chances?”
I’ll always find you. The words rang loud and clear in my head, a truth so absolute I felt it down to the marrow of my bones.
She sat up straighter and winced, and I felt the pain as acutely as she did. Seeing her lying unconscious on the road with a one-ton bull bearing down on her took ten years off my life.
I’d dropped Tiny with one shot and there hadn’t been time for another. Not to mention that it really had been dumb luck that she’d worn those red leggings I hated, making it easy to spot her from a distance against the white backdrop.
“You look green, Scott. For heaven’s sake, I’m––”
The curtain of the ER bay moved aside. “Ready to be discharged,” the doctor, a tall woman with brown skin, sharp eyes, and short black hair, said upon entering. “But only if your husband promises not to let you out of his sight.”
Sydney smirked. “He did save my life so I’m guessing he won’t let all that effort go to waste.”
There was no way I was letting her out of my sight for a minute. My heart couldn’t survive it.
Trailing after the doctor, a male nurse entered and removed Sydney’s IV.
“Take it easy for the next two weeks, okay?” the doctor said, leveling Sydney with a pointed look before walking away.
Gathering up her clothes from the chair (minus the tights), I handed them to her along with a pair of scrubs I’d lifted earlier. “Let me help.”
“I can handle it,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m going to put my jacket on over this anyway.” She motioned to her light blue hospital gown.
“You could get dizzy and fall over. Stop being such a pest.”
That brought a smile to her lips. Her hand came to rest on my shoulder as I held the pants for her while she slipped one leg into them, then the other.
Yours, a distant voice called out.
However it had happened didn’t matter anymore. Life had intervened and brought us together. And now she was mine to keep safe. No one and nothing would ever hurt her again. I’d make sure of it.
A foreign sense of calm stole over me. It brushed aside the residual anxiety of having almost lost her. That’s when I knew. I’d never felt this way before, not for anyone, and immediately recognized it for what it was. I was falling for my wife.
Sydney
Scott knew. He’d seen the scars. The look on his face––the horror––as the doctor had cut away my leggings, could be seen from a mile away. I’d dated some in the past, not a lot, and I’d warned them all, prepared them for the inevitable. It’s not like I could go my entire life hiding my thighs.
I’d told them I was in a car accident when I was three and didn’t correct their assumptions. It was partly true; I had been in a car accident. Except that’s not what had caused the scars. Without context, however, they looked like what they were––battle scars.
I glanced over at the man in the driver’s seat and found his face closed for business. Inscrutable. He hadn’t uttered a single word since breaking me out of the hospital. We’d been in the car for twenty minutes and it already felt like twenty thousand, the quiet growing more oppressive than my headache.
“Nice car,” I finally blurted out because…fuck it.
A grunt. That’s all I got in reply. So much for small talk.
With no recollection of how we’d gotten to the hospital, I was surprised when he pulled up to the entrance of the ER in a black-on-black AMG 500 S. Turning into his driveway, he parked in the garage and came around to the passenger side. “You don’t have to carry me. Just let me lean––” Flatly ignoring me, he scooped me up in his arms. “Whoaokay, never mind.”
Not even a crack in that hard façade. Somebody was in a mood.
The dogs went crazy at the sight of me being carried, hopping around Scott’s legs and barking as he marched through the house headed for my new bedroom. I’d missed them terribly when I was in New York. Who knew the smell of cheesy feet could inspire longing.
“Quiet!” Scott shouted, and the dogs, sensing Scott the Grinch was back, ceased barking immediately.
“Neat trick. I’ve gotta try it sometime.”
I looked up into his chiseled features as he gently placed me on the bed and his lack of response stole my smile away. The Grinch was not amused.
“Romeo.