“Delicious,” he mumbled while chewing.
“When are they supposed to bring him in?” I asked Maverick as I continued to feed Dallas shrimp, not caring about how full his cheeks were becoming.
“An hour or so once he starts to wake up from the anesthesia,” Maverick said as he came over and opened his mouth for a shrimp of his own.
“So what should we do with our free time?” Zeke said, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.
An hour later, the nurses wheeled Brooks in, finding all of us snoring lightly after eating our weight in pasta. Me in the bed with Dallas, Maverick on the pull out couch and Zeke awkwardly between two chairs.
I stirred amongst their snores, sitting up as soon as I heard the nurses chuckle amongst themselves.
“Hey,” I whispered when I saw his groggy smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’m floating,” he told me with a little giggle.
“I see they gave you the good stuff,” I said, glancing up at the nurses who nodded with a pair of smirks.
“Is it all right if I lie with him?”
“Yes as long as it’s not the side with the stitches,” the older nurse said as she lifted his arm, creating a spot for me. “Try not to jostle him too much, but it’ll be good for his recovery to have his omega close.”
“Isn’t that an old wives’ tale?” the younger nurse asked, her brows furrowing with disbelief.
“I’ve seen miracles happen with omegas and their alphas, young lady, and he’s already out of the woods,” the older nurse quipped as she pulled the blanket up around us and handed me the call button. “Just give this a press if you need anything, honey.”
Then they were gone and I was laying with my very loopy alpha.
“You smell so good,” Brooks said, giving me a silly smile.
“You smell like a hospital,” I told him honestly, scrunching my nose as I tried to find any of his honey mead scent.
“Hmmm,” he hummed, clumsily pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “You know I looove you and I can’t wait to chase you around in that hood.”
I laughed, laying my head on his chest, trying to be mindful of not putting my full weight on him. “I love you too, though thechasing will have to come after you’ve fully recovered. Now go to sleep.”
“I don’t wanna,” Brooks said stubbornly. “What if you’re gone when I wake up?”
“I won’t be.”
“Do you promise?” he said and when I looked up into his eyes I found them full of fear.
I lifted my head and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I promise. Besides, I actually can’t go anywhere, your tubes have me trapped here with you unless the nurses come and free me.”
That seemed to calm him down because soon the alpha went limp underneath me and his heavily lidded eyes drooped as he fell asleep.
I snuggled in close as the soft sounds of the news anchors on the television lulled me off into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Thirty Nine
White House — Washington D.C.
Four Months Later…
“Happy six months of sobriety!” Farrow Holloway said as he held his frosted glass of lemonade aloft and the rest of the table followed suit.
The man of the hour, Carter Holloway, shyly held his own glass up. “Thanks Grandpa, though you guys didn’t have to do this for me.”
It had been four months since election day, a day that I remembered because we had sat together in that hospital room and watched Lennon as she paced in much the same manner as her mother as the electoral votes slowly rolled in.
