Read Online Free Pass (Free Will Book 1) by Allie Kincheloe - Free Book Online

someone slugged you in the eye."
    "Granny is in the ICU and they don't know how bad it is yet," I mumbled as she dang near squeezed the breath out of me.
    "Oh gosh, Laney, I'm sorry. I saw you come in alone, upset, and then he knocked and I just assumed..." She trailed off.
    Yeah, we're pretty clear on her assumptions.
    Jake extracted me from Kelsey's clutches and held me close. He kissed me, soft and slow. "I will head up there as soon as my meeting is over tomorrow," he whispered.
    I wanted to tell him he didn't need to worry with coming back to Free Will just for me. That I didn't need him there. I wanted to say I was strong enough to deal with this on my own. But I couldn't. Because I needed him there if something happened. I needed his support. So, I nodded and leaned into his warmth for a moment.
    "Uh, I don't want to interrupt, but if we don't leave soon it will be long after midnight when we get home," Austin called, still by the door.
    He was right. We needed to get on the road. I grabbed what few things I needed, and kissed Jake one last time, before I hopped in to the matchbox Austin called a car.
    "I'm sorry about Granny. I know how close y'all are."
    I squeezed his hand in acknowledgment, but didn't respond. My voice was untrustworthy at the moment. Words might come out, or it could be another series of great big ol' sobs. Granny was an integral part of my being. Life without her was just not fathomable.
    My Granny had married my Papaw one month to the day after they met. She was seventeen, and he was twenty-one. Granny always joked that she didn't have no choice but to marry him because he was going to pester her to death otherwise. But you could see the love between them. Fifty years they spent together, never apart for more than a day's work. When he passed away two years ago, she was heartbroken. We worried she was sinking into a depression, but she picked herself up by her boot straps and carried on (as she would say).
    I hoped to find a love like theirs. Strong enough to last a lifetime. I didn't have it with Austin, but they say sometimes love grows. So, I had waited it out. It never did grow with him though.

 
    Chapter Seventeen

 
    "Laney. Laney, wake up." A hand on my shoulder shook me. "Come on, honey. Wake up." I opened a swollen eye. Thumbs stuck in the belt of his robe, my dad stared down at me. "Go shower, so we can be at the hospital when the doctors come in this morning."
    Austin hadn't dropped me off until after one. So, I'd slept downstairs to make sure my parents knew I was home and didn't go to the hospital without me. A decision I regretted this morning. Waking them would have been less painful.
    Stiff muscles protested my stretch and the tightness drug a moan from my chest. This couch should be used for torture. If bad guys had to sleep on couches like this, there wouldn't be repeat offenders.
    A hot shower loosened some of the stiffness from my shoulders. There was still a lingering ache when I turned to the left though. I grabbed some ibuprofen and a bowl of cereal while my parents got ready.
    I hated hospitals. The cloying chemical smell that never quite covered the stench of death and urine overtook me when I walked in. Beeping monitors, sobbing family members, even a couple kids laughing despite their location assaulted my ears. I hated it. All of it.
    Two of my aunts huddled together under a flickering fluorescent light. Aunt Mary looked up as we walked over. In the ICU, only two visitors could be back at a time, so I joined my aunts to wait. They'd already seen Granny, but didn't want to go far in case there was news. Mom and Dad went first to see her. The chair sank as I sat. So well-used was the chair, the cushion remained ass-shaped.
    Heavy drops of rain plopped against the window. The sun dared not peek through the heavy clouds which added to the depression in the air. I clasped and unclasped my hands, anxious. The doctor hadn't been in yet, so there wasn't any news. We made a