Chapter Thirty-Three
Abby
My eyes haven’t left the building, or what’s left of it. Two men came out. Two men haven’t. The twisting pain in my gut tells me that Levi is one of the latter.
Dad has his arms wrapped around me, Ryan and Dean hover close, ready to jump if I try to make a break for it again. But I don’t move. I watch.
Men rush into the building. Five, seven, ten. So many that I lose count.
Still, I watch. Wait.
I can see people moving in and out, trying with all my might to read the names on the backs of their coats. Glancing at Grandma, she must see my question reflecting in my eyes. The slightest shake she gives me sends my heart falling straight into my toes.
Turning my attention back to the building, I wait. I’m not sure I’m breathing, but I still wait and wonder and hope. My heart is flooded with so much hope, I’m afraid it might actually buckle under the pressure. My legs hold me up, but I’m not sure how. My family surrounds me, their touches offering both comfort and strength, but I don’t really feel them. I feel nothing.
Numb.
This is what Meghan felt like, isn’t it? This gut-wrenching pain and all-consuming numbness that devours you like a black cloud. This inexplicable emptiness that wraps around you and won’t let you breathe, knowing that part of your soul has been ripped away from you.
It’s the worst feeling in the world.
“No,” I hear beside me. “Don’t do that.” My face is pulled and I’m staring into the fiery green eyes of Meghan. “Do you hear me? He’s not gone. Don’t you dare let yourself go there, you hear me? I feel it in my bones that he’s alive, so you need to pull yourself from whatever darkness you were lost in and focus on getting him out.” She holds so much conviction in her eyes that I can’t help but grab hold with everything I have. I latch on to her hope and don’t let go.
“That’s it, Abby. Deep breaths. Don’t let go,” she whispers, pulling me forward and kissing my forehead. “He’s okay. I feel it.”
Even as my life spirals out of control around me, I reach for the calmness and don’t let go. We breathe deeply, together, and let everything around us fade away. Meghan holds me, and jointly, we watch the wreckage of the building.
It takes about thirty minutes, thirty of the longest minutes of my life, before we hear yelling. EMTs and paramedics scramble through the hole in the structure, gurneys and stretchers waiting on the sidewalk. When they call for the backboards, I hold my breath and watch. And wait.
Firemen and EMTs clamber from the building in groups. It takes a few moments before I realize they’re carrying the boards. With a fireman on each one. Both boards are loaded on a gurney, surrounded by those trying to help them, completely obstructed from view. I can’t tell if the person they carry is moving or not.
Please, God, let him be moving.
“Let’s go to the hospital,” Dad suggests, gently gripping my shoulders and pulling me towards where their cars are parked.
Glancing back to the scene, I watch both gurneys being loaded into separate ambulances. I’m focused so intently on trying to figure out which one contains Levi, that I don’t see the man running my way.
“Abby Summer?” he asks, breathing hard and searching our faces.
“That’s me.”
“Levi is asking for you. He’d like you to ride with him,” he says with a smile. “Come on,” he instructs, reaching out his hand.
Stepping forward, I glance over my shoulder. “Go. We’ll meet you there,” Dad says with a smile of relief.
My legs carry me towards the ambulance, and I hold my breath until I’m standing at the open doors. He’s inside, talking to a paramedic as she hooks him up to something that looks like a car battery. I don’t even realize the tears are falling until he blurs, but now that they’ve started, I can’t seem to turn it off.
Blinking rapidly to clear my vision, my eyes finally land on the most gorgeous hazel ones I’ve ever seen. He’s looking straight at me, concern written on his dirty, soot covered face.
“Come here,” he says, his gruff voice ringing out through the night, his hand extended towards me. There’s the slightest smile playing on the corner of his full lips, and even though they’re a tad on the dirty side (Grandma would chuckle), I just want to feel them against my own lips.
“We need to go,” the driver hollers back.
“Are you going?” the fireman says beside me, a warm smile on his face.
Without answering, I climb up into the ambulance and take a seat towards the back, out of the way.
“No way. Get up here with me. I need to hold you,” Levi says as the paramedic continues her assessment of his condition.
“Are you sure?” I ask, looking at her for direction.
“Go ahead. He’d just whine and cry until he got his way anyway,” she retorts with a smile.
“Zip it, Tori. I want my girl right beside me,” Levi says, reaching his hand for me.
“Your blood pressure’s high. Let’s try not to elevate it any more, shall we?” Tori quips with a wide grin.
Gently, I make my way to where Levi’s lying. I collapse onto the bench, tears silently falling to where our hands are now joined. He feels warm, alive, and I’m so damned grateful.
“Are you okay?” I whisper, resting my forehead on his bare shoulder.
“I am now,” he exhales deeply into my hair.
“I was so scared,” I confess, gazing up at him.
“I was too.” My body shudders as he gently grabs a strand of my hair and moves it behind my ear, caressing my cheek and wiping my tears as he does.
“Listen to me,” I sniffle. “I can’t believe I’m thinking of myself right now. Of course you were scared. I can’t imagine how frightened you must have been.”
His eyes study me, his throat working hard to swallow his emotions. “Yeah, falling through the floor was a bit scary, but that’s not what terrified me the most.” He reaches for me again, stroking my wet cheek with his thumb.
“No?”
“I was afraid I’d never get to see you again. I was worried I missed my chance to tell you that I love you.”
My entire body seizes up as his words permeate my brain. “Love?”
Levi smiles and nods his head. “Yeah, love. I’m glad you’re here now because it gives me the opportunity to finally tell you that I love you. I’ve loved you most of my life; I was just too stupid to see it,” he says with a smile, making me chuckle. “But I see it now, I feel it and know it, and I’m not letting you go. I love you, Abby.”
“I love you, too,” I whisper as tears of joy fall to where our hands are linked.
My lips meet his in a welcome kiss. His lips are warm and soft and taste like smoke, but I don’t care. The fact that I can kiss him again at all is reason to celebrate.
A slow beep fills the ambulance, drawing my attention away from Levi. “What’s that?” I ask, gazing down at his love-filled eyes.
“My pulse. It’s soaring,” he quips with a smirk.
Laughing, I try to pull away, but am stopped by strong arms. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to sit back and let them do their thing.”
“What about my thing? I wouldn’t mind you doing something to that,” he sasses from the gurney.
“You’re bad,” I chastise, swatting at his shoulder.
“Maybe. But do you know what?” he asks, pulling me back down so that my head is lying on his shoulder.
“What?”
“I love you.” I can’t help but smile widely at his words and the meaning he puts behind them. “Get used to hearing it, angel, because I’m going to say it. A lot.”
With a smile on my lips and my head against his chest, I close my eyes and drift off to the steady beat of his heart.