Finding Destiny (10 page)

Wait
here?
Skylar obviously didn’t know who he was dealing with. She
was a grown-ass woman. She could handle the truth. Ignoring
Skylar’s advice, Destiny followed after him. She tried to mimic his
steps, but he had taken off so fast that his boot prints were too
far apart for her to step in them.

She saw him
standing there already, talking to the EMS, his arms folded tight
across his chest. A fire truck had just left the scene and a second
tow truck was pulling away after it, with a scrap of metal from the
road resting on its flatbed.

“No!” she
cried, when she recognized the red heap of metal. It was without a
doubt Natalie’s truck, with its rear end wrapped right around the
passenger door. She didn’t mean for her voice to croak so loud, but
she couldn’t control the emotions now welling in her throat.

Skylar
immediately spun around to face her, and glared at her for a
timeless moment. He continued to stare her down as he stomped in
her direction. “I told you to stay at the machine,” he barked.

She shrunk
considerably beneath his stare, and began to wonder if she even
knew the real him. Then she lifted her chin, not much caring about
that at the moment. “I want to know the truth. Tell me what you
know.”

She kept her
tears at bay, knowing that there’d be no way he’d share the news
with her if she had shed so much as one tear.

When he
swallowed, she threw herself into his arms, knowing that it wasn’t
good. “Matty,” he whispered, his voice clipped with emotion. “He
was hit by a passing car, when he was working on your friend’s
truck. I guess he was pinned between the vehicles for hours before
the crews could get to him.”

“I’m so
sorry,” Destiny whispered, unable to keep the tears away.

“There was a
lot of blood, and the cop said he’d be surprised if Matty had any
left. They can’t believe he’s still alive.”

“He told you
that?”

“I didn’t tell
him I’m related; only that I’m EMS.”

Destiny’s eyes
scattered all over his face, trying to decipher the look in his
eyes, but she couldn’t read him.

“Matty was
still conscious when they got here, Destiny. Do you realize how
much pain he must have been in? They had to induce him into a coma.
He was in that much pain.”

“It can’t be
true. Matty was conscious. That has to be a good sign.”

“His diaphragm
is crushed. People rarely survive injuries like that.”

Destiny threw
her arms back over Skylar’s shoulders, with tears still streaming
down her cheeks. “You have to stay optimistic.”

He pried her
off of him. “They’ve air-lifted him to a hospital a few hours from
here. The medical team doesn’t seem very optimistic.”

“Oh my God. My
friends?”

“They’re okay.
A little banged up. But they’ll live. They were taken to the
nearest hospital by ambulance.” He started to pull her closer to
him, but she pushed him away. That was clearly the way he had
wanted it. She wouldn’t confuse him anymore.

“You should
go.”

Skylar
shrugged his heavy shoulders. “I don’t know. What can I do for him
now?”

Destiny looked
him in the eyes, and said the words that she hated to hear on her
lips. “If he died today, and you didn’t go up to see him, would you
regret it?”

Skylar let a
tear slip, but quickly masked it with an unwarranted frown. “I
guess I should go. Maybe I can catch a ride to town with the crew.
I have to call my parents.”

He looked so
worried and overwhelmed with responsibility for his brother, and
yet he still cared for her safety. “Will you be okay?”

And even
though she wasn’t sure, she pasted on a fake smile and nodded her
head. “Go. Matty needs you.”

Skylar dipped
down and stole the breath from her lips, with a kiss that seared
her frozen nerves.

When he pulled
back, she smiled softly, even though she knew that they would
probably never see each other again.

With a single
nod in response, Skylar ran back to the EMS, barking orders at them
to haul ass. Then he leapt into the passenger seat and they took
off with the lights flashing. Another emergency professional
sauntered over to Skylar’s snowmobile and loaded it into the back
of the rescue truck, while a police officer approached Destiny on
foot.

“I’m told
you’re a friend of the two casualties that were taken in.”

Destiny’s
stomach dropped together with her mouth. “They’re dead?”

“No, no, no!”
the officer insisted. “I apologize. You misunderstand. They’re
injured. I can take you to see them.”

Destiny nodded
and tried to pull out a smile, but failed miserably. She followed
the officer and got into the back of his marked car. The tears
started coming, as she waited for the car to pull away. This was
officially the worst Valentine’s Day ever.

Skylar plowed into the
front doors of the hospital, like he was on a rampage. Two and a
half hours, it took him to get there, and the whole time he thought
about the last words he had said to his brother and all the things
he hadn’t said to Destiny. Once he was within a few miles of
civilization, his phone had started to blow up with messages and
Facebook comments. He didn’t want their sympathy, but Matty needed
their prayers.

He had seen
photos from the crash site and a reporter had even managed to post
a photo of Matty still pinned between the two vehicles. His blood
was everywhere and Felicia was sprawled over the roof of the ruined
truck, holding his hand. At least Matty wasn’t alone.

As he rushed
the window at the nurse’s station in the emergency department, a
young woman dressed in white stood from her chair.

“My
brother.”

After giving
his name, he was guided toward the trauma ward, where they burst
into the emergency room and found his brother there. He was
connected to every machine available, his face so scratched and
bloody that he was unrecognizable. A tube delivered him air to
breath, but he looked like he was already dead. Matty’s lifeless
body was braced on a hospital bed and covered with blankets, with
their parents hovering at his bedside.

Skylar’s
father turned toward him first. His mother instantly reached out
for him and crashed into his arms. He smoothed his hand over his
mother’s hair, barely hanging on to his emotions.

A nurse
approached them and cleared her throat, without being delicate
about it. “We’re about to take him into the O.R. It’s time to say
your goodbyes.”

With that,
Skylar turned into a teary eyed mess and he couldn’t even find it
in him to approach his brother’s motionless form. His mother left
his arms and squeezed Matty’s hand.

“We’re here
for you, baby. Mom and Dad and Sky. Don’t quit fighting. We love
you and we know you can pull through this.”

“Okay, we’ve
got to take him now,” the nurse insisted.

Another member
of the ER team grabbed onto the other side of his bed and they
urgently wheeled him off.

After a moment
of silence, Skylar followed his parents to the trauma waiting room,
but he continued to be at a loss for words.

“What did you
do, Sky? Where were you?” his father barked, as if it were his
fault his brother were now lying on his deathbed.

His mother
started to cry, and he wanted to soothe her, but there were other
images that ate at his conscience and occupied his thoughts. Right
when he felt like his life was starting to take shape, it was
ripped out from under him, leaving him flat on his back.
Was it
his own damn fault?

His father’s
attitude hadn’t surprised him. It wasn’t anything different from
what he had dealt with his entire life. But with all of the fuss,
he hadn’t even thought to get Destiny’s number, let alone her last
name. There would be no way for him to ever locate her. Skylar
didn’t know how he was supposed to feel about that.

Destiny had
managed to convince the police officer to bring her back to
Skylar’s cabin. She had even managed to scheme they keys from the
fireman who had moved the snowmobile into storage. After retrieving
her things, and clearing his place of their memories, she began to
feel an emptiness that she couldn’t explain. She had already been
filled with worry and regret, but the emptiness trumped all of
those feelings times ten.

After
rummaging around the cabin, she located a small notepad that had
the name
Randy Knight
scrawled across the top. She didn’t
know who Randy was, but she figured it was a good start for finding
Skylar in the future. She ripped off a paper and stuffed it into
her pocket, then pulled a pink pen out of her purse. She scribbled
her name and number onto the next sheet and left the pad in the
middle of the table.

Destiny was
escorted to the hospital, and visited with her friends. Natalie had
already been released, with minor scratches, but Felicia was
admitted with a broken foot. After satisfying herself that Felicia
would be okay, Destiny decided to figure out what she would do
next. Her options were limited.

She could take
a taxi back to her lonely apartment and cry herself into oblivion.
She could call her mother to come drive her home and rant it out.
Or she could locate the man that had changed her life in one short
weekend and tell him that she’s willing to take whatever he has to
offer her.

Realizing that
the chances of actually finding him were slim, she broke out her
phone and scanned over the list of hospitals within a three hour
radius from there. As the taxi delivered her to her apartment, she
called each and every one of them, asking for a random variation of
names. The first two ladies on the switchboard seemed to think
Matty was a nickname, so she switched it up, crossed her fingers
and hoped that Matthew Knight would hit the jackpot.

Destiny paid
the taxi driver and lugged her things up the stairs to her
apartment on the second floor. She punched the last phone number
into her cell, only hoping she could locate Matty. If this last
number did not pan out, she was certain she would never see Skylar
again. And maybe that’s how he had wanted it.

Skylar buried his face in
his hands. It felt like his life was in shambles. His youngest
brother was dying and the doctors didn’t even have the decency to
give him an update. The surgeon had told them it would take
approximately six hours to perform the procedures to put Matty back
together. They had explained that there was a very good chance that
he wouldn’t make it, and even if he did, he’d have a hell of a time
in rehab.

A good seven
hours had already passed and he hadn’t heard a single word. If
Matty had died on the table, he only wished they would tell him so
he could grieve properly. It was the not knowing that knotted in
his stomach and took away his appetite. Despite the terrible
feeling that something was wrong, Skylar had to step out. He
couldn’t sit there another minute, waiting.

“I’ll be
back,” he said to his mother.

“Do you want
me to come with you?” she asked, almost begging for the
distraction.

“No.” He
wanted to be alone.

Skylar swiftly
exited the trauma centre and grabbed himself a coffee. Not that he
needed the caffeine. He was already trembling uncontrollably. After
a few sips, he decided to walk. He couldn’t just sit there,
watching the medical staff bustling around the halls and the
distraught families congregating in the cafeteria. He was starting
to think too much. He couldn’t lose his brother and his first love
on the same day.

He left the
small metallic table and moseyed toward the gift shop. Pink hearts,
chocolates and teddy bears were scattered all over a sales table.
He tilted his head and swiped his hand over his face.
Was he
really that oblivious?

A man, wearing
dirty blue jeans and a torn t-shirt, was standing nearby. He had an
old leather jacket tucked under his arm, and it didn’t look like he
was going anywhere any time soon.

“What’s the
date today?” Skylar asked, forgetting about his manners.

The man raised
his brows, proving that Skylar was worse off than him. “You haven’t
noticed the pink decorations and heart-shaped balloons everywhere?
It’s February 14
^th
, son.” And the way he answered made
Skylar feel like he had lost his mind.

He had lost
all time since spending those days with Destiny, and he hadn’t even
realized that it was Valentine’s Day. Destiny hadn’t said anything
about it to him this weekend.
What kind of woman ignored
Valentine’s Day?

His kind.

A young woman
stood behind the long rectangular table selling the dream. The fact
that she looked so pleased with herself, made him angry. She was in
a hospital for God’s sake. Her oversized smile irritated him, as
she scoped him out and hinted for him to come see her.