Alpha Hero - Hope Ford Page 0,52

face. Anyone that knows her knows she would want to be here. If I hadn’t pushed her she would have stayed by my side until I was walking without a limp. She’s definitely a nurturer. Which is why I had to make her go. She made it plain what she wanted and what she wanted was to be away from me.

Once I’m left alone with my thoughts, I can’t stop myself from thinking of Kendall. But in all honesty, she’s all I think about.

My mind flashes back to her sitting next to the hospital bed. She’s complained about the “freshmen 15” she gained and then the “sophomore 15” she gained her second year of college. She’s probably thirty pounds heavier than she was at eighteen but every curve is delicious and turns my mind to mush. I’ve dealt with these feelings the best way I know how, but I can’t push them away entirely, no matter how hard I try. Even when I’m about to go into surgery. She’s the last thing I think of before I walk into the operating room and the first thing I think of when I walk out of it. The way that she’s grown up, even with everything that she’s gone through, tells me exactly what kind of woman she is. One that any man would be proud to have on his arm.

The thought of her with someone else hits me hard. I know it’s about to happen. How in the world these college boys have left her alone as long as they have already is beyond me. Soon, they’ll come for her and it kills me I won’t be there to stop it. Maybe that’s why she wants her independence from me now. Maybe there is someone. My hands clench on the covers. In that retrospect, it’s good she wanted her independence because there’s no way I will be able to stand by and watch that happen.

I made her leave me, but the look on her face told me that even though she was surprised, she will still come back. I’ll just have to prepare myself and not let her get too close.

5

Kendall

Who knew it would be this hard to chase down someone that just had surgery? This morning, as soon as I woke up, I packed a bag and drove straight to the hospital, only for Dr. Robby to tell me that Brian had already been released.

Well, of course I gave him the ‘what for.’ I mean who does that? Who lets their patient out when he just had surgery?

Walking up to the house, I use my key and walk in the front door. I drop my bags by the front door and walk into the living room to find Brian sitting on the couch, his leg propped up on the coffee table and his laptop open in front of him. “What are you doing? Why are you not at the hospital?”

He doesn’t seem surprised that I’m here. Sometimes I forget that he knows me better than anyone. Sometimes even better than myself. “Robby let me out.”

I start laughing. “Yeah, I talked to Robby.” I cross my arms over my chest and he looks at me from head to toe. His gaze burns me and I fidget, waiting on his eyes to meet mine again. I swear the look he’s giving me is a new one and I feel it to my very core. I cross my legs and by the time his eyes meet mine, I swear I see a smirk on his face. “So, uh, you don’t look like someone that was in a bad car wreck and had surgery yesterday.”

He sets the laptop on the coffee table and picks the crutch up from beside him. “Good genes, I guess.”

I watch him hobble to the kitchen and I definitely agree with him. The snug fit of his jogging pants on his firm butt reaffirms the fact that he does indeed have good genes.

I trail behind him and don’t take my eyes off his ass until he turns to face me in the kitchen. “Do you want breakfast?”

He opens the fridge and I slide in front of him. “You’re not cooking. First of all, you can’t cook. Secondly, you’re supposed to be sitting, with your leg propped up.” I grab him by the waist and turn him around, pushing him toward the kitchen table. When he sits down, I tell him I’ll be right back and walk to the living room