Cal gaped at him before whipping to face me.
“See! He’s trying to get me out of the picture so he can make a move on you!”
“Callum. Stop it,” I snapped, suddenly no longer amused. I was having flashbacks to when my father had been diagnosed with his heart condition.
Hisdoctor also said to make sure he didn’t do anything strenuous. Clearly, we hadn’t taken his orders seriously enough.
My gut churned with unease as I watched Cal fire snarky barbs at Dr. Callahan while he injected the anesthetic next to his bullet wound. I remembered the day I found Cal helping that young girl process her grief on the bench in the garden. He’d reminded me so much of my father…
My blood ran cold at the possibility of history repeating itself, and my entire body locked up with anxiety.
I made a mental note to get detailed notes from Dr. Callahan onexactlywhat Cal could and couldn’t do while he was in recovery.
Watching my beautiful psycho fight the doctor at every turn, I knew I had my work cut out for me. But I refused to lose another person I loved to something like a health complication. Not if I could avoid it.
Wait.
Someone I loved?
Still watching Cal grumpily interact with the amused physician, the anxiety in my chest increased by several degrees at the thought.
Did I love Cal?
Did I even know what love was? I had never been in a relationship before… I didn’t even know if we were officially dating!
I bit my lip, purposely slowing my breathing down to prevent what felt like an impending panic attack.
I couldn’tlovesomeone that was so fucking high risk. I couldn’t live through losing someone like that again.
Once was enough…
But when Cal turned those gorgeous brown eyes on me, all my reasons for pushing this feeling away disappeared.
His expression changed from annoyance to concern the moment he noticed that I was upset.
“You okay, ginger snap?” he asked, his tone suddenly soft and tender. The now achingly familiar and comforting sound of his voice rolled over me, and I realized I didn’t really have a choice.
The damage was done.
I was in love with this beautiful, dark, broken angel that had forced his way into my life, and there was no going back now.
The only thing I could do was try to keep him alive.
And that was what I was going to fucking do.
Cal
You would thinka term likebedrest would be more fun. Turns out, there was less stress onbedand more stress onrest… and it wasboring.
Also, my new arch nemesis, Dr. Callahan, relentlessly reminded Ryan that I was still not ready for any ‘strenuous activity’every time he came by. Which really was just code for no sex.
Ryan wouldn’t even let me fuckingblow him!It was complete bullshit. Almost two weeks had passed before Ryan even let me get up and walk around the house. He brought me a wheelchair which I threatened to douse with gasoline if he didn’t get it the fuck away from me, so we settled on a single crutch, despite the fact that it made me feel like a fucking hobbling knob.
“Come on, there’s nothing hot about crutches, ginger snap. Couldn’t you get me a boss-ass cane? One with, like, a wolf head handle that hides a secret knife or some shit?” I asked at the end of my second week, practically locked in Ryan’s room. Lex Luthor,ahem,I meanDr. Callahan,had finally given me the green light to have free range of Fairview. I’d been allowed doctor-mandated walks up and down the hall for the last week, but they were always supervised, and no stairs were allowed.
Healingsucked.
Ryan handed me a Skrillex T-shirt, and I pulled it roughly over my head. I was feelinga lotbetter, which wasn’t helping with my boredom. This was the longest I had gone in my adult lifewithout murdering or fucking someone, and I was losing my damn mind.
