“Meredith?” The passenger side door opens and Luke is there, holding my face in his hands. “Jesus Christ you’re pale, Mer. Come on, we have to go inside.”
“Luke?” Sam is suddenly next to him. “What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know. She looks… hollow.”
“Should I get some help?”
“No,” I reply hoarsely.
Chapter Twenty One
“I’m okay,” I murmur and move to get out of the car, but Luke holds me still for a moment, examining me.
“You’re not okay.”
“I need to get to Mark.”
“Where were you, Mer? You were gone during that entire thirty minute drive.”
“I was in the past.” I firm my chin and do my best to not show him that I’m falling apart here. I don’t matter. I need to get to Mark.
Luke swears under his breath and steps back to let me out.
“Her dad and sister,” Sam murmurs.
“I know,” he replies.
“I’m right here. I can hear you.” I try to shake them off, but they flank me. Luke wraps his arm around my low back and Sam takes my hand, and we walk into the emergency room together.
“I’m glad you can hear me now because you couldn’t five minutes ago,” Luke says almost angrily. Why is he mad? Maybe he’s just scared. God knows I’m fucking terrified.
“What happened?” I ask. Jesus, I wasn’t even thinking clearly enough to ask what happened. “Is he dead?”
“I fucking hope not,” Luke replies. Now he is mad, and Luke never gets mad. He takes one look at my face and then takes a deep breath and swears softly. “I’m sorry. No, he’s not dead. I don’t know how bad his injuries are. Isaac is on the way here too. He was on the job site.”
“It happened on the job?” I ask incredulously. “How in the hell is there a car accident on the job?”
“Let’s see if we can see him and I’ll tell you what I know.”
Luke leads us to the reception desk and flashes the woman behind the counter his million-dollar smile. “Hello. My brother, Mark Williams, was just brought in. Can you buzz us back?”
She taps on her keyboard and frowns. “I don’t have record of him. When did you say he came in?”
“He should already be here.”
“Could be they’re still on the way. I do show that we’re holding a room for an ambulance.”
“We beat them here?” Sam asks disbelievingly.
“Check back with me in a while,” the receptionist says with a smile. Luke leads us to the waiting room and I plop in a chair, trying not to think about the germs that I’m sitting on.
“Jesus, I hate emergency rooms,” Sam mutters. “Do you know what kind of nastiness is on these chairs?”
“You and I are on the same page,” I say absently as I rub my eyes. “Okay, tell me.”
“All I know is a car hit him in front of the job site. Isaac called me and said they’d called the ambulance and to have us meet him here.”
“Are his legs broken? Does he have internal bleeding? Is he conscious?” I’m getting shrill now. I stop and swallow, trying with all my might to keep my panic at bay.
“I don’t know anything else,” Luke insists. “We have to wait to see him.”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Sam says and risks coming in contact with the plague and sits next to me. “Honest. If it was horrible Isaac would have said something to prepare us. He would have called the whole family.”
I nod my head. Right. She’s right. But if he’s fine, Mark would have called me himself. He wouldn’t have sent Luke.
“I mean,” she continues, “he works a really dangerous job. We’ve always known this. He’s always climbing on stuff and working with sharp, dangerous tools and equipment. He could fall, get electrocuted, cut off his hand with that really big saw. At least he’s not working on the fishing boats anymore.”
“Sam,” Luke says warningly.
“Fishing on those boats is the most dangerous job in the world! I swear, I still have stomach ulcers from waiting for days to hear that he was okay.”
“Samantha!” Luke shouts, cutting her off. “I don’t think you’re helping.”
Sam looks at me with wide eyes. The blood has drained from my head and my lips are trembling.
“Is that true? I never stopped to think that construction is so dangerous.”
“He’s careful,” she insists, backpedaling. “Honest, Mer, he’s really careful. He’s never been hurt before.”
“But it’s possible.”
“Hell, you could get hit by a bus crossing the street, Mer. Anything’s possible.”
I shake my head and stand to pace the room, which isn’t easy with all of the people sitting in the cramped space. A couple people are sleeping. One man is holding his face. He obviously has a toothache. A baby is crying in his mom’s arms.
Luke comes up behind me and rests his big hands on my shoulders. His hands are so much like Mark’s.
“I can’t lose him,” I whisper.
“Meredith, I think you’re overreacting, sweetheart. He’s probably just scraped up.”
I twirl and stare up into his clear blue eyes. “You don’t get it, Luke. The people I love die. This isn’t the first time I’ve been rushed to a hospital because of an accident.”