Forest Edwards is always running. Either literally, because of his dog, Fletch; running to escape his tiring work life; or, well, running away from the possibilities of love.
But when Natalie Dayholt, together with her dog, Bailey, waltzed into his...
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FOREST HAD FINALLY stirred awake, sometime around the afternoon. He had been out for three days since the accident took place, and when he woke up in the hospital, it wasn't surprising that the first thing on his mind was Fletch.
He swallowed the lump formed in his throat, forcing himself to keep calm. There was no one else with him in the hospital ward, yet he noticed that the television set in front of him was left on, its contents flickering as the volume was put to zero.
Perhaps someone had been here.
His eyes trailed around the room, from the ceiling to the table and to the bed, and finally to his own body.
"Shite." Forest frowned when he noticed his right arm was bound in a cast, looking extremely useless. He grimaced, his mind reeling back to when the car accident took place.
Forest muttered a few more curse words inaudibly under his breath, as he tried to push himself to sit up right. He could only sigh in frustration when he felt a sharp pain running through his bone.
Everything was going so great.
Letting out a groan, he finally managed to sit up. Forest fumbled around with the items in the drawer beside him, eventually finding his phone.
Perhaps the accident knocked some common sense out of his head, because the first thing he did wasn't to call anyone to check if they found Fletch. Instead, Forest instinctively got out of bed, stuffing his feet into a pair of black sneakers he spotted at the side.
Forest stared out at the window again. Winter had just begun, yet he was going to leave the hospital without a coat, simply in the thin clothes they dressed him in.
Screw it, he thought.
But when he finally made his way to the door, the door was pushed open instead, where a nurse stood, a clipboard in her arm as she stared at him with her mouth agape.
"Mr Edwards! You really shouldn't be walking around!" She said hastily, guiding him back towards the bed. "Hold on for a while, I'll get the doctor for you. We might need to do some checks on you."
He groaned as he sat down on the bed again, his head spinning wild from thoughts about the incident and of course, on his dog.
Once they had finished all necessary checks for him, Forest waited till he heard the sounds of their footsteps go before he stood up again, heading straight for the door.
And then the door opened again, this time with him facing the person he dreaded to see.
"Forest!" Lauren cried out, relief washing over her features as she strode to him with her arms out, reading to envelope him in a hug. "You're finally awake," she mumbled, "are you hurt anywhere? I'm so sorry about everything —"
