Officially Over It - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,68

encouraged a lot of the parents to do when they’re this young.

Dare had been rather young until this point.

Today, though, he was a whole three weeks old. That put him at an adjusted age of thirty-one weeks if he was still in the womb.

That was a milestone.

And after getting the okay from the doctor for Kangaroo Care after lunch, I knew that it would work.

I’d perk Dare up while hopefully helping Nathan—who still hadn’t opened his eyes after being brought to the hospital four days ago—at the same time.

Though, I wasn’t sure that when I was granted permission to do Kangaroo Care, that they knew exactly who Dare would be doing it with.

Chapter 26

Thou shall not try me.

-Text from Reggie to Nathan

Nathan

My head hurt.

That was the first thing that I realized.

The second thing was that there was a heavy weight on my chest that wasn’t altogether uncomfortable, but it was an odd sensation, nonetheless.

Thirdly, I could hear Reggie talking.

And I didn’t like what I heard.

“…I cheated. I didn’t actually get more homeruns than you.” She paused. “I actually got one less. I… well… let’s just say that I totally used an illegal bat. And I had my friends lie when we were at away games. You never figured it out.”

I was going to spank her ass.

That was the first thing I was going to do.

As soon as I could lift my hands.

My fingers twitched and I felt my heavy eyelids start to drag apart.

It felt like I was lifting a thousand pounds off the floor rather than opening my lids, but eventually I managed it.

I blinked.

Once. Twice. Three times.

Then I stared at the white ceiling as I tried to get my body to cooperate.

That was when I realized that I only had one eye open.

Not two.

I frowned in concentration, but I couldn’t get the other one to open for the life of me.

“I have loved you since we were kids,” she said softly. “When you started dating Eerie, I think that my heart practically fell out of my chest. I felt like I was walking around with an open chest wound for years. I’ve never wanted to die more in my life than when you first started dating her.”

I felt something besides my stupid head start hurting.

My heart was pounding in my chest as it felt like it would break into two.

“When I suggested we get married,” she said, “I never in a million years thought you’d say yes. I thought for sure you’d laugh it off. But then you said yes. I… Nathan? I wasn’t drunk enough not to remember that day. Not to know that my actions had consequences.”

I’d been drunk, too. But not that drunk.

“I saved my virginity for you,” I heard a while later. “I just figured that I’d get you to notice me when we were younger. I didn’t think I’d make it until years later when you needed me out of necessity and not want.”

My stomach dropped at her words.

I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came out.

My tongue didn’t work correctly, and I couldn’t even get a groan to fall free of my lips.

Nothing.

Not a damn thing.

I couldn’t even make my arm lift to place it on her hand where I could feel it close to mine.

“The first time I knew that I loved you was when we were nine. You and I were playing in the yard, and I hit the ball over the fence into the neighbor’s yard. You scaled the fence and got it back, then threw me a hundred more balls. You’re the reason that I was so good, Nathan. I wanted to impress you,” she said.

Still no words would came out.

“How’s our patient?” a stern, rather annoyed voice asked. “I see that you’ve stolen him away again.”

“I’m sorry, Doctor.”

Reggie’s words didn’t sound like she was sorry. Not at all.

“If Dare wasn’t doing so well, I’d be talking to the board about firing your ass,” the doctor grumbled.

Dr. Dense. Darren’s pediatrician.

What the hell was he doing in my hospital room?

Then I saw the doctor come into view.

He was looking at something on my chest.

What the hell?

Something moved on my chest and that was when I heard the soft, sweetest squeak of protest that I’d ever heard in my life.

Dare.

Dare was on my chest.

I felt a tear slip out of my eye.

“Who do we have here?”

I felt another tear slip out upon hearing another squeak of protest.

“He’s doing so good,” Dr. D said. “He’s lively today, isn’t