Free Fall (Free Fall Vol. 2): (Loving Summer #7: The Donovan Brothers #4) (6 page)

Epilogue

Summer

I
followed Nat, who had hoisted Drew into his
arms, to the van outside. My mind was on Drew, and everything else was a blur.

Nat
placed Drew’s body on a cot at the back of the van, and sat next to me in the
back as we took off. He reached over and squeezed my hand. “Don’t worry,
Summer. He’ll pull through. He always does.”

I
could only nod. I felt numb.

“We’re
taking him to one of our best private facilities. The most high-tech
equipments, even those not yet approved by the government because they were far
too expensive for regular hospitals to have or was too advance.”

I
could only nod. I felt so helpless. “Dammit, Nat,” I said. “I’m a doctor.  I
can work on him. I just need my tools, my equipment.”

I
went to check his pulse.  It was faint, and barely there.

“We
need to get his heart going. We need to shock him,” I said. “He was hit in the
heart,” I cried. How ironic. “I’ve never operated on a heart before, and…”

It
was a miracle he wasn’t dead…that he had lived this long.

“I
know,” Nat said. “I saw the wound. I know the anatomy, seen enough corpses to
know where everything is.”

I
flinched. Nat was not the young teenager who only had to worry about Donovan
Dynamics and going to college anymore. He had grown up, the hard way, and my
heart ached to reach out for him.

I
grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. “We’ll pull through, Nat. I know you’re
very worried about Drew, too. We Donovans always pull through.”

“We
Donovans?” Nat smiled at me.

“I’m
practically a Donovan,” I said.

“I
know, Summer,” Nat said.

“And
you’re what, maybe a Jones?” I hated bringing up the possibility he could’ve
been Aunt Sookie’s abandoned son, but ever since we found Aunt Sookie’s gift to
Nat at his parents’ home in San Francisco, there were doubts in his and
everyone’s mind whether he was a Donovan or a Jones.

Nat
looked deeply into my eyes, and held my hands. “I’ve been wondering about that
for a while, Summer, but it still didn’t affect the way I had and will always
feel about you.”

My
stomach jumped. I knew Nat still loved me, despite whether or not we were
blood-related.  But it had been a strong reason why he left me to go to
Afghanistan on the mission that changed everything. 

“I
looked into it a few years ago,” Nat said.

I
held my breath. He could be my cousin, which would be so strange after all
these years, yet, in some crazy way, cousins in Shakespeare’s Days, and in the
past got together…only…but I was with Drew, and…

“Summer,”
Nat said, “As much as I wanted to be Aunt Sookie’s child because I loved her so
much like a mother, I’m not.”

“Aunt
Sookie’s child died before the Donovans could take him home. Caught a bad cold
and died. The Donovans were devastated, thought they were going to have a baby
boy at last after so many years of trying for a child so they adopted me from
an orphanage right away, a baby who  happened to have had Aunt Sookie’s
coloring.” Nat hesitated and said softly, “So you see, I was adopted by the
Donovans, legally and binding. I was not the little boy Aunt Sookie gave birth
to, although she grieved heavily over his death yet still loved me as though I
was him.”

“You’re
not my cousin; we’re not blood-related,” I said.

“No,”
Nat said, taking my hand and twining his fingers through them, sending warmth
through me. “I held back from being with you because I thought I was, Summer. I
went to Afghanistan because I thought I was. But I found out after a blood test
and some investigation Lamar helped me with, that I wasn’t.”

“How
long ago was that?” I asked.

“Almost
as soon as I left everyone and had to go into hiding. The crime ring was on my
trail soon after the theater incident and with your stalker. I had to leave
right away. No time for explanations. No time for good-byes,” Nat said, looking
deep into my eyes.

“You
could’ve told me,” I said. “About everything, later, right?”

“I
wanted to, but you and Drew were already together, and you made your choice,
Summer. I had to respect that. As I do now.”

He
searched my face for a second, and said, “I don’t know what the future holds
for either one of us, but I do know, I’m trying to live my life to the fullest,
Summer. As Aunt Sookie wanted us to. I have, and I think you and Drew have too.
Rachel, too.”

Drew.
My heart sank, and I looked over at him. We had planned so much, to get married
finally, to maybe start a family…

Drew…

I
went to take his hand, and jumped back. My heart sunk. His hand was cold.

Oh
my dear God. “Hurry, Nat!” I cried.  “Drew is…” I couldn’t finish.

Dear
God, I prayed. Please don’t let Drew die.

Summer,
Drew, Nat, Rachel, and Astor’s story continues in

Book
8 of the Loving Summer Series

Free Fall 3  (Loving Summer
Series #8: Donovan Brothers #5)

August 2015

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