Love's Second Chance (Second Chances Series) (21 page)

When I got to the pharmacy, all eyes turned to me. I laughed to myself, knowing full well I looked like a bum in my grease covered clothes carrying in my motorcycle helmet. A lady actually moved away from me as I stood in line at the counter. She lifted her nose like I was beneath her. I could never stand bitches like that, or people for that matter. I made a ton of money, but I would never act like that to someone else. I was tempted to lightly bump into her to see if she would freak out, but I refrained from it even though it would have been funny as hell.

As soon as I walked out of the pharmacy, the rain began to fall. I groaned in annoyance because I should have known better than to ride when it looked like rain, but there was nothing I could do about it then. I put the meds in the seat compartment to keep them dry before I started up the bike. The rain poured down heavier as soon as I headed on my way. It felt like tiny pellets beating down on my body. My instincts were telling me to pull over and wait it out, but my heart was guiding me in the direction of home so I could get the meds to Korinne. The rain made it hard to see, but I knew I was almost home. The second I saw the car pull out in front of me was the second I knew I was never going to make it home. Thoughts of Korinne flashed through my mind before the world turned to gray and then faded to black …

Chapter Eighteen

When I woke up from my nap, I could see through the window that the sun was just then setting. Looking over at the clock, I noticed it was seven-thirty. How could that be? Galen had been gone for hours and I hadn’t heard him come in.
What the hell
, I thought. Where was he?

“Galen?” I called out, hoping that he was there. There was no sound coming from the house other than the tinkling of water, which was dripping out of the bathroom faucet. When I heard no reply, I stumbled out of bed, shaky at first. I searched through the house, room by room. The rooms were all empty, so I went to the kitchen and entered the garage through there. All of the cars were there except that dreaded motorcycle Galen was working on earlier. My instincts were telling me something was wrong. Rushing to the bedroom, I searched frantically for my phone. It wasn’t like Galen to stay gone like that. He would’ve told me if he was going to be gone that long. As far as I knew he was only going to go to the pharmacy and pick up some medicine for my nausea. My cell phone was on the dresser, hidden behind the lamp, and when I snatched it up I saw that the damn thing was dead. “Shit!” I screamed out. What if Galen needed my help and here I was sleeping the whole afternoon away.

I grabbed the phone charger and plugged it up, in hopes that there would be a text from him letting me know he was all right. If not I was going to call him and demand to know where he was. I didn’t want to come off as pushy or overprotective, but he had to know that I worried over stuff like that, especially after losing Carson. Before I could turn on my phone, the doorbell rang. I laughed out loud thinking that it was probably Galen from locking himself out of the house. He had a tendency to lose his keys at times, and I was always the one who found them. When I opened the door, I was shocked to see that it wasn’t Galen …but Jenna.

“Oh my goodness! Twink, what are you doing here?” I said while flinging my arms around her neck. When Jenna hesitated, I pulled back to see not happiness on her face, but horror and confusion. Confused and terrified myself, I stepped away from her and asked hesitantly, “Twink, what’s wrong? Why do you look like that?”

Jenna swallowed hard and her eyes began to water. Something was wrong and I could feel it in my blood. My heart began to beat rapidly while the feeling of doom started to take presence in my chest, making it tight and hard to breathe. What the hell happened to make Jenna look like that and to show up on my doorstep?

“I’ve been trying to call you,” Jenna choked out on a sob. “Why didn’t you answer?”

I stood there, shocked for a second, but then I quickly said, “I was sick and hadn’t felt well all last night and today. My phone died sometime this afternoon while I’ve been asleep. I can tell something’s wrong, Jenna, so you need to tell me, now.”

Stepping back, I motioned for her to come inside and she followed. Growing more impatient with each passing second, I glared at her waiting on the news to come. Jenna’s voice quivered when she spoke, “Korinne, there’s been an accident.” Thoughts of Galen passed through my mind and of all the possibilities of what could be wrong, none of which happened to be good. If he wasn’t here, then where was he? Not knowing what to do or say, I stood there motionless while the time floated by in slow motion, waiting on the fatal words to leave Jenna’s mouth.

“Galen had an accident,” she confessed. In that instant my legs folded underneath me and I collapsed to the floor. I knew something was wrong, I just knew it. I could feel it in my heart and soul that something terrible had happened. My heart was in agony and I couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be happening to me again. What did I do in life to deserve this? Did I not suffer enough with Carson? I already lost him, and now something bad had happened to Galen. Jenna fell to the floor with me and took me in her arms, rocking me and trying hard to soothe me. Nothing was going to help me at this point.

“What happened?” I cried desperately. “He left to get me some nausea medicine but obviously he never came back. Please tell me he’s okay, Jenna. I have to know he’s okay!” I yelled.

Jenna took a deep breath and grabbed my hands. “He was in a motorcycle accident, Ducky. I’m not going to lie, he’s not doing well. When we found out I tried like crazy to call, but you never answered. Brady and I drove down as soon as we heard.”

“I have to go to him, NOW! I can’t lose him you hear me!” I demanded forcefully. Jenna nodded and began to cry while I shot to my feet and ran to our bedroom to change clothes quickly, and to grab some things for the hospital. When Jenna saw me coming she pulled out her keys and began to walk out the door. “Let’s go, you can tell me everything on the way,” I suggested hastily.

“What do you want to know?” Jenna asked as we got into the car.

“Just start from the beginning.”

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to hear all the details, but I had to know what to expect. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, before starting to explain. “According to the witnesses, a car pulled out in front of Galen while he was riding down the road.”

“Did the dumb ass not see him? What happened to the other driver?”

My throat tightened up, and with all of the emotions swirling around in my body I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel. All I know was that the anger was pretty dominant at that moment. Jenna shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but I think the driver may have been drinking. Hopefully, we’ll find out something soon. The police came in and took the driver away. Once we got into town I heard all I needed to hear and then came straight to you. Brady and Elizabeth are there waiting for you at the hospital.”

Tensing up in the seat, I knew the worst part of the news was about to be said. Jenna took a quick glance at me, but then turned back to the road. Her hands were shaking on the wheel, and when I saw her reaction my world came to a complete halt. She was afraid, afraid to tell me. “Oh my God,” I whispered. “Is he going to die, Jenna? Please tell me it’s not that bad.” She lost it in that moment and broke down into tears.

“I don’t know, Kori,” she said, the sound of fear evident in her voice. “He’s had some severe injuries and we won’t know the outcome of them yet. Before I left they were taking him back to do emergency surgery on him.”

Shaking my head, I doubled over in despair. “This is all my fault. He wouldn’t have left if it wasn’t for me.” Jenna was shaking her head in disagreement, but I knew it was the truth. “What kind of injuries are we talking about?” I questioned.

“I don’t know all of the fancy terms the doctor used, but it looks like he suffered from a moderate head injury. The procedure they were about to perform on him was to help relieve the pressure from around his skull and to remove the blood clots that were forming. That’s all I heard before I left.”

Brain injuries were not taken lightly, and there were so many things that could go wrong with any number of repercussions. He might wake up and not even know who the hell I was. I could only pray that that didn’t happen. “You know the complications of head injuries, right?” I asked Jenna.

“I know, Ducky, and that’s where we need to have faith. I’m going to be right beside you the whole time,” she claimed whole-heartedly. She squeezed my hand and held it the rest of the trip. The hospital had finally come into view, which happened to be the same hospital where my Carson died, and the same hospital where my Galen was fighting for his life.

Chapter Nineteen

Again I was stuck in an elevator that took a million years to get anywhere. Once Jenna parked the car, I raced into the hospital only to end up slowed down by that damn thing. Pacing around in the confines of the metal box, Jenna sighed. “We’re here, Kori, but you need to calm down. You’re not going to help Galen by being reckless and frantic.” I stopped the pacing to stare fixedly at the shiny metal doors. I knew that hospital like the back of my hand. When Carson worked there, I visited him often and had gotten to know plenty of the staff there well.

When the elevator doors opened I saw Brady pacing down the hall. It seemed I wasn’t the only one pacing around there. Jenna and I both ran toward him, only to see his ashen face and tear-stained cheeks. Brady hugged me and began to silently cry. I held onto him, sobbing with him. “We didn’t know where you were. We tried calling you until Jenna decided she’d had enough and left to go searching.”

“I was at home, asleep. I’d been sick and had no clue what was going on,” I cried. “My phone was dead when I got up.” Brady let me go and then Elizabeth, Galen’s mother, tackled me in her arms.

“Oh my God, Korinne, we were so worried about you. We didn’t know where you were or how else to get in touch with you other than your cell phone. We even called the house and no one picked up. I was getting ready to call the police!” Galen’s mother shrieked.

“I’m so sorry I worried you. How long had you been trying to reach me?” I asked. Elizabeth released me so I could look at all of them.

Jenna was the one that answered, “We tried for about three hours. That’s why I left to find you.”

“Why don’t we sit down,” Elizabeth suggested and motioned us toward the seats. The room we were in was the intensive care waiting room. No one else was around, only the four of us sitting anxiously in wait of the verdict. The smell of antiseptics and bleach tickled my nose and it made me more nauseous, but it was a smell I had gotten used to when I came to visit Carson. “The doctor should be coming back soon to give us an update. Did Jenna inform you of the surgery?” Elizabeth asked me.

“Yes, she told me,” I mumbled.

The room filled with silence, but we were all in our own stages of despair to even care. What turned out to be only a few minutes of waiting turned into a couple of hours. The nausea and fatigue were back, so I rested my head in my hands and took in some deep, calming breaths. Not that it was going to help, but I had to try something. I was about to fall asleep when I heard someone walk into the waiting room. After lifting my head and rubbing my eyes, I saw that it was Jason Andrews, doctor and good friend of Carson’s. Carson and I used to go out all the time with Jason and his girlfriend. Before I left to move in with my parents he had become a really close friend to me and was there to support me when Carson died. He still looked the same, with his shortly cropped blond hair and lanky build, and the biggest heart of any doctor I knew. He looked at us all with a grim expression, but when he focused on me his eyes went wide.

As I walked toward him, he opened his arms and pulled me into a hug. “Korinne, I am so sorry about all of this. It’s not fair that you have to go through this again.” I buried my head in his chest and began to cry. He knew how upset I was over Carson’s accident and now he was seeing it again.