Daring Devlin (Lost Boys #1) - Jessica Lemmon Page 0,69
A life I never imagined I’d have the freedom to live. I wanted to tell her… I just… couldn’t.
“What now? Now that you don’t work with Sonny.”
“I stay at Oak & Sage. I move out of this gorgeous place.” I would miss it, but it wasn’t right to keep it.
“Because this is his place.” She quirked her lips, understanding. “Where will you live?”
“I don’t know yet.” I begged her with my eyes not to make me the offer I thought I saw simmering in her eyes. Thankfully, she didn’t.
“I’m going back to the hospital,” I told her. “I’ll drop you at home.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No, baby.” I cupped her jaw and kissed her lightly.
“Yes, baby.” The “baby” made me smile. She was so damn cute. “I’m coming with you and you can’t stop me.”
I could have, but the determination in her eyes—and the shake of her ass when she wiggled her way into the bathroom—made it impossible for me to say no.
Rena
After Devlin washed me from head to toe in the shower, and brought me to orgasm twice, thank you very much, we drove to the hospital to visit Cade. I texted Tasha and was surprised to learn she was already there. She must’ve been riding out the whole fiancée thing for Paul’s sake.
She met us in the waiting room. “Hey, guys.”
“You want coffee?” Devlin asked me, releasing my hand.
“Sure,” I answered.
“Tasha?”
She considered him for a beat, her smile curious. “Sure.”
With a nod, he left us and walked to the coffee cart at the back of the room.
Other than an elderly couple flipping through magazines, and the low volume of the television airing The Price Is Right, the waiting room was quiet.
The second my butt hit the chair, my best friend said, “Devlin is hot, by the way.”
“Uh, yeah,” I agreed wholeheartedly.
“He seems like more than your boy toy.”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I guess he is.”
My former boy toy returned with two coffees, creamed and sugared. Tasha accepted hers with a soft Thanks, and I accepted mine, and his hand on my neck. I’d pulled my hair up since it was still wet from our shower. Devlin’s scarf was looped around my neck and keeping me quite warm. So was the hand tucked beneath it.
“Any news?” he asked Tasha.
“You don’t know?” She raised her eyebrows.
“If you didn’t tell me, I don’t know,” I said. We hadn’t heard from Paul or Sonny, or Nat for that matter. Remembering the sheer size and girth of Nat made it almost comical that I’d once accused him of being Devlin’s “girlfriend.”
“Cade has a broken foot, a few broken ribs, and a sprained wrist,” Tasha explained. “He’ll need physical therapy for his injuries. They’re suggesting round-the-clock care until he can get around on his own. He will need help in the shower, and walking. Maybe even eating.”
“Eating?” Devlin repeated, and I heard the concern in his flat tone.
“The collision with the fire hydrant was on the side of the car. The resulting brain injury was different than if he’d had a head-on collision. He suffered what his doctor called a non-rupturing aneurism. Which is better than the rupturing kind, but it could affect his speech.”
I gasped. Devlin cursed under his breath.
“We don’t know yet, since he’s not awake enough to test, but the worry is that communication will be more difficult for him than it used to be.” She gave us a wan smile. “And he had a mouth on him.”
“Did he ever.” Devlin’s hand slipped from my neck and he scrubbed his forehead. I reached over and squeezed his knee.
“So… Cade might not be able to talk?” I didn’t want to believe it. He was our age. He had his whole life ahead of him. He was in school studying to be a lawyer, for God’s sake.
“It’s not so much that they don’t think he’ll be able to talk, but getting the words from his brain to his mouth might not be as easy as before. He might mean to say one thing, but say something different. Or he could have a stammer or a stutter for a while.” She looked sad when she added, “Or for good. We’re not sure yet.”
The three of us sat in silence for a long, long time, processing what life might look like for Caden after he was awake. I thought of his road to recovery, saddened for his plight but also grateful that he hadn’t ended up like Joshua.
I finished my coffee at the same time the elevator