With a huff, I chuckle and kiss her again. “No way, that shit’s all for you.”
Her face gets serious, and she says, “I wondered if you would throw everything away when I left.”
She doesn’t like to show her vulnerability, I’ve learned that about her, so her need for reassurance from me right now doesn’t go unnoticed. I slide my thumb across her lip and smile. “Did you think I was going to let you go that easy?”
Her eyes move between mine for a moment before she drags her fingers across my beard, over my jaw. “Don’t.”
I shake my head and kiss her again. “Not a chance.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
RHYS
I HATEhospitals. It doesn’t matter which hospital, they all smell like antiseptic and grief.
After my mom got sick, we spent a lot of time doing tests, and then when she got worse, there were a lot of overnight stays.
I’ll never forget our last conversation. She was in hospice, we all knew she didn’t have long, and I was by her bed holding her hand.
She wasn’t even sixty yet, she was just starting to get gray streaks in her black hair, but only on the left side of her face. Before her diagnosis, she looked much younger than she was, and she would always laugh and say that the Garcia women were known for looking younger than they were.
Then she would tease me and say that when I finally gave her grandchildren, she wouldn’t look like a grandma.
Her heart just wasn’t as strong as she was.
That last day, she was telling me goodbye in her own way, telling me she didn’t have any regrets and that I was her pride and joy. She squeezed my hand and laughed when she said, “I even love you more than I love my cello.”
It had become a joke between her and my father that she loved her cello more than him. It wasn’t true, but their little jabs at each other were just a testament to the strength of their marriage.
She closed her eyes for a long time, and I was getting worried, but she opened them again and rolled her head toward me. “That’s not true, I have one regret, I won’t be able to hold my grandchildren.” She squeezed my hand again. “But I’ll be there, mijo, even God himself won’t stop me from being there when your children are born.”
The door opening pulls me out of my thoughts, and they roll Conway into his room. When I got here, the nurse told me they had taken him for some scans, so I sat in his room and waited.
I decided to stop in on my way to work. My morning started earlier than usual when I woke up to Kinley straddling me, her soft lips on my chest and neck. Her sexual appetite is off the charts, and I almost wondered if she’s trying to kill me.
We ended up going two rounds before I even got out of bed, and I missed my workout window. But I got my cardio.
At least Conway is able to open both eyes today. When I saw him a few days ago, one eye was swollen shut.
“Abbot, good to see ya, man.” He says and lifts his chin.
I stand up and wait for the nurses to finish getting him settled before I talk. His bed is surrounded by straps and pulleys for his broken legs and arms, and it takes forever to get him all strapped in.
One of the nurses keeps looking at him and smiling as shebends around him, probably bending a little more than she needs to.
As she walks out the door, she stops and pokes her head around. “Call me if you need anything, hun.”
He winks at her before she disappears around the door, and it closes.
Cocking my brow at him, I huff a laugh. “I see you’re still able to put on the charm, even when you look like a black and blue punching bag.” Conway has always been a ladies’ man and swears as long as he can pull in two or three girls a weekend, he’ll continue to be single.
His eyes slide in my direction, and the fucker smiles the biggest shit-eating grin. “Nah, she just saw the size of my dick when she gave me a sponge bath, and she’s wanting to climb on.”
I don’t even smile. “You’re shittin’ me.”
“I shit you not, my friend.” He looks at the door and lowers his voice. “Yesterday, I got a hand job. Today, she blew me and swallowed every damn drop, it was fucking heaven, man. As she was getting me situated, she said she might climb on tomorrow. So come back tomorrow afternoon and I’ll let you know.”
Shaking my head, I pull the chair up next to his bed. “It’s like a fucking high school around here.”
