His smile was brighter than it had been before he left to get food, there was that at least. “I’m good honey. You?”
He glanced down the hallway. “Now the little guy has gone, I’m good.”
“Gone for good?” I asked hopefully.
“We’ll see and if he hasn’t we’ll be more persuasive next time, isn’t that right guys?”
“Too damn right,” Cole agreed. “I showed him.”
As three of my four favorite men came back into my room, I felt a sense of peace, despite the pain in my side and arm. I looked at each of them, my heart all in one room, and I knew it was where I belonged.
Chapter 51
Here Comes The Sun – The Beatles
Wilder
The weariness I was feeling was bone deep, but that was what happened when you’d barely slept for seven nights straight because your girlfriend was in the hospital. It would have been three or four, but Tally spiked a fever when her wound got infected. I was ready to pull her out of there and put her in a facility that knew how to keep their patients safe. Nash brought me down off the ledge, though, and said it was just one of those things that could happen anywhere. It seemed, however, me and Tally’s mom were on the same wavelength. As soon as she’d been told what had happened she did, as the guys said,suggested getting air lifted from their cruise. Having talked her down she instead called the hospital every single day. When Tally got the infection she insisted that she be moved to somewhere cleaner. Liam took charge of that call.
However, it didn’t matter any longer, Tally was now home, on her sofa free of the antiseptic smell that seemed to cling to you. Propped up with pillows and covered in a thick wool blanket that she was complaining was too warm.
“Don’t care, Brownie,” I told her, standing in front of her with my arms folded over my chest. “You’re keeping it on.”
“I’m fine, Wilder. I have no fever, and the doctor said my wound is healing nicely.” She lifted her arm which was now in a bright pink plaster cast, which had replaced the temporary blue one she’d originally had. She hated it. “The only thing holding me back from going back to work is this.”
“No fucking way.” I pointed at her. “You are not going back to work until that is out of the plaster. Dr. Bruce said if your physical therapy goes well that could be six weeks instead of eight. But, until then, you stay here on this damn sofa.”
“You’re not the boss of me. Gunner is and if he says he’s happy for me to go back to work, even if it’s in the office to help Ruth, then I will.” I bit back the smile that the determined jut of her chin elicited and listened as she continued to rant. “And you are not driving me to physical therapy, I can manage with one hand and if I can’t I’ll get an Uber. You need to go back to work, you can’t rely on everyone else, and now you’re a man down since Glenn…well we all know what happened with Glenn. If you think that I’m going to sit?—”
“Damn it, Brownie, you talk far too much.”
With one hand on the back of the sofa, the other fisting into the seat cushion, I took her mouth with mine, encouraging her to open up. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed kissing her until her taste flooded my tongue, until her fingers dug into my neck playing with the hair at the nape. As I increased the intensity of the kiss, her fingernails started to scratch, her fingertips grabbing and pulling at the ends. My dick started to go hard, and I knew I had to pull the plug.
“No,” she whined as I pushed off the sofa. She grabbed the front of my t-shirt. “I need you, honey. Please.”
“Nuh uh. Not for a while.”
“And how long is a while?” She pouted. “It better not be until I get this cast off. That’s going to be weeks, maybe even months.”
“Be glad you didn’t have to have pins or a cage, that it was a clean break.” She was damn lucky that Petey hadn’t trampled her and shattered the bone. The doctor felt it was more likely the fall that had caused the fracture than Petey. A shiver ran down my spine every time I thought about the what ifs. If I’d lost her.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Tally asked, reaching up to cup my cheek.
I shook my head of the demons and my waking nightmare—images of that bull charging toward her, of almost losing everything that mattered. “Nothing, I’m good.”
“I’m okay. I promise.”
The sweet sound of her soft voice, the smell of burning wood mixed with the lavender of the essential oils that Felicia had sent over with a burner, all served to calm me. She was home. She was safe.
“I know, but it won’t stop me fussing and worrying, you know that, right?” I raised an eyebrow, daring her to argue. “And I will be putting you under house arrest until the time comes when you get that cast off.”
Tally’s mouth dropped open, but it was clear she was picking her battles because she quickly closed it.
“Now, what do you want for lunch?”
She looked me up and down and licked her lips.
Chuckling, I walked away. “Not happening, Brownie,” I called over my shoulder. “Besides, your brothers will be here soon, and I do not want them seeing anything that could get me punched.”
