Gabe:Hey, I didn’t hear back from you. Hope everything is okay. Scott is doing a little better now, and so am I. He’s asleep, but we talked, and we want you to finish your weekend before you come out here. We will be fine until then. Can’t wait to see you. Love ya.
I text back that I love him too, and that I will call them both tomorrow morning. I hit send as Cameron’s number pops up on my caller ID.
“Hey, how’s Jalen doing?” I ask.
“He’s doing well, all things considered. I feel a lot better now that I’m looking at him with my own eyes.”
“I would say text me a picture, but that’s probably weird.”
He chuckles. “Hang on, I’ll switch us to FaceTime.”
I look down at my outfit as he sends the request. “I’m a mess. It might derail his recovery if he sees me.”
“I’ll keep you facing me and just flip the camera. I don’t think he wants to be on for long, either, but he has something that he wants to say to you.”
I look at the pending video request again, feeling nervous about what his brother might want to say to me, but click accept. Once we switch over, my heart skips a beat as Cameron’s face fills up the screen.
“Hey,” I say, still floored that this lovely, caring, and insanely handsome man is all mine.
“Hey,” he says back, with equal appreciation.
“Is Jalen really up for letting me see him? I don’t want to impose.”
Cameron puts our call on mute while he speaks briefly to his brother, and then he unmutes and turns the camera around.
“Jalen!” I exclaim, completely understanding the relief that Cameron was describing after being able to see him with my own eyes.
“Hey, Drew,” he says, wincing as he sits up a little higher in his hospital bed.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I got shot.” He winces again after he chuckles at his own joke.
“Well, I hope that Cameron is taking good care of you.”
“He is, although I’m not going to get any sleep because he insists on staying here, so he is going to be snoring all night without his CPAP.”
Cameron lets out a stifled cough from behind the camera, and it takes every ounce of willpower not to glance over to the contraption that I already saw sitting on his bedside when I first came into the room.
“I have a deviated septum,” Cameron says to defend himself after the awkward silence, earning an eyeroll from Jalen. “You know, with Jalen feeling this ornery, I might need to come home sooner,” Cameron adds. Jalen chimes in that he thinks that’s a great idea but quickly backpedals when he sees what I can only assume is sadness on Cameron’s face.
“In all seriousness, I appreciate you staying with me,” Jalen says, then turns his gaze to Cameron’s phone to address me. “Drew, I wanted to thank you, as well. If you hadn’t come back up the stairs and yelled Madeline’s name at the last second, I don’t think I’d be here right now.”
Cameron angles the camera so that I can see his face, too, as he nods in agreement. “You really did save the day, Drew. You’re our hero.”
Jalen snorts at his brother’s sappy words, and my arm starts to feel heavy from holding up the phone so close to my face, so I readjust to sit cross-legged and rest my hand on top of my knee.“You’re both welcome, although I think the doctor had it right, and our guardian angels were just working overtime tonight.”
Cameron flips the camera so that it is facing him again instead of Jalen, then he does a one-eighty so that his back is to his brother. He lowers the phone as his gaze rakes over my face and down to the shirt I am borrowing. I swallow as he takes a deep breath that visibly makes his shoulders rise and fall, and wonder if he somehow knows how much of his body wash that I used, or if the shirt I chose has some sort of sentimental value that I was unaware of.
I start to apologize, although it seems odd that I would have offended him in some way since he told me to make myself at home, until he interrupts. “Drew. Are you wearing one of my T-shirts right now?”
I look down at it and smile as it becomes clear that he is not mad, but glad. I press my lips together to contain my grin. “Yes.”
His eyes bounce around all four corners of the screen, and then he lowers his voice even further. “And you’re in my bed?”
“Well, I took a shower, and then I just sat down for a second. So technically, I’m notinyour bed. Justonit.”
He drags his free hand slowly down his face, and his eyes return to mine with a look that makes my stomach do a flip. “We’re going to need to reenact this exact scenario when I come home, please.” His jaw feathers as if he is committing what he sees in the camera to memory.
