West of Forever (Heartstone Ranch #1)(91)

I need to get to her. To see whether she’s okay. To tell her I’m sorry. That I love her. That I’m willing to do anything she wants, if she’ll just forgive me for being a stupid ass.

The entire drive, my mind is going in circles. Hating that we fought. Hating myself for not going to her before and telling her how sorry I am.

I knew the minute she left that I’d fucked up.

I just wasn’t ready to face it.

I needed time to work through it. To come to my understanding, but I was a fool.

I didn’t need time. I just needed her.

As I park the car, everything feels like a blur. I make my way through the front door, and Jimmy is there waiting for me.

“Where is she?” I ask, not wasting any time.

He puts his hand on my chest. “She’s in the ICU. Look, I don’t think you should go in there. The family is distraught, and I think—”

I push past him, uncaring of what anyone says. No one is going to stop me from seeing her with my own eyes. I have to tell her all the things I didn’t say, the promises I’ll make if she’ll just be okay.

“Tristan!” Jimmy yells, but I’m already heading toward the desk.

I don’t get ten steps before a hand is around my arm. “What the hell are you doing here? Haven’t you done enough?”

I turn to face Deacon Gatlin, who has rage etched in his features. I know that look. I’ve felt it, in this very hospital, as the doctors delivered the news that would knock my world off its axis.

Putting aside the years of bullshit, I soften my face. “I’m here for Lark. How is she?”

His eyes narrow. “Leave.”

“I’m not leaving.”

I see Ryan come up behind him, hatred burning in his eyes. “You have some nerve coming here.”

This is going just about how I thought it would.

“I’m not here to start anything. I’m just here to see how Lark is.”

“For Lark? Why? She fucking hates you, just like we all do.”

Steeling my emotions, I get to the heart of it. I turn to Deacon first. “She was riding my daughter’s horse. Please, just give me something.”

Please, because I’m dying inside.

I might lose her. I might have lost her already. My heart is being ripped from my chest with every second.

“So it wasn’t enough to try to flood the barn, cut the fence line, almost kill our horses. Now you had to actually hurt my sister? I’ll fucking kill you myself!” Deacon takes a step forward, arm drawn back.

I wait for the blow, welcome it even. I’ll take the physical pain if it will stop the emotional trauma I’m enduring now.

“That’s enough!” a stern female voice says from across the waiting room, outside of the ICU.

All heads turn to see Mrs. Gatlin entering the room. Her hand rests on the back of a chair, her legs shaking.

“Momma,” Ryan says and rushes to her. He turns to glare at me, but his mother’s eyes don’t hold hatred or anger. They hold something else. Something close to understanding.

She watches me, not looking at her sons.

Deacon speaks quickly. “We’re just seeing him out.”

That causes her gaze to move to him. “No, he stays.”

“What?” they both shout in unison.

Her father enters the room, looking around, eyes landing on me before going to his wife.

“Tristan can see her if he wants,” Mrs. Gatlin says softly to the nurse standing at the doorway.

She knows.

Tears fill her soft green eyes, and then one falls. “She’d want to see you,” she says to me.

I nod. “Thank you.”

“No,” Ryan says, and his voice is ice. “Get the fuck out. Lark wouldn’t want that. She doesn’t need to see anyone. The people she loves are here, that doesn’t include you.”

Mrs. Gatlin speaks, and there is no question who’s in charge. “You will sit down, Ryan. If there’s a chance”—she sucks in a breath—“a sliver of a hope that she’ll come back, it’ll be because of him.” She gets to her feet and comes to me, raising her hand to my cheek. “Bring her back to us.”

My jaw trembles with emotion, but I hold it back. “I’ll do anything for her.”

She looks around at the hostile faces of the Gatlin family, who are most likely confused as to why I’m here and why their mother is allowing this, and then back to me. “I see that. Find a way to show her.”

Her hand drops and I turn, then walk through the doors of the ICU to do exactly what she asked me to do: bring Lark back and make this right.









Chapter 37





Tristan




The nurse shows me into Lark’s room. It’s silent except for the sounds of the machines beeping.

It’s steady, slow, and tells me she’s alive at least.

She’s so still. Lying there with her hands at her sides, a tube down her throat, and a bandage wrapped around her head.

My chest is so tight I feel as though it’s going to crack from the pressure of this moment. I take another step, and the nurse places her hand on my back. “You can go in, sit by her.”

“Is she…?” I start a question that could have many answers, and I’m afraid of each one.