“An old friend, and you must be?”
His smile made me swallow hard. I wanted to shrink as he stepped closer, but I forced myself to hold my ground. Some part of me knew I couldn’t let him get anywhere near Carter.
“Sarafina Devereux, I believe?” he said, slowly coming to his own conclusion as he removed the toothpick that had been hanging out of his mouth.
In the silence between us, his eyes dragged down. Whether he was checking me out or assessing me, looking for something, I couldn’t tell. Either way, I didn’t like it one bit.
With the hair on my arms raised, I didn’t bother sticking my hand out. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” I didn’t like being in the same room with the man, let alone voluntarily touching him.
His features were sharp, eyes dark, and everything about him felt dangerous as he huffed a deep laugh. “I suppose not, though from what I know, that one has a real soft spot for you.” He nodded to Carter.
The man still didn’t bother introducing himself, and that’s when I noticed he wasn’t wearing a visitor badge. I inched towards the nurse’s call button as my heart started to race with fear.
The button was on the other side of Carter’s body; there was no way for me to reach it discreetly, and I got the sense that if I dove for it, I wouldn’t get there first. “How do you know Carter exactly?” My voice came out too strained, giving away my nerves.
“We have an understanding.” The man said with a predatory tilt of his head, and I wondered what the hell that was supposed to mean. “At least we will.” He gave me a smile like the Cheshire Cat, and I realized he knew exactly what I was doing.
His gaze suddenly flicked to the monitor as Carter’s heartbeat spiked, and I whirled, shocked to see Carter’s fingers twitch. I slid my hand into his. “Carter?” I breathed, hope exploding in my chest.
Eyes still closed, he weakly murmured something inaudible.
I leaned over the bed, careful of his IV. “I’m here, baby. I’m right here.” I took his face gently in both hands. “Carter, it’s Sara.Can you say that again?” His eyes remained closed, and he murmured again. “I can’t understand you, but I’m here.” I tried again, my excitement growing. He was waking up!
“My strawberry’s.” He mumbled out so quietly, I wasn’t sure if I’d heard him right.
“You want strawberries?” I asked excitedly, knowing I’d bring him an entire truckload of them, but he didn’t respond again.
I suddenly remembered to hit the nurse’s call button, and that’s when I realized the stranger was long gone. Thank God.
“He’s awake, he woke up.” I was buzzing with excitement and hope as Andie, the nurse I’d gotten to know a little bit, came in. “I mean, kind of.” I wrung my hands. “What do we do?”
Andie smiled warmly and started checking his vitals. “Now, we wait.”
Hours later, when Carter had finally come to, I was ready to put him right back under.
His first coherent words to me were utter delusion. “We need to break up.” And my first thought was,ohfuck, he has brain damage.
We were going to be like that movie, 30 First Dates or whatever. Only he was Drew Barrymore… which I supposed made me Adam Sandler. Which was honestly sort of fitting, but he was alive and I loved him, so I’d do whatever it took, for as long as it took.
Concerned, I reached for him, but Carter withdrew, a hard, cold look in his expression that made my stomach sink. “You’ve been through a lot.” I started quietly, “And you don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I do know what I’m saying.” He stared at the wall behind me, refusing to look at me with those purple-ringed eyes. “More than you know.”
“Carter, look at me.” I tried gently.
His gaze dropped to his hands. “I’ve made up my mind. It’s over. We’re done.”
Something in me erupted, overriding the panic. I was sleep deprived, I’d missed lunch, my emotions were so strung out I didn’t even know how I’d kept it together, and now this?
Fury didn’t even begin to describe it. I’d been at his bedside day and night, worried sick. This stupid idiot had nearly gotten himself killed, and now he was pulling this shit?!
“If you wanted to get rid of me, you should have stayed comatose.” I snapped angrily as Carter blinked, his greasy hair sticking in every direction. “We love each other, remember?! So you’re not getting rid of me when I don’t even know if it’s you or the brain damage talking.”
His jaw flexed for the longest second of my life as I gaped at him. “That was before. This is now.” He said firmly.
“Are you kidding me?” I demanded. “Are you seriously trying to break up with me right now?”
“I’m nottryinganything. Ididbreak up with you, and you’re just going to have to accept that.” Carter bit out so cooly that I wanted to strangle him with his own IV tube. We were in a hospital. They’d already brought him back once. They could do it again.
