Her eyes flickered open and she stared fuzzily back at him.
“Nathan?” she whispered.
“Yes, honey, it’s me.”
Her brow crinkled in confusion and pain. “Am I dead?”
His gut clenched at even hearing such a thing.
“No, you’re not dead. I need you to stay with me, though, okay? Can you keep those gorgeous eyes open until the ambulance gets here?”
By now more than one person had stopped. Two cars had parked in the inside lane to keep traffic diverted around Julie’s car, a fact he was grateful for. The last thing he wanted was for them to get plowed again, and he wasn’t going to leave her nor was he going to move her out of the car.
In the distance, sirens wailed, which meant either the cops or the ambulance was already en route. The sooner they got Julie the hell off the freeway, the better he’d feel.
“Am I going to be all right?” she asked anxiously, her eyes focusing unsteadily on him. “I don’t feel so well.”
Panic surged through his system. He reached tentatively for her hand, doing a quick look to see if there were any obvious injuries before curling his fingers gently around hers.
“You’re going to be fine, honey. I promise.”
Please don’t let him have just handed her a huge lie.
Connor hurried up to stand next to Nathan. “Don’t move her. Wait for the ambulance.”
Nathan tempered his irritation. Connor was only doing what was best for Julie. “I know. I’m just trying to keep her calm.”
Connor leaned over to stare at the blood seeping down Julie’s face. “Julie, sweetheart, do you hurt anywhere else but your head?”
She clutched at Nathan’s fingers a little tighter, her pupils dilating a bit in fear. That had to be good, right? He remembered one thing about head injuries. It was good if the pupils were equal and reactive. And she was awake. Not entirely lucid, but she’d just had the shit scared out of her. He could hardly expect her to act normally.
“I don’t know. My head hurts.” Her brow wrinkled in concentration. “My shoulder, I think.” She glanced down and both Connor and Nathan shouted a quick no.
She blinked in confusion.
“Don’t move your neck, honey,” Nathan said soothingly. “Try and stay as still as possible.” He rubbed his thumb across her knuckles and tried to ease the shaking in her hand.
Connor nudged Nathan’s arm. “The ambulance just pulled up.”
Connor moved out of the way, but Nathan stayed with Julie, holding her hand until the paramedics hurried up and asked him to step aside.
Though he hated to get too far away from her, he was only in the way as they began the process of extricating her from the car.
Two policemen were talking to Connor, and Connor called him over.
“He and I both witnessed it,” Connor explained when Nathan walked up.
“Yeah,” Nathan said distractedly as he looked back to see the progress they were making with Julie. “I got the plates on the truck that hit her.”
“I’d like your statement,” one of the police officers said as he stepped away from Connor and the other cop.
“Uh, look, can it wait? I want to go to the hospital with her.”
The cop gave him a curious look. “You know her?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Let me have your contact information. If I don’t catch you at the hospital, I’ll get in touch with you later this afternoon. We’ll need what information you can give us so we can prosecute this as a hit and run.”
“Damn right,” Nathan growled. “The son of a bitch wasn’t looking where he was going and then he left without even slowing down. I’d like to ring his damn neck.”
One of the paramedics motioned for Nathan. They had Julie on a stretcher and were wheeling her toward the ambulance.
“Go. I’ll get with you later.”
“Thanks,” Nathan said as he sprinted to the back of the ambulance.
After the stretcher was loaded, one of the medics stepped back and motioned Nathan inside. Nathan climbed up and slid along the bench until he was at Julie’s head.
The paramedic got in behind him while the other shut the doors and went around to the cab.
“Do me a favor and hop into the jump seat,” the paramedic said, motioning to the seat above Julie’s stretcher. “I need to examine her on the way in so I can give the hospital a report.”
When Nathan repositioned himself, Julie softly called his name.
“Right here, honey,” he said, lowering his hand to lightly stroke the side of her head that wasn’t injured.
He watched while the paramedic efficiently examined her for other injuries, checked her vitals, assessed her pupils and fitted a loose bandage to her head to stop the bleeding.