I let out a laugh. “Not nearly drunk enough dude, not nearly enough.”

“Where the fuck is your cell phone?” He looked around and saw it sitting on the coffee table. I turned it off around midnight when Ari kept fucking calling me over and over.

Brad turned it on while I walked over the kitchen to get a beer.

“You want a beer man or something harder….” I said with a laugh.

Just then I heard my phone beeping like crazy with notifications. What the hell?

“Gunner I need you to listen to me.” He took the beer from my hand and looked at me. It was the first time I ever saw fear in his eyes.

“Oh my god did something happen to my cousin?”

Brad shook his head at me….

“Your cousin is fine Gunner, she and James are back at their hotel. But there has been an accident.”

My heart started to pound…oh god please no.

“Who?”

Brad swallowed hard. He ran his hand through his hair and when he looked at me again he had tears in his eyes…..holy fuck this was going to be bad.

“It’s…… It’s Ellie Gunner. She was in a car accident earlier and is at Brackenridge hospital. Jeff got a call around midnight and we’ve been trying to call you. I left the hospital to come find you.”

Ellie…..in an accident……I felt like I was going to pass out.

“Whoa….Gunner sit down man…take it easy for a second.”

I was instantly sober. I needed to get to her……

NOW!

“No, I need to get to her now Brad! Is she going to be okay? What happened? Who was driving?”

I was going to fucking kill Jon Baker if that asshole was driving.

Brad grabbed my wallet and we headed out to his truck. Once we got in his truck I started asking if she was okay again.

“I don’t know how she’s doing. They had her in surgery when I left.”

SURGERY?

“Surgery? What did she need surgery for?” Oh my god….my heart was pounding and my chest was killing me. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. What if something happens to her? I didn’t tell her I loved her, I told her we were done. She thinks I walked away from her. She thinks I left her and I promised I would never leave her or hurt her. I think I was going to throw up.

“Brad what happened?”

“Um, they think she might have swerved to miss a deer but she ended up hitting a tree…..”

“Wait….Ellie was driving? Where the fuck was she going?”

“She was coming here Gunner to find you. After you left Rebels all fucking hell broke loose. It turns out that Ari and Ellie where at the Driskill with Amanda. They were there looking at ballrooms and shit for the wedding. Ari and Ellie saw you standing outside a room and then saw some girl jump into your arms and y’all kissed and then you walked into the room with her. That’s when Ellie flipped out Gunner and thought you were cheating. She had no idea that was your cousin Shannon. She thought you were meeting James. Then when they saw Shannon at Rebels and Jeff told them she was your cousin Ellie lost it! Ari said she was screaming for Ari to give her the car keys so she could go after you. I guess Jon was not having it and kept trying to pull Ellie back on the dance floor before Jeff got sick of it and punched the shit out of him. Then Jon went after Jeff, while that was all going down Ellie got the keys from Ari and she took off.”

Holy fuck….It was all making sense. No wonder Ellie freaked out. Shannon had surprised the shit out of me and jumped into my arms and wrapped her legs around me like she always has when we saw each other. Did she kiss me?

FUCK…she did. It was quick but it was a kiss on the lips.

“Brad, please get there.” I leaned my head back on the seat. My Ellie, I needed to be with her. She was coming after me. Oh god please don’t take her away from me.

Please…………….

CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR

Gunner ……

I walked into the ER waiting room and instantly saw Jeff and oh man, holy shit he looked bad. He jumped up and started walking over to me. Fuck…...he started crying……oh god no……please don’t take her from me……..

He just slammed into me and hugged me and cried.

No…….Ellie…..

“Jeff, please tell me she’s okay……please tell me she’s okay, please.”

He was just crying and Ari came up and stood to the side of us.

“We haven’t heard anything in about an hour or so. The last thing they told us was they were taking her to surgery to repair her broken arm. Her ribs are bruised but not broken and they said she has a concussion. She has been unconsciousness since they brought her in but they did a CT scan and there were no signs of head trauma thank God.”

Jeff pulled away and walked back over to the chair he was sitting in. I practically had to hold him up, he felt like he was going to collapse any minute.

“If her head injury is not that bad why hasn’t she woken up?”

“I’m not sure. The doctor said something about her body trying to help her heal or something. I really wasn’t paying attention I was in a fog when they were talking to us.”

I walked over and sat next to Jeff. Fuck he looked bad….

“I must have missed some fight. I hope Jon looks worse than you do.”

Jeff looked over at me and smiled. “Yeah he looks worse. He is lucky Brad pulled me off of him. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be allowed back in Rebels though.”

I tried to smile. I couldn’t stop thinking about my Ellie, all alone. Was she awake after the accident? Was she scared?

Just then the doors opened a tall guy dressed in scrubs came walking out and Jeff jumped up.

He told us that Ellie had a pretty bad broken arm. It was broken in two different places so they had to put in pins in to help the bones stay stable. She didn’t have any internal bleeding, but she had a concussion. He said something about memory loss a possibility but he thought she would make a full recovery. They would be moving her up to a room in about an hour and half.

Thank you God……thank you for not taking her away from me……

I was sitting on the sofa with my eyes closed when I heard the nurse come in again. Another four hours must have passed already if they were checking her vitals again. This time I just acted like I was asleep. I was shocked that the stupid bitch was flirting with me when my girlfriend was laying in a hospital bed unconsciousness. Once she left I got up and pulled the chair Jeff had been sitting in closer to the side of the bed.

I had finally talked Jeff into going back home and taking a shower and getting some real food. We both had been sitting in Ellie’s room for the last 24 hours straight. When was she going to wake up? I was starting to get scared. Ari had been reading out loud to Ellie most of the day.

I just really needed her to wake up.

I had a terrible fear she was going to wake up and remember everyone but me. I took her hand in mine and tried to kiss it. Her left hand had all the tubes and shit coming out of since her right hand was in a cast.

I put my head down on the bed and just started talking to her again.

“Ellie sweetheart…..please wake up baby. I need you to wake up baby. I need to tell you how much I love you. You mean the world to me and I cannot live this life without you in it. You have to wake up so we can start planning our life together, you and me out at the ranch baby. I’ve been talking to Gramps and Grams a lot about us Ellie. I want to marry you sweetheart and spend the rest of my life loving you.”

I thought I felt her hand move in mine. Then I heard her sweet voice.

“Okay.”

Okay?

I looked up and she was looking right at me. Her beautiful blue eyes looked directly into mine and we just held each other’s gaze. She smiled that smile of hers that just about brought me to my knees each time.

“Ellie…..oh baby! You’re awake! Wait, what were you trying to say sweetheart?”