“You came back for me,” I rasped out.
“That woman. Is she a nurse?”
I pulled back some, looking her in the eyes.
“The one who called you Casanova,” she said.
“Annie,” I barely got out. “You heard that?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “It…made me mad.”
I grinned at her, kissing her forehead. “I don’t give a fuck why you woke up.” I could barely get the words out. “You’re here with me. You’re looking at me. That’s all that fucking matters.”
“M-m-m-ariano,” she rushed out and started to sob. She clung to me, stronger than she had before, refusing to let me go.
“Fuck,” I said. “I missed you so fucking much. Don’t ever fucking leave me again, do you hear me? You leave, I follow. We go together. Alone? Fuck that. Fuck that!”
We kissed and hugged and laughed and cried. I couldn’t fucking settle on one emotion. Throughout it all, we held each other close, refusing to let even a breath between us.
She finally pulled away some, catching her breath, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“The baby?” she whispered.
My heart shattered all over again.
Hope.
A flicker of hope sparked in her eyes.
A mirage of fire.
I cleared my throat. “The rock…” I shook my head. “This is where the doctors think too much trauma came in. You lost a lot of blood. I almost fucking lost you.”
She studied my eyes and, taking a deep breath, whispered, “Lost me.” She turned over, and her entire body trembled as she sobbed into her pillow.
It felt like I was crying tears of blood, even after they dried and she was able to come home.
Chapter 59
Mariano
My wife was with me, but she wasn’t.
She patted our dogs on their heads as they greeted her when we stepped out into the hot Grosseto sunshine, but it was absentmindedly. They seemed to sense she wasn’t herself, and after Zeus brought her the ball, and she didn’t take it, both dogs whined a little. Apollo looked at me as if to say,mamma isn’t okay.
No.
She wasn’t okay.
Neither was I.
Our moment in the hospital was life-changing.
The moments after were going to be too.
As if we were back in that space and time, I could feel her pulling away from me, and I refused to fucking allow it. Maybe I’d give her a day, a month, but sooner or later, we’d face the pain of this together, since it wasourloss to bear.
She stopped halfway to our door, her eyes going in the direction of the stables. Her stare narrowed and she squinted against the glare. She didn’t bother to put her hand up, and after a minute or two, she shook her head and walked toward our front door.
