Free Wide Spaces (A Wide Awake Novella, Book 2) by The 12 NAs of Christmas, Shelly Crane

hear that my baby was dying on that table.

 
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
    A teaspoon of honey is the life's work of 12 bees.
     

 
    Emma

     
     
     
    Someone was begging for my life. "Please, please, please don't take her. Please don't punish her for my mistakes. If it's not one part of my past creeping up, it's another and Emma always suffers because of it. Please, please."
    Mason. I could feel his lips at my ear, his warm breath that felt so inexplicably good on my skin. Then his voice faded and I couldn't hear him. I strained for him, not kno wing anything in that moment other than I needed him. Then the worst pain I'd ever felt blasted through my chest, burning my skin and scalding my veins.
    "Emma, come back, baby."
    I gasped awake, becoming aware of how painfully hot I was. Or…cold. I couldn't tell anymore. And how hard my heart was beating, as if doing its own begging.
    Mason came into my line of sight from behind my head. He smiled, yet I could tell it was anguished, and put his forehead to mine. "Thank you, thank you. I'm so sorry, Em."
    I wanted to speak, but couldn't. I barely held on to the thin thread of lucidity. I heard them speaking around me, a woman yelled at Mason and then I was engulfed in warmth. I tried my hardest to snuggle into it. Mason's arm came around me, his legs pulling me toward him and crushing our bodies together. It was so warm I could do nothing but sigh against his neck.
    He kissed my eyes, my forehead, my hair. When he started to whisper to me, I knew that he knew...that I knew about Adeline. "God, help me. I don't know if you can hear me right now, but I'm so sorry, Em. I wasn't trying to hide anything from you. In my mind, there just wasn't anything to tell. It was one date, and that was it. I didn't know that she was holding onto…whatever she thought was between us."
    I managed a small moan. I didn't want to talk about Adeline right then. I wanted to drown in his warmth. I didn't care what he did or didn't tell me in that moment. I just knew that somehow, someway, I had thought I was going to die in those woods, yet here I lay with Mason in reach. Nothing else mattered in that second. He must have known what I wanted, because he shushed me and pulled me as close and tight as he dared. He leaned down and tenderly kissed my lips. I heard murmurs from people around us as my arm was moved. I felt a stick before my veins were flooded with warm liquid. It made me feel as if I were floating. The pain started to go away and the tired feeling wasn't just knocking at the door anymore, it was coming in.
    "Sleep, baby," he whispered into my hair as I felt warm fingers on my temple before a stick there, too. "I'll be right here."
    And then I was out.
     
     

    When I woke next, I was no longer wrapped around Mason. And I was no longer naked and freezing under my blanket. I had on a hospital gown and socks on my feet. The pounding in my head hit me the first inch I moved. Good Lord, it hurt. When I went to move my hand up to investigate, it was occupied. I pried open my eyes and looked over at Mason. He was sitting in the chair, his head on the bed beside me with both of his hands gripping mine. I brought my free hand up, ignoring the pull of the IV, and rested it on his head.
    I wondered how long I'd been asleep. And for a few panic-filled seconds, I wondered if I had been in another coma, but if that were the case, Mason wouldn’t still be sleeping here every night…would he? I shook my head. I remembered everything from my accident. I was fine except for the drum in my temple.
    Letting my fingers rake his hair, I wondered what I was going to say to him. Finding out about Adeline wasn't what I'd wanted, and yes, I had been angry with Mason when I first found out. But as Mason lifted his head, I knew then that I didn't need to say anything. The man was torturing himself enough for the both of us.              
    Oh , my… His eyes were red and rimmed with irritation, like