be aware of her presence. To make sure she didn’t leave the pediatric practice high and dry, she brought her laptop and worked from the hospital when she wasn’t checking in on Zeke. Tim was supportive of her need to be there even though they were broken up.
After that first day, his parents made their exit with his dad showing up one more time, and his mom twice. Tim or Amandacame every other day or so, but only Callie was there every day for the duration.
She’d been asleep on this cushioned bench in the closest waiting area to his room when a commotion awakened her. It was about four in the morning and pitch dark outside the windows. But several members of the medical staff had started to race through the hallway. And their destination was Zeke’s room.
Heart in her throat, she hurried behind them.
“What is it?” Had he flatlined? Had something gone horribly wrong?
With his room full of hospital personnel, she stood right outside, waiting for news on pins and needles. A few minutes later a nurse named Martha stepped out and saw Callie standing there. All the staff knew her at this point.
“He woke up, Callie,” the nurse sounded so grave. “But he’s tremendously disoriented.”
“He woke up?” Callie echoed, hardly daring to believe it.