Holy shit.
She looks peaceful, like this is exactly where she belongs… because it is.
In a way, it almost feels surreal how the last twenty-four hours went down. The quiet settles around us and I listen to the sound of her breathing while she’s still asleep, letting my mind run through last night.
When Gabe pulled up in front of the hospital, I was already out the door before he put it in park. It’s a wonder I didn’t fall face first onto the blacktop and end up breaking another bone.
They were already expecting me and had a bay waiting, but I only had one thing on my mind. Jade. I needed to see her. I needed to make sure she was okay—and thank God she was.
I don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t been.
I refused to leave her room until she was discharged, and even after that, I insisted she come and wait with me until I was able to leave. She didn’t argue. She explained POTS and what it means moving forward while we waited for the X-ray results.
Jade stirs again, pulling me from the remnants of last night. Her eyelashes flutter and she lifts a lid, cracking it open as she squints at me.
“Are you watching me sleep?”
A smile cracks across my lips. “What if I am?”
She smiles back, her arm tightening around me as she lets her eyelids fall shut again. “I can’t stop you.”
“I’ll stop if you don’t like it.”
She shakes her head, burying her face against my chest. “No, I do.”
“I was afraid I’d wake up this morning and last night would have been all a dream,” I say after a moment, my chest constricting. “You’re still mine, right, Sunny?”
She lifts her head, her hand drifting over my bare chest as she plants it over my heart. “I am.” She turns and plants her chin against me. “I think I have been for a while.”
“So, last night wasn’t a dream?” I ask, even though my throbbing hand confirms it was in fact very real.
“No.” Her expression is soft and warm, the love spilling from her eyes. “It wasn’t a dream.”
“Good,” I breathe a sigh of relief as I tuck her hair behind her ear and run my hand down the length of her soft locks. “I love you, Sunny.”
“I love you too, Playboy.”
I tilt my head to the side, my stomach knotting. I know it’s a playful name, but the meaning of it doesn’t feel the same now. “Can we find something else for you to call me other than ‘Playboy’?”
Her eyebrows cinch closer together. “Why? I didn’t know you didn’t like it.”
“It’s not that I don’t like it… I just don’t like what it stands for.”
A tender smile lifts her lips. “It doesn’t stand for how you’re taking it.” She traces invisible patterns on my chest with her fingertips. “You’re flirty and fun. Mischievous and playful. It’s a good thing, not a bad one.”
Her words sink into my mind, chasing away the image I had tied to the term of endearment. “Well, in that case, I think I like it when you call me it.”
“I’ll call you whatever you want, baby.”
I press my lips into a flat line. “Not that one.”
“Babe?”
“Too generic.”
She laughs. “What about… my love? Or darling”
“Hm. Not as bad, although it feels like something my grandma would say.”
