Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Milo only paused a second before nodding. “Sure, I’ll call a car to take us out there.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket.
We walked back to the hotel, stopping at a food stall for a steaming, gooey mozzarella and prosciutto panini. I’d devoured it by the time the car had Milo called arrived. I loved being able to eat again after the non-stop nausea first three months. I especially loved being able to eat again while being in Italy. I was licking my fingertips and wishing I’d ordered a panini to go as I climbed into the back seat with Milo.
Once we were buckled in and heading out of the city, Milo tapped his fingers on his knee like he did when he was thinking about something. Sure enough, a moment later he was talking.
“Seeing Mom brings up shit for all of us, you know.” He inclined his head towards me. “It’ll probably just take a few days for things to settle back to normal.”
“I hope not.” My gaze strayed back to the window. The countryside was gorgeous outside the city. Gently rolling golden hills tumbled into one another. It was almost too beautiful to be believed. Like a movie. “I like the changes in Leander. You don’t think they’ll stick?” I looked back at Milo just in time to catch him shrug.
“I think him being such an asshole for so long was the weird part.” Milo’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “I mean, yeah, he and Janus give each other as good as they get. But with me and other people, usually Leander’s not—”
“What?” I snapped. “He’s usually not a cruel asshole who likes to make pregnant women cry?”
Milo cringed. “Yeah. That.” He shook his head. “You know, just because he says he’s sorry doesn’t mean you owe him anything. You don’t have to forgive him.”
I nodded. It was true.
I huffed out a hard breath, slumped, and dropped my head back against the headrest. What did I think I would get by going out to the stables? That by seeing the twins in their natural habitat I’d finally somehow find the answers I was looking for?
At least I’d see some beautiful horses anyway. I giggled tiredly to myself.
I tried to focus on that, anyway. Seeing the twins, and maybe some pretty horses. I settled my hands on my belly, which had gone tight and was slowly expanding.
Such banal, useless thoughts.
I was actually smiling, feeling a little happy, or loose anyway.
And then the next moment an ambulance siren split the air.
Our car pulled abruptly to a stop and I shot up. We were at the stables. I pressed my hand to the glass of the window.
“What’s going on?”
The ambulance passed by us on the narrow road as it roared away from the stables. I swung my head around to watch it go.
Both Milo’s phone and mine started blaring at the same time. I shoved the car door open.
“Hello?” I hit the green button as I ran towards the awning of stable’s entrance.
And then I started sprinting when I saw Janus standing there, looking shell-shocked with a hand on his head. In his other hand, he held a phone. “Hope?”
I barreled into him. His arms closed around me. But I yanked back almost immediately. My head swiveled as I looked around at the group of people gathered in the yard, a barn and stables in the background. “Where’s Leander?”
Janus didn’t immediately respond. I grabbed his arms and shook him. “Janus. Where’s Leander?”
SEVENTEEN
HOPE
Janus finally came out of his daze when I shook him again. “What happened to Leander?”
“He fell. Or the horse threw him. I don’t know, I wasn’t close enough to see.” Janus raked his hands through his hair. “One second we were doing our last full our run, and he went around these trees—then he was just on the ground screaming.”
Janus suddenly started forward. “They wouldn’t let me in the ambulance to go with him. Do you have a car?”
I nodded and jogged beside him back to where Milo was pacing beside the car. We all jumped in and Janus quickly punched the hospital into the GPS. The EMTs had given him the name before they’d driven off. He gripped the dash the whole way there, barking directions at Milo even though the GPS was doing the same thing.
“Walk us through what happened again?” I asked, even though Janus had already told us a couple times. “So he was conscious when he got on the ambulance? Or not?”
“Sort of. I don’t know. Yes?” Janus shook his head. “He was going in and out of it. They had him on the stretcher.”
We got to the hospital but couldn’t see Leander right away because he was in surgery. Surgery. But no one would tell us what kind of surgery, or how bad it was, or what the hell was going on.