35. Ray

Bitter cold stung the left side of my face as flashing lights lit the backs of my eyelids. My chest ached, my palms burned, and my head wouldn't stop throbbing.

The baby.

My breathing rapidly accelerated as I moved my hands to my stomach. Flat as ever, and considering I wasn't anywhere close to showing before, it shouldn't have alarmed me. But I wasn't thinking straight.

"Ray." A rough, deep voice snagged my attention. "Ray, are you okay?"

"The baby," I sputtered, blinking through the inkling of blackness that lingered on the outskirts of my vision. A face came into view, one I recognized, but I struggled to line the pieces up in my head. God, it hurt. Something cushioned the left side of my face, warming up the frozen skin. "The baby."

"What do you—…?" His gaze traveled from my face down my body, eyes widening as he looked at where my hands fisted the fabric of my shirt. "Shit. You're pregnant?"

"Yes," I breathed.

"Hey!" Hunter shouted, his voice aimed somewhere behind me. It was Hunter, the man I'd met at the wedding, Zane's friend. "Help her first! She's pregnant!"

"No. I… I haven't told anyone," I croaked, rolling onto my back and groaning from the pain.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't move," he said, his voice far gentler than a second ago. "You've been in an accident, Ray. Do you remember what happened?"

An accident? I blinked harder as I looked for my car. From what I could tell, I was somewhere on the side of the road in the snow-covered grass. Red and blue lights lit the dark highway, one slightly damaged tow truck with a dent in its front end to my left. In the distance was what once passed as my car. Crumpled hood, dented sides, and the windshield blown out. I wondered if I'd flown through it.

"You're fucking lucky to be alive," he sighed. "I heard the impact all the way from the house. I'm sorry but I don't know Wade's number. I'll call Zane. He can call him."

"She awake?"

I tried to turn my head toward the new voice, softer, higher, but was stopped before I could look at her.

"Let's keep you in place until we can figure out if you're okay, all right?" She slipped a C-collar beneath my neck and fastened it.

I nodded.

"Don't do that, either." Her face slowly came into view, blonde spiral curls framing a pale face. Dark blue covered her from the neck down, patches on either side of her chest. "You said she's pregnant?" she asked Hunter.

"I think so. Unless she's lost her mind in the crash."

"I am," I sighed. "About nine weeks, I think. Not sure."

"Alright. Any pain?" she asked me. "You've got a couple cuts on your face but I don't see any other bleeding wounds." That explained the droplets of blood in the snow.

"My ribs," I grunted, moving one hand toward my left side just beneath my breast. "Here."

"Okay. We'll need to check you for a concussion, take your vitals, and check on the baby. We can't get the stretcher down this bank, so we need to strap you to a back board first." Her eyes looked over my body once again, double-checking for anything she might have missed, before turning to Hunter. "Any chance you can help me carry her up to the ambulance? We're a bit short-staffed."

"Short-staffed?" Hunter asked, his gaze narrowing.

"It's four in the morning. We're running a little thin."

"For fuck's sake." Hunter's grunt rang in my ear as he slid his arms beneath the head of the back board, the medic taking the other end beneath my feet.

"Be careful," the medic ordered.

"I'm not going to drop her," Hunter bit back.

They lifted me effortlessly off the freezing ground, the air only slightly warmer as it whipped at my damp clothes.

————

It was an awkward ride to the hospital with Hunter by my side in the back of the ambulance. His foot tapped incessantly from the bench beside me, the monotonous beeping only making things worse.

"We should call Wade directly," he mumbled, his eyes darting between me and the side of the vehicle. "I've got your phone."

"Please don't."

The medic who rode with us watched from the corner of her eye.

"I don't want to see him," I added.

"He's probably worried sick, Ray. You can't just avoid him. Does he even know about?—?"

"No." I cut him off before resting my hand on my stomach, grunting from the pain in my side. "And you're not going to tell him. We broke up."

A bump in the road made the medic sway on her seat behind me. In her hand she held a tiny butterfly needle, one I knew meant I was going to get an IV from my many trips with Mom. Something about her sticking it in me in a moving vehicle made my stomach hurt. "They'll likely need to keep you overnight," she said as she gently picked up my hand. "They'll need to do an exam of your ribs, an ultrasound, and monitor you for signs of a concussion."

"Can't I just get the ultrasound and go?" I winced as the needle slid into my vein, surprisingly easy for such a bumpy ride.

"Technically, yes, but I highly recommend you stay the night so they can observe you. It's best for both you and the baby."

I gritted my teeth while she hooked up the fluids. I couldn't afford a night in the hospital, not with the amount I was going to be spending on Mom. I didn't want to think about the bill for the ride in the ambulance either, but I didn't have much of a say in that.

I'd hear them out. I'd let them poke and prod at me until they were satisfied then I'd get out as soon as I could. Every second I stayed there was enough time for Wade to come find me, and the idea of that, of him finding out about the pregnancy in the worst possible way, was enough to make me nauseous.

"I'm going to throw up," I croaked.