Running to You: Small Town Romance

Chapter One

**This has not been edited or proofread.**

GRAYSON

My phone was blaring on the nightstand, playing Chase's obnoxious ringtone that Farrah had set. She had given just about everyone their personal ringtone. I hadn't bothered changing it.

The girl could be annoying, but she was Farrah. I'd always have a soft spot for her.

"What?" I grunted into the phone while I glared at the red digits on my alarm clock. It was two in the freaking morning. Why was Chase calling me so early?

"Farrah is in the hospital," he told me. I could hear sirens in the background now along with some shouts. "I need you to go. I can't, and I don't want Meredith taking the baby to the hospital with her."

I was already moving out of bed by the time he finished speaking. My heart was in my throat. I'd been infatuated with Farrah from the moment she was born. And then, when she started maturing, I'd fallen in love with her. Not a single other woman in our town held a torch to her.

And to find out she was in hospital just about stopped my heart.

"What happened?" I demanded as I quickly moved around my room, yanking a pair of jeans up my legs. I wasn't sure if they were clean or dirty, but that didn't really matter right now. I needed to get dressed and get to the hospital.

"Barn fire," he told me. "Mr. Collins says she stayed overnight in the stables because of his new horse. Barn is on fire, and she got trapped inside trying to let out all of the animals." Freaking Farrah. Of course. "We're still working on getting the flames put out, but I'm on duty. I can't go, and I don't want to freak Mom and Dad out until I know what's going on."

His parents would freak. Though Farrah was their daughter, I agreed with him. It was best to know the facts before we called them. His mom would drive the staff at the hospital absolutely nuts as she demanded answers.

I found a shirt hanging haphazardly on a hanger, and I yanked it over my head before pulling the phone back to my ear. "I'm getting shoes on, and then I'll be on my way to the hospital," I told him.

"Thanks, Grayson," he muttered. "I'll head over when I can, but it's going to be a while. Can you call me when you know something?"

"I've got you, bro," I assured him.

I hung up the phone and shoved my feet into my boots, rushing towards the front door where my keys were. It was warm outside still – most likely somewhere around the high seventies to mid-eighties, and I was glad because I hadn't thought about snatching myself a jacket before I rushed out to my truck.

Please, God, let Farrah be okay.

~*~*~

When I got to the hospital, Tracey Reeds – a nurse I went to school with – led me straight back to Farrah's room the moment she saw me searching for her room. Farrah's face was pale, and she had smears of soot on her pretty face. Oxygen tubes were up her nose, providing her with the oxygen her brain and organs had lost.

"Woman, you're going to give me a heart attack one day," I muttered as I grabbed her hand in mine.

"She's got some smoke poisoning," Tracey told me. I glanced at her before looking back down at the one of a kind woman laying on the hospital bed. "The doctor says she should wake up soon, but her throat may be pretty sore."

I nodded. "Thanks, Tracey," I mumbled. She nodded and cast me a small smile before she left the room. She had been one of the many women in this town that had tried to date me over the years, but my heart was settled on one woman in particular.

And that woman had just almost died trying to save some animals from a barn fire.

I called Chase and told him what I knew. "Alright; I'll call Mom and Dad, but I'll ask them to give her some time to get out of the hospital before they bombard her."

"Good idea," I told him. I loved his parents as if they were my own, but I didn't have the energy to deal with them while Farrah was unconscious.

~*~*~

A few hours later, Chase showed up just as the sun was breaking out over the sky. He handed me a coffee. "Meredith sent it with me when I stopped by the house to change," he informed me. "Better be glad I didn't drink it myself."

"The amount of coffee you drink a day will eventually kill you," I told him as I inhaled the strong scent. Meredith seriously made the absolute best coffee I'd ever tasted or smelled in my life.

"At least I'll die happy," he told me in all seriousness.

I just shook my head. Much like his sister, Chase was definitely one of a kind.

"She woke up at all?" he asked me a moment later.

"Not yet. Doc came in about an hour ago and told me it shouldn't be much longer."

As if on cue, Farrah's eyes fluttered open. Her hands fluttered up to her face, but I jerked to my feet and grabbed her hands in mine just in time to keep her from yanking the oxygen tubes from her nose. "Easy," I soothed when her eyes locked on mine. "You're okay, baby girl. You're safe."

Chase grunted in displeasure from behind me at the name, but he didn't say anything. "The animals – Vern—" she rasped, her throat obviously sore, just as Tracey had warned me it may be.

"They're safe, thanks to you," Chase spoke up. She slowly pulled her pretty blue eyes from mine to look at her older brother. He shook his head and shoved a hand through his already unruly hair. "What in the world were you thinking, Farrah? You could have died."

She just shrugged at him, her go-to response when she didn't have an answer good enough. I sighed. "Woman, don't you dare ever do anything like that again, do you understand me? Those animals can always be replaced. You cannot."

She huffed and glared up at me, obviously not agreeing with my answer. I just shrugged at her before pressing the button beside her head to alert the nurse on duty that she was now awake. "Tough if you don't like it, Farrah. I mean it. Your life is way more valuable."

"They deserve to live, too," she mumbled.

"And who's going to take care of all the new animals that need your help if you're dead?" I demanded, being blunt with her like I always was. "No one has your touch, Farrah." I gently squeezed her hand. "We need you alive, silly girl. I need you alive. Don't do something like this again."

She frowned at me before she gave in, nodding her head. "Hi, can I help you?" a nurse suddenly spoke through the bed monitor, making Farrah jump. I tightened my hand around hers again.

"Farrah is awake," I told her.

"Oh! Good to know. I'll inform her doctor."

The call switched off. I dropped back into the chair I'd been occupying and watched Chase hugged his sister, telling her how happy he was that she was alive.

After the doctor did his examination, he determined she should stay one more night. For the discomfort in her throat, they gave her something through an IV line, and not much longer he left the room, she was asleep again.

I looked up at Chase. "Can you sit with her a while?" I asked him. "There's something I need to take care of."

He nodded once and took the chair as I vacated it, settling in to get comfortable. I dropped a quick kiss to Farrah's forehead, hating the smell of smoke that clung to her hair and skin.

I'd rip this entire town apart if something like this ever happened to her again. But in the meantime, to keep her away from the place I knew would eventually give her nightmares, I went in search of Mr. Collins.

I was buying that stupid horse that had gotten her into this mess in the first place.