“I know that Sky is all that to me,” Chase told him. “But I can’t make her—”
“Marry you?”
He turned. Sky was back in the room, grinning and looking relieved as she walked in.
He ignored the question first, asking her anxiously, “Your mom?”
“Oh, she’s mad at me, but she says that she’s way more relieved than angry. And she’s coming home from Ireland. I told her the events were over...but she’s coming home.”
“That’s great! I look forward to seeing her,” Hank said. “Now, as to the other. This big, brave undercover agent is afraid to ask you to marry him.”
“Gramps!” Chase protested.
But Skylar turned to him, grinning. “Yes, of course.”
“Pardon?”
“Oh, come on. Don’t make your grandfather do everything! Yes, I think we should definitely get married. I don’t want a crazy wedding. I want our families. And Skyhawk. Oh, wait. Skyhawk is kind of my father’s other kid, so that’s family, too.”
He looked at her. He’d loved her forever. And maybe that was why time had slipped away, and why time, now, was everything.
They weren’t going to waste any more of it.
But two could play the game.
“Sure,” he said. “I’ll marry you.”
They both laughed. And it was, in truth, nice that right there, in his grandfather’s hospital room, he drew her into his arms for a kiss that was a promise for a lifetime.
“Okay, okay, get a room!” Hank said, shaking his head. “Oh, yeah, you have rooms. Nope, you have houses. So...”
“We still need to see Chris, and I want to check on Bobby Sacks,” Chase told him.
“Then, go do it. You can stop by tomorrow afternoon and see me here. Rehab place after that, and I’ll be working hard, I promise. I’m not handing over my drum set entirely yet!”
“You better not do that,” Chase warned him. “I’m not ready. All this is...”
“It’s a lot,” Hank agreed. “All this tonight...and I was here. Well, thankfully, they’re going to let me see Chris soon. Maybe now! Hey, ring the nurse. See if you can walk me into his room.”
“They’ll want you in a wheelchair,” Chase said.
“They can put me in a rocket ship if they want. I’d just really like to see my old friend.”
“I’m on it,” Sky said, hurrying out.
In a minute she was back with a wheelchair—and a nurse. The nurse saw to it that her charge was safely seated.
“Now, please, this isn’t at all regular... You shouldn’t even be visiting at this hour, but keep the noise level down. It’s just five a.m., and the patients need their rest!”
“Yes, ma’am!” Chris promised.
“Well, good to see you all. Mr. Wiley needs to sleep, but he’s too worried about events and Miss Ferguson and...please. Go in.”
They entered, and Sky hurried to Chris’s side, taking his hand.
As she did so, Chase noticed that Brandon was asleep in a chair by the window.
And Mark Reynolds was there, too, standing now, though he’d been seated in a chair by the bed. Chase realized that Joe Garcia was also in Chris’s room and he smiled, surprised that the hospital had turned a blind eye to so many visitors.
Especially at this hour, as the nurse had pointed out. But they were there.
Skyhawk was there. The old group, friends before they’d been a band. All—thankfully—innocent of the machinations and terror going on around them.
Chris looked up at Sky, smiled and squeezed her hand.
“I was so worried!” Sky told him.
“We all were,” Mark Reynolds said quietly. “Worried about you, too—crazy worried about you.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine. It was Chris who was shot!” Sky said.
“Chris, what did they tell you? I mean, you were in surgery—” Chase began.
“Funny thing is, the guy played so many people—but he was a lousy shot,” Chris said. “Caught me below the bone, didn’t even shatter anything. They got the bullet out, they sewed me up, and I’m just about as good as can be.”
“Hey, Chris is tough!” Joe said.
Brandon had woken up, and he blinked and stood, coming over to the bed. “Dad! You are not good as new. You’re going to behave. You were warned that the big fear is going to be infection, and you’ll have to be careful—”
