“Man.” Mach gripped Knox’s shoulder. “I know this feeling. That the world just vomited in your face, and you’ve somehow got to figure out what to do next.” He gripped harder. “You just keep fucking going. That’s what you do. You do it for Irina. You do it for us. You do it for you. But you just keep fucking going.”
“I can’t keep going without her.” Knox hated himself for it, but he needed her. Even a phone call a day was enough to get him through. If that’s all they could have, that’s all they could have. He’d live with it.
But he couldn’t live without her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
IRINA
Funny thing,falling off a mountain hurt like a sonofabitch. The clip came loose, and she tried to fix it, but she should’ve just let the other guy do it, because then everything was upside down.
Even if the mountain was only a set, and the fall was “only” sixteen feet or so, and they’d had an inflatable bag set up in the unlikely event of a fall…they hadn’t expected her to go headfirst.
Leave it to her to take things over the top.
She blinked, then stopped doing that because it hurt worse.
This must be a dream because Knox was right there in her space. Hold up, were his eyes wet? Dream Knox wasn’t sobbing, but there was a definite sheen at his eyelashes. That wasn’t right. She closed her eyes to lessen the headache.
“Irina.” Real or not, Knox’s voice was a balm against the headache from hell. “Wake up. We need you to wake up.”
“Hurts,” she said, keeping her eyes closed.
Dream Knox’s hand found hers. That was nice.
Someone else said something, but she didn’t really care because it wasn’t Knox.
“I know it hurts,” he said, seeming to understand she was blocking out everyone but him. “But can you open your eyes for me?” he asked, rubbing at the soft spot between her thumb and index finger.
“No.” She wanted to turn her head, but had a feeling that would hurt even more than the blinking thing. “You aren’t supposed to be here because you’re in Europe. Probably onstage still.”
“Irina?” his unmistakable voice slipped through the brain fog. “I’m right here with you. You had a fall. I need you to wake up now.”
“You’re not real.” She shifted on the bed, but that seriously hurt. “Knox is on a different continent.”
“I’m here where I need to be,” he said. “With you.”
“Okay,” she said, still keeping her eyes closed. “You can stay.”
There was some murmuring and talking. She didn’t like the metallic taste in her mouth at all.
“I’m going to sing for you,” Dream Knox said. “That okay?”
“Uh-huh.” Actually, that sounded really nice.
So he did. The metallic taste got stronger as she slipped into black bliss while he sang her song about a girl with eye color that changed as often as her hair color. She smiled, because even though she was embarrassed as all hell, her head pulsed like she’d fallen off a mountain, and opening her eyes hurt—Dream Knox was there with her.
The days after she woke up the first time stopped sucking so badly because it turned out Knox was the real deal. And he did his best to keep her comfortable. Anytime anyone got near her, he growled just enough to ensure they didn’t get on her nerves.
Her parents came all the time. She sort of recalled something about Knox’s parents showing up, too.
Then there was some issue she’d heard about too many guests, but whatever Knox had said or done nipped that in the bud because Courtney, Becca, Terri, Irina’s parents, and Knox were all there on the regular.
The guys went back to the tour and Knox had a sub for a replacement until she was better. She didn’t like that. Didn’t like that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, all because she’d screwed up her clip and taken a tumble.
She was definitely out of service for at least a few weeks more. Brain rest after a concussion of this magnitude was apparently not optional.
Today, though, it was just her and Knox. No television, no cell phone, no books, just her alone with her brain and her husband. Which left her a lot of time to think. Think about Knox and how she’d developed serious attachment. Her attachment to him that brought him all the way across the world when his dreams and his job were on the other side.
