Chapter 56

Just under two hours later, Kimber paced the cold hospital waiting room, chewing on a ragged fingernail. God, her insides jumped and shivered so badly, she was about to come out of her skin. She shot another worried glance toward the operating room, where they’d taken her dad.

No one had emerged yet to tell her whether her father was going to live or… No, she wouldn’t think that. Deep breath. Hang tough. Pray.

Good advice, but she kept reliving that terrible moment. One minute she’d been sitting on the porch talking to Luc, the next, her father’s house had exploded with him inside. The fire had been everywhere, she realized in retrospect. That fact hadn’t really occurred to her when she’d run in and found him unconscious, about to be consumed by encroaching flames. Upon finding the doorknob too hot to handle, she’d saved time by simply knocking his chair through the glass door to the backyard and dragging him out.

The firemen who’d responded to the emergency had told her