I’m having my first fight with the love of my life.
“I’m nothandlingshit. I’m helping.”
“Without asking if Ineedhelp.”
My phone rings again, and this time I answer the call.
“Hey, this isn’t a great ti—”
“Put me on speaker. I’m only saying this once.”
My eyes fly to Willow’s as I put Gideon on speaker.
“We can both hear you, Gid.”
He clears his throat, and now I notice that he’s breathing kind of hard. “I need you both to know that I’m okay.”
Willow’s eyes immediately fill with tears, and she reaches for me. I pull her against me.
“What’s going on?” I ask him before I plant my lips on the top of Willow’s head.
“I was shot today, butI’m okay.”
“Oh, God,” Willow cries, covering her mouth with her hand. “Where? How? Gideon, if you die, I will kill you.”
“I’m fine,” he repeats, softer now. “Hey, Wills, don’t cry.”
Shit, evenI’mtearing up.
“What happened?” I ask him.
“It’s classified.”
“Fuck that,” Willow interrupts. “We’re your family, and I demand to know what in the fucking hell is going on. Did that little brat cause this? Gideon—”
“Stop.” His voice is harder now. “I’m in the hospital, and I’ve had surgery.”
Christ.
“I’ll be in the air in less than an hour,” I tell him. “I’ll charter a plane, and I’ll be there late tonight.”
“No. For fuck’s sake, will you two stop panicking and listen to me? What part of ‘I’m okay’ did you not understand?”
“It was overshadowed by the whole ‘I was shot’ thing,” Willow informs him before she buries her face in my chest.
“If you think I’m not coming there, you don’t know me at all.”
“You won’t be able to get in here,” he says with a sigh. “It was two shots in the leg. They missed the important stuff. I can’t tell you where we were or who did the shooting. I’ve already had surgery on the leg, and now it’s just recovery time and physical therapy so I can get back to work.”
“You should come home to recover. I’ll come get you.”
Gideon sighs. “Listen, I’m about to pass out from some really good drugs that I tried to refuse but Nurse Ratched insisted on giving me. I’ll stay here to recover. I have the best doctors and physical therapists in the world here. I’ll be back to work in less than a month.”
“And you’ll check in with us every day?” Willow asks.
“Of course.”
“I love you,” Willow says into my phone. “I love you so much, Gid. Don’t ever do this to me again.”
