Ryan

Once the police had determined I wasn’t a threat, I bolted toward the ambulance where the paramedics already had Sofia strapped in and were preparing to take her to the hospital.

“Where are you taking her?” I asked the paramedic.

“General,” he said.

“Is she going to be okay?” I was frantic. She looked so pale, already hooked up to an IV, machines reporting her vitals with annoying beeps. But what bothered me most was that her eyes were still closed.

“She’s stable. I gave her something for the pain.”

“She was awake?” How much she had seen and heard?

“Only for a minute. We gotta go,” the paramedic said, then climbed into the back of the ambulance and shut the doors.

I ran toward my car, determined to follow them, but a police officer stepped in front of me, blocking my path.

“Not so fast, Mr. Fisher. We need your statement.”

I shook my head wildly. “I have to go with her,” I pleaded, but he refused, his hand still in the air.

“It’s either now or later.”

“Then later. Please. I have to go. I need to go.” I felt like I was going to go crazy as the ambulance pulled away, sirens screaming, my girl in the back.

“You’ll be at the hospital?” the policeman asked as he surveyed our surroundings, and I did the same.

Derek’s body was being processed. The coroner had just arrived, a police photographer was taking pictures of the body, and yellow evidence markers dotted the scene.

“I’ll be at General,” I told the cop. “I won’t leave. Unless she’s released, and then I’ll be at her house. Meet me there. I’ll come to you. Either way, I don’t care. just let me go, please.” I was desperate, not making any sense, but he finally relented and stepped aside.

“Drive the speed limit,” he yelled as I closed my door and pulled onto the road, spitting out gravel behind me.

Nothing had sunk in yet—not Derek having a gun on me, not him almost shooting me, not him being shot and killed. The only thing I could think about was Sofia in the back of that ambulance . . . all alone.

I called the bar and told Frank briefly what had happened and where I was headed. Contacting Sofia’s parents entered my mind, but I had no way to reach them. I had no idea where they lived, and I didn’t have their phone number. They had to be worried since she never arrived to pick up Matson after work.

It hurt my heart to imagine how scared Matson must be. The two of them were so close, and Sofia told me how he hated having his routine changed. And her not showing up to pick him up was one hell of a change.

I decided to make one last call before I pulled into the hospital parking lot, and dialed Grant’s number. He would want to know what happened. He’d never let me forget it if he read about in the paper or learned about it online instead of from me. And since he had no other life aside from butting into mine, I knew he’d meet me at the hospital and keep me company while I waited. Our conversation was brief; I cut it short when I reached the hospital.

After parking in the first space I found, I ran into the emergency entrance and headed straight for the woman sitting behind the check-in desk.

“Can I help you?” she asked with a smile.

“Sofia Richards. They just brought her in?”

“She’s here, but she can’t see anyone yet. Are you family?”

“No.”

“Husband?”

“No.”

“You’ll have to have a seat then. I’ll let the on-call nurse know you’re waiting for her. In the meantime, I’ve called her emergency contacts, so they should be here soon.” She dismissed me after that, her eyes focused on the computer screen in front of her.

When I hadn’t moved after a few seconds, she glanced back up at me and frowned as she pointed at the empty chairs in the waiting room.

Feeling defeated, I headed toward the ugly fabric chairs and plopped into one. And I waited. I would waited all night, all week if I had to.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait alone for long.

A woman walked into the waiting room holding Matson’s hand. As soon as he spotted me, his eyes lit up.

“Ryan! You’re back!”

He ran over to me, and I opened my arms to scoop him up.

“Hey, buddy. I missed you.”

The woman gave us a curious look, probably thinking our reunion seemed over the top.

“I missed you too. Mama said you were someplace far away, and that’s why I couldn’t give you your drawing yet. You liked the cape best, though, right? I told her you would.”

I propped him on my hip as he talked a mile a minute, filling me in on what had happened in his life lately. My heart swelled with so much emotion, I was afraid it would fucking burst.

“Matson, who’s your friend?” The woman who looked way too much like my Sofia focused her gaze on me.

“This is Ryan. Mama’s boyfriend. You know.” Matson shrugged, completely unaware of why he was here at the hospital.

I placed Matson on his feet and extended a hand to Sofia’s mom. “It’s nice to meet you. Is she okay?”

“You too, Ryan. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Mira,” she said before glancing over her shoulder. “And that’s my husband, Craig.” She pointed at the burly man hovering around the check-in desk, looking as anxious and worried as I felt. “We’re waiting to find out. They said she’s still being examined. Do you know what happened?”

I glanced down at Matson, who watched me with rapt attention. “I do, but—” I stopped myself from saying anything, not wanting Matson to hear this.

“Is Mama okay?” He looked up at his grandmother with big eyes.

She gave him a reassuring smile and kissed the top of his head. “We’ll know soon.”

The kid was smart, I’d give him that. He saw right through her. Within seconds, his eyes welled with tears.

“Hey, hey,” I said, crouching in front of him to focus his attention on me. “The guys in the ambulance told me she’d be okay. She just didn’t feel good, so they gave her something to help her sleep.”

“Okay,” he said before leaning his head against my shoulder and yawning.

Sofia’s mom stared at me. “You two kind of look alike,” she said with a grin, and Matson’s head shot up.

“It’s the eyes. Mine are blue just like Ryan’s.”

“You’re right. They are.” She smiled at him before looking back at me. “I need to know what happened,” she whispered, and I nodded.

“Not here.” I nodded toward Matson, and she understood.

The hospital doors slid open, and a bunch of people walked in all at once. It took me a minute before I realized that it was my brothers, their girlfriends, and Grant.

“Ryan!” Nick called out as I pushed up from the chair and hugged my younger brother. “Are you okay?” he asked, and I nodded.

Frank grabbed me next, pulling me into a tight hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Who’s watching the bar?” I asked, suddenly realizing that if they were all here, then no one was there.

“I closed it,” Frank said, and when I asked him how, Nick laughed.

“He went old school. Just wrote a note and taped it on the door. It probably blew off the second you walked away.”

Frank shrugged. “I don’t care.”

“Glad you’re okay.” Grant stepped forward and patted me on the back. “Is our angel all right?”

“They said she would be, but we haven’t heard anything yet.”

A look passed between us, and I knew exactly what he was thinking. The last time we were in a hospital together, it was for him. Who would have thought we’d be back so soon, and for Sofia this time?

“Oh my gosh, is this Matson? Are you Matson?”

Claudia bypassed me and headed straight for the cutest boy in the room. He clung shyly to his grandmother for only a second before putting out his hand for her to shake.

She took it and said, “I’m Claudia. I’m, um . . . Frank’s girlfriend.”

“Who’s Frank?” Matson asked, and we all laughed.

“Frank is Ryan’s brother,” Claudia said as Jess walked over.

“Hi, Matson. I’m Jess. I’m Nick’s girlfriend.”

Matson’s face scrunched up. “Who’s Nick?”

More laughter. “Nick is Ryan’s other brother.”

“You sure have a lot of brothers,” Matson said, giving me a disgruntled look. “I don’t have any.”

Honest to God, I had to bite my tongue. It took everything in me to not tell him that I could fix that.

Sofia’s dad joined us and I made quick introductions. Everyone started chatting at once as if they were old friends. And just when I thought my heart couldn’t expand any more, my parents walked through the doors.

Frank saw my surprise. “I called them.”

Dad grabbed me first and tried to squeeze the life out of me. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t know what we’d do if we lost any of you boys.” His voice broke, which surprised me. I’d rarely seen him so choked up.

The second he let go of me, my mom swooped in. “Ryan, are you okay? Frank told us what happened. You almost died?”

Mom’s voice was loud and I tried to shush her, but it was too late. Sofia’s mom was at our side in an instant.

“Almost died? Ryan, I need to know everything that happened. Right now.” Mira’s fierce expression softened and she stopped to look at my mom. “Hi, I’m Mira. Sofia’s mom.”

“I’ve heard all about your daughter, but I haven’t had the pleasure yet, I’m sorry to say,” my mom said with a genuine smile, and Mira smiled in return.

“Well, I only met Ryan for the first time about,” Mira looked at her watch, “ten minutes ago?”

“Kids these days.” Mom rolled her eyes, and Mira chuckled.

“Ryan, can I steal you?” Mira glanced at Matson, who was currently bouncing between Claudia and Jess’s laps, eating up all the attention and looking like he was having the time of his life.

We walked outside, and once the doors closed behind us, I filled Sofia’s mom in on everything that I knew, all the way up until Sofia’s accident and Derek’s shooting. She didn’t interrupt, taking in every one of my words, her hand firmly placed over her mouth the entire time.

By the time I’d finished, her eyes were wide with horror. “I can’t believe I didn’t know any of this was going on.”

“She didn’t want to worry you,” I said, standing up for my sweet girl.

“She could have been killed. You could have been killed.”

Mira started to cry, and even though I wanted to comfort her by insisting that wasn’t true, I couldn’t lie to her. Instead, I patted her shoulder awkwardly until she sniffed back her tears and tried to smile at me.

“Thank you, Ryan. Thank you for saving my baby girl.”

“She saved me too.”

I meant it in more ways than one. Aside from selflessly dumping me to keep me alive, Sofia had saved me from myself, from the lonely life I was living before she and Matson became a part of it.

She gave me things I never knew I needed, things I now refused to live without.