My heart pounded as fresh tears threatened to burst free from my eyes at any moment. Oliver was invincible. Lying in a hospital bed was not anywhere I ever expected to see him, and I hated it so much. I felt powerless.

“Hey. Hey. Hey,” he cooed, reaching out and gently wrapping a hand around my forearm, halting my haphazard steps. I jerked my gaze to his, and his eyes softened. “I’m sorry, okay? I know I scared you.”

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Do you know how terrifying it was having Mattie show up at the lodge to tell me you were in an accident?”

“Pretty scary, I can imagine.”

“No, you probably can’t.”

“Yes, I can,” he pressed, rubbing his hands up and down my arms. “I’d feel the same way if someone told me you were in the hospital.”

“Oh,” I breathed. Jitters ran through me at his admission, but I forced my expression to remain stern.

He raked a hand through his hair, careful to avoid his fresh stiches. “Look. It was dumb. I know it was. I don’t make mistakes like that. But I was distracted.”

“Distracted?” I perched on the edge of his bed. A faint beeping sound came from one of the machines he was plugged into. Why was he plugged in to so many machines?

“I…I was thinking about you,” he admitted.

“About me?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yeah.” His eyes dropped to his hands. “It’s stupid, but Giles was talking about you leaving and all of a sudden it was all I could focus on.”

The words about accepting my new job lodged in my throat. Even though I knew that he knew they were coming, sharing them now felt so wrong and gross.

Instead of saying anything, I took one of his hands in mine, letting it ground me.

“I seriously don’t know why I was so distracted,” he continued, the frustration evident in his voice. “I never get like that climbing. I’m always in the moment, and I’m always careful. I guess our looming expiration date was weighing on me more than I realized.”

“Me too,” I said. Not only had it been weighing on me, but my mind was nearly crushed with how much the topic preoccupied my every thought.

“But that’s no excuse.” He smiled up at me. “I won’t let it happen again, but it’s pretty easy to get distracted when thinking about you.”

I let out a small laugh. He could never be serious, even for a second.

“I like you a lot, Frankie,” he said.

“I like you a lot, too, Oliver.” I squeezed his hand. “Now don’t scare me like that again, okay?”

While I desperately wanted to take Oliver home with me that night and spend hours curled up in his arms, assuring myself that he was indeed fine, the doctors insisted on keeping him overnight for observation. They said that because of the size of his head injury, and the fact that he had been unconscious for nearly five minutes, they wanted to rule out anything more serious.