Up For The Challenge Read Online Riley Hart, Devon McCormack

Categories Genre: M-M Romance, Romance Tags Authors: ,
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Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
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“Twila!” I heard her mom shout again, which stopped the girl in her tracks, but right in the path of the van.

I sped up, but time seemed to slow as I reached her.

There was the moment of decision, but for me, there was only one right decision.

I rushed into the entryway to the lot and squatted down, pushing Twila so that she tumbled forward, out of the van’s path. The screeching sound of brakes filled the air before a powerful blow slammed against my side—one that made me feel as though a force was pushing through my chest.

I felt weightless for a moment as I thought about my family—Mom and Dad…Brady. Then I imagined Ethan and his beautiful face…and the fun we shared…before everything went black.

35

Ethan

My heart jackhammered against my chest the second I pulled in and saw two ambulances there. I knew, somehow I fucking knew my whole goddamn world had gone up in flames.

I didn’t park in a proper parking spot, just stopped, put the car in gear and jumped out. My feet banged against the pavement as I ran to where they were putting a body on a gurney. No, not a body—Sean.

I couldn’t breathe. My chest hurt. My legs tried to give out from beneath me, but I fought it, fought it and tried to make my way to Sean.

Images of my parents flashed in front of my eyes—the sirens I’d woke up to only to discover they’d both been snatched away from me.

I saw Sean’s head of hair, blood on his clothes and my vision faded in and out.

“Excuse me, sir, but you can’t—”

“That’s my boyfriend.”

I saw the flash of sorrow in his eyes, and it took everything in me not to hit him, hit him for thinking that Sean wasn’t going to be okay and feeling sorry for me about it.

I jerked out of his grasp and made my way over. There was a woman holding a little girl who was crying. They were pushing Sean into the ambulance. There was blood on his head, on his chest and goddamned if I didn’t feel like I was bleeding too—no, I knew I was, but I didn’t matter. No one did right now except Sean.

“He’s my partner,” I told them.

“We’re going to Cedars Sinai. You can meet us there.” The EMT tried to shake me off.

“You’re crazy if you think I’m not going with him.” I fought back the urge to cry, to scream, and looked at them with hard eyes so they knew how fucking serious I was. Then, I begged, “Please,” because there was no fucking way I could leave him.

“Get in,” the man told me.

I looked out as they closed the doors at the woman who was crying and holding a child. At the other EMT who was trying to see her, and I knew, I fucking knew the little girl was okay because of Sean. That he’d saved her the same way he’d saved me.

I sat in the waiting room with Barbara, Johnnie, and Lee. None of us spoke. Barbara and Johnnie cried. Lee had his face buried in his hands and I sat there, eyes trained forward, staring into space as if I was catatonic. I couldn’t move, couldn’t think.

They’d taken Sean in for emergency surgery. What we knew so far was, he had a ruptured spleen, rib fractures, and some swelling in his brain from the way his head had hit the ground when he fell. The driver had stopped after the impact so Sean hadn’t gotten run over.

I’d had to call Johnnie and tell him the only son he had left had been in an accident. That we were on our way to the hospital.

I’d had to call Lee and tell him his best friend was going to surgery because Barbara and Johnnie were too distraught, and I knew Lee deserved to know.

“Are Owen and Sadie coming to sit with you?” Lee asked after what felt like an eternity of silence.

“No.”

“Do you need me to call them for you? I can do that,” he added, but I just shook my head. I didn’t need them. I didn’t need anyone or anything except for Sean to be okay.

Without another word, I got up and walked to the other side of the waiting room, alone.

“Ethan?” The hand on my shoulder startled me. My eyes snapped up to meet Barbara’s. Christ, I’d been sitting there and hadn’t even heard her approach me. Hadn’t seen her even though my damn eyes were open.

It was late—sometime in the middle of the night. My eyes burned. My chest fucking ached feeling his loss already. Feeling like that little boy who lost the only people in the world who he knew loved him. “Yeah?” My voice came out scratchy.

“Sean is out of surgery. We still can’t see him for a few hours. He’s in recovery now. The doctor said he did really well. He’s a fighter, that boy.” Her voice broke and she wiped the new tears from her eyes. I figured I should hug her, tell her it would be okay but I didn’t know how. “Anyway, you look exhausted. Do you want to go home for a little while and get some sleep? I can call you the second we know anything and—”


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