Willow offered a small grin. “Someday, Mom, you’re going to figure out that Jesus loves you too.”
“Well, it’s enough that you do.” She leaned back. “I’m guessing if Sierra knew how you felt about Sam—”
Footsteps thumped on the deck outside, and her mother scooted out her chair, rose just as the back door opened.
Just for a second, as Willow blinked against the light, she saw him standing in the frame, looking fierce and bold.
Sam.
He’d found her. Her heart gave a belligerent, traitorous leap.
Then he stepped into the room. Scanned it, and his gaze landed on Willow.
Pete. She stood up, her legs just a little weak, but she managed to head over to him.
“Willow.” He pulled her into his arms, hard against his chest. “Sam is going to be so glad to see you.”
She closed her eyes against his words, but they burrowed in and found her heart.
“Willow!”
She leaned away from him, and Jess rushed in. She pulled her friend into an embrace. “We were so worried.” She leaned back. “Oh, your head.”
“I’m fine.”
“You will be,” Jess said.
Around the room, the kids rose. Ty came in, shaking off the rain from his jacket, followed by Quinn.
He looked wrung out but wore a new confidence in his countenance.
“Let’s get you warm,” Blossom said to them.
Jess pulled out her walkie, walked away from them.
“Did you find Sam?” Willow asked, trying not to let too much panic in her voice.
Everything went quiet. She sensed the shift in the room, the way Pete’s mouth tightened in a grim line.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. Then, nothing.
“Pete—”
“He’s in surgery, Willow. But I’m sure he’s going to be fine.”
Surgery. “What happened?”
“We got him to the hospital, but he freaked out when Pete couldn’t find you,” Ty said. “And injured himself.”
Oh. She reached out for balance, her body turning liquid.
Then Gage’s voice came over the line of Pete’s walkie, breaking through the static, loud and clear. “Get back here, Pete, as soon as you can. Sam’s out of surgery, but he’s in critical condition.”
Pete closed his eyes.
Willow echoed his low muttered words.
“Please, Sam, stay alive.”
14
“SO APPARENTLY, I DIDN’T DIE.” Sam’s throat felt like a cement mixer had driven through it, gravelly and raw, and parked right in the middle of his chest.
Save for the cool, fresh oxygen, his entire body ached as if it had been kicked from a high cliff. His bones felt heavy in his skin. For the first time since rousing out of surgery, Sam got a good look at the person holding his hand.
Not Willow.
Sierra.
How long she’d been sitting at his bedside, he couldn’t guess, but she too looked wrung out. Her head was tucked into her arms, her eyes closed.
She wasn’t alone.
“No fault of your own,” said Ian Shaw, who stood at the window wearing a wool cap, flannel shirt, cargo pants, and Scarpa hiking boots, looking like a billionaire who’d decided to go slumming in the back hills of Montana. He turned, offered a smile. He hadn’t shaved either, and his eyes betrayed fatigue. “Good thing that Aaron Moore was the ER doc on shift last night. You flatlined on your way to surgery, twice.”
“Scared us all to death,” Sierra said now, lifting her head. She didn’t smile. “I’ve never been so angry with someone in my entire life.”
She glanced at Ian, her eyes narrowing as if she might be confirming her own words.
Ian raised an eyebrow. Shifted uncomfortably.
Then, “Nope. Never.” Her expression softened. “But, good news. Pete found them.”
For some reason, although Sam hadn’t realized it, the knot that still held him together unraveled, and his entire body melted into the bed. “Please tell me they’re okay.”
Ian walked up to the bed, his gaze only stopping on the grasp Sierra had on Sam for a second. “They’re all okay. Apparently Willow guided them all to her commune. Pete followed a hunch and found them a couple hours later. They should be here soon.”
Sam closed his eyes, and Sierra’s hand in his tightened.
He didn’t move it, because, well, her grip kept him from doing something crazy like curling into a ball to weep.
Not that he didn’t think Pete would find them, but . . .
“Don’t come home unless you find them.”
He wished he hadn’t meant that, but . . . well, at least it was over.
“You’ll love this part. The local press is in the ER, waiting for them to show up. Apparently, Tallie Kennedy has declared Pete a hero,” Ian said. “She’s got a cameraman and feed to the evening news, has already reported a preview segment. They want to talk to you, find out how it happened.”