was around to see spread on my lips until I remembered I had been woken up by my phone. The man on the other end of the line cleared his throat. “Lincoln Dobbs?”
“Yes, that’s me.” Suspicion crawled down my spine, straightening it as I waited for him to talk again.
“This is Dr. Willard,” he said. “I’m the one taking care of Mr. Phillips. We met when—”
“I know who you are.” My skin suddenly felt like it was squeezing the life out of me again. “Is he okay?”
“Yes actually,” he said cheerfully. “Mr. Phillips is awake. I told you I’d let you know when—”
“I’ll be right there,” I promised, my grip on my phone tightening even as relief nearly knocked me the fuck out. “Please tell him for me.”
“I’ll do that, but Mr. Dobbs?”
“Yeah?” I swung my legs off the bed and was already halfway to the bathroom before he issued his warning.
“You might want to hurry. The chain of command also have to be made aware that he’s regained consciousness. I’m not sure how long you’ll have before they come to say hi.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Thanks.” Tossing the phone down on my dresser, I didn’t bother having a shower before I left.
I grabbed a fresh pair of jeans and a shirt, pulled them on while also gathering the shit I’d need, and was out the door as fast as I’d ever been before. I burned rubber all the way to the base, only slowing down when I got close and realized I was drawing attention to myself.
Jackson manned the security gate again. When he saw me running, he huffed out a breath and stepped aside. “Make it a fast one, man. There’s a lot of movement today.”
“Got it. Thank you.” I made a mental note to send him something to show my gratitude. That was what people did, right? Send a fruit basket or flowers?
Snorting at myself while jogging toward the entrance of the hospital, I decided to simply buy him a shot of tequila next time I saw him at a bar. Maybe even a beer. Definitely a beer, too.
I owed him and the doc. Before I could wonder what I’d get the doc to thank him for calling, I was pushing into Eden’s room.
Dizzying relief crashed into me when I saw with my own two eyes that he really was awake. The ventilator and most of the other equipment had been moved out of the room, and only an IV remained.
As I burst into his room, his head swung to the side and his eyes met mine. “Linc, you came?”
“Of course. I came as soon as the doc called.” I shut the door decisively behind me. “How are you feeling?”
Eden grinned, but it wasn’t as bright as it usually was. His light green eyes were rimmed with red and his skin was still pale. “I’m just happy to be alive, man. I can deal with feeling like I’m near dead as long as I’m not actually dead.”
“But seriously.” I frowned, my gaze tracking up and down the length of his body. Most of it was covered by his sheet, and I knew he’d had injuries to multiple parts of his legs and abdomen. “Are you feeling okay?”
He shrugged, pointing to his head. “Other than a splitting headache and feeling like I got hit by a train, not too bad.”
“How are your legs?” Worry ran through me. “Can you move them?”
He nodded but winced as he demonstrated. “I’m going to have to get some physical therapy, but the doctors seem positive that I’ll be walking again before the end of the month.”
One of my eyebrows rose as I whistled between my teeth. “Really? After the kind of knock you took, they think you’ll be on the mend that soon?”
“I believe their exact words were that I was ‘fit and healthy.’” He smirked, a glimmer of my friend’s personality finally showing. “One of the nurses might have mentioned that a ‘strong young man’ such as myself would make a fast recovery from these injuries.”
“Did they tell you what injuries you actually had? No one would tell me anything concrete, but you were in a fucking coma.”
“A medically induced coma,” he corrected, his smirk morphing into a knowing grin. “It drove you crazy not being able to do anything for me, didn’t it?”
“Sure did.” I wasn’t even in the mood to fuck with him today. I was too happy to see him breathing on his own and smiling,