“Thank you,” I whisper.
He pats my shoulder, and I pull him in for a hug. We embrace quickly before he pulls away.
“Now, that asshole needs to do the right thing.”
I raise my hand. “Can you first acknowledge that he didn’t know and therefore isn’t an asshole?”
“He’s an asshole by proxy,” Hudson grumbles. “Besides, now he does know, so I expect him to step up.”
As nice as it would be, I have few expectations. I’m just not sure Ryan’s capable of doing much at the moment, even if I like the idea of it. The image of him and Noah playing together runs through my mind, drawing a wistful sigh from me.
He needs to recover and heal himself first. “He’s in a bad way, Hudson. Go easy on him.”
Hudson grunts noncommittally.
“Please promise you won’t go all medieval on his ass and insist he acknowledge his son. He’s got a lot to process, and he’ll need some time.”
Hudson sighs. “Fine. But don’t expect me to be cool with this straight away. I need time to process, too.”
“Fine.”
He shakes his head. “You’ve got a soft heart under that armor, you know.”
“Don’t I know it,” I mutter.
18
RYAN
The shrill ring of an alarm wakes me with a jolt. I fumble for the clock on the bedside table and wince as my stump knocks against the mattress.
My hand goes for the bottle of pills, and it isn’t there. As I pull myself up to sitting, everything comes rushing back to me.
The pills, which I threw across the room.
Paige and Noah, my son.
Setting the alarm so I wouldn’t miss my physio appointment again.
I grit through the pain as I pull the wheelchair close to the bed. My pills lie scattered on the floor, but I’m done numbing the pain. I may never be the man Paige deserves, but if I want to get to know my son, I can’t wallow in bed all day.
Thinking of my son is enough motivation for me to heave myself into the wheelchair even though my arms tremble.
By the time I reach the shower, I’m sweating. It takes me twenty minutes to wash myself and another twenty to get my clothes on and make some toast.
There’s a long-handled brush and shovel in the kitchen, and I sweep up the pills that haven’t rolled under the fridge and dump them in the trash.
Though every move hurts, it’s time I faced up to my new reality and got the fuck on with it.
My eyes squint in the bright sunlight as I roll out of my room. I wheel down the path, trying to remember where the treatment rooms are. The sides of the path are lined with swaying long grasses. All Paige’s work, I’m guessing.
It puts a smile on my face to think of her designing and planting the garden. I hold out my hand and let the tops of the grass tickle my palm as I roll past.
Paige is just how I remember her and yet utterly different. She has the same determination, the same strength, but her life is nowhere near how I imagined it would be.
She showed me a vulnerable side at the hotel, but there’s nothing vulnerable about the woman who stormed into my room yesterday.
That Paige was all fire and confidence, with zero tolerance for my bullshit. And it was hot as hell. The way her eyes blazed at me, the way her hips swayed, and the confidence she carried as she moved about my room. It stirred something inside me, and it stirred me below the belt too. I didn’t even know if my cock was working anymore. But Paige reminded me I’m a man.
