The doctor who appeared from behind the curtain wasn’t a stranger. Dr. Mateo Moreno wore scrubs and an opened white lab coat, his face dialed to eight hours past exhaustion. He’d been Amy’s brother, and once upon a time, also Levi’s best friend. It’d been a few years since they’d seen each other.
Levi’s fault.
Mateo stepped up to the side of the hospital bed. His eyes, once always filled with laughter, mischief, and the genuine affection that came from a lifetime of hanging out together, were hooded now. “How you feeling?” he asked in a doctor-to-patient voice.
“Good enough to go home.”
“Nice try.” Mateo paused, then sank into the chair with both weariness and wariness. “About time I run into you, even if it’s because you landed in my ER looking like death warmed over.”
“That bad, huh?”
Mateo shrugged. “You’ve looked worse. Like when we drove my dad’s truck up to the summit and did donuts on the ice and you fell out.”
Levi laughed, then groaned at the pain. “You mean when we stole your dad’s truck, and you did donuts on the ice until the passenger door opened and I was flung over the embankment?”
“Semantics.” But Mateo smiled, his real one this time. “It was fun until you had to make it about you.”
“Ha-ha.” But it had been fun, just one in a long string of fun times they’d shared. “We’re lucky we survived all the shit we got into.”
“True story. And speaking of surviving, you’re being held for observation because of the concussion and stitches, but you should be good as new in a couple of weeks with a lot of rest. Good thing your head’s so hard.”
Levi snorted, which caused a new stab of pain, but he sucked it up. “Good thing.”
Mateo nodded, eyes serious. “It’s been a minute.”
“Too many.” Levi had thought being in Sunrise Cove again, seeing Mateo, would hurt. Instead he just ached. Some from his injuries, but mostly from the loss of one of the best relationships he’d ever had. “I’m sorry.”
Ignoring this, Mateo stood and hit some keys on the computer. “I called your mom, told her you were going to be okay. I also told her visiting hours didn’t start until nine A.M., so you’re welcome and you owe me.” And then he started to go.
Levi did owe him, big-time. And he’d missed him. “I was a dick.”
Mateo stopped, glanced back. “They say recognizing the problem is half the solution.”
Levi let out a low laugh, and then a groan because damn, his head.
“You need to take it easy. You scrambled your brain good.”
“Could be worse.”
Mateo, eyes still serious, nodded. “Yeah. You could’ve been on the gondola in front of you.”
True story. And then he’d be dead, without ever having this conversation. “I meant it. I’m sor—”
Mateo gave him the hand. “You’re injured. We’re not doing this now.”
“I need to,” Levi said. “I shouldn’t have vanished.”
“No, you shouldn’t have. It wasn’t your fault, what happened to Amy.”
“I hurt her.”
“Because you didn’t let her drag you down the aisle?” Mateo shook his head. “You weren’t ready.”
“We’d been together all our lives, I should’ve been ready. A wedding was all she ever wanted, and I didn’t give it to her before . . . before it was too late.”