“My head hurts. But I was mostly worried about you.”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t know that yet.”
“Maybe I can be of some help with that,” a voice said, making both of us jolt.
Seeing a doctor standing there, Gracie scrambled off the bed, her face going red.
“Sorry, I was…”
“Keeping the patient warm,” the doctor, an older man with soft green eyes, said. He gave her a smile. “Staying warm is very important for recovery. I would like to examine your husband now.”
Husband?
My heart lurched.
In a surprised, then confused, then interested way.
My gaze slid to Gracie, who was holding her hand pointedly to her chest, two rings sitting on the third finger of her left hand.
That was how she got in.
Saying she was my wife.
And with both of us fucked up, they probably just assumed we’d been together when shit had gone down.
“Okay. Sure. I’ll… step out. Get some coffee.”
“Get me one too.”
“Can he have coffee?” she asked.
“We don’t usually recommend it. But I won’t be watching him to make sure he doesn’t have it.” He actually offered Gracie a little wink.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, giving me, then the doctor, a small smile before heading out.
“I hear she has been here with you for hours. The nurses didn’t have the heart to tell her to get off the bed.”
He went over the spiel then, telling me about the surgery, about my outlook, about my recovery.
I was stuck in the ICU for at least another day before I was moved to a floor. But I was told that from there, they’d be quick to release me.
“Get home and let that sweet wife look after you,” he said, giving me a nod before heading out.
I expected Gracie to come right back in.
But it was someone else entirely whose frame swallowed up the door.
Duke.
And that look on his face said he knew it all.
Shit.
“Look,” I said before he could lash into me, “I’ve got no excuse—”
“No excuse,” he repeated, stepping closer. And, fuck, if that gait didn’t look predatory. Like he might suffocate me in my hospital bed. And I couldn’t even blame him. “For saving my daughter’s life?” he asked, head cocking to the side.
