Page 45 of Professor Next Door

I wasn’t upset, I knew he was just emotional because of Galen’s condition. I turned to the doctor and stopped him from leaving.

“How long do you think it’s going to be before he wakes up?”

“It might be a few minutes, or a few hours. He’s got some pain medicine in him now, and that might keep him out for a while. Head injuries are hard to judge, Mrs. Elliot, but try not to worry too much. He’s in good hands.” The doctor gave my shoulder a slight brush and flashed a reassuring smile.

“I think he is, thank you.” I’d read the tag on his white coat, Dr. C. N. Angel. I took it as a sign. Doctor Angel.

He left and I was alone with Galen. I remembered when my grandmother got sick, how quiet her room always was, how the ventilator would whoosh as it rose and fell, the sound of her blood pressure monitor always an irritant. I’d lost her just when I needed her most, but Galen had come along and helped to heal the hole she’d left behind. And Rikki, and Amanda.

“You’ve brought me so much, Galen. You can’t leave me now.” I know what the doctor had said, and what his words had meant. He didn’t think anything more traumatic was going to happen to Galen, but he wouldn’t rule it out either. I had to remind him what he was fighting for.

“I think I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you across my lawn. The sun going down behind you made it look like you were standing in a halo.” I could hear my voice shake but kept going. “You were this blond god, or maybe an archangel. I know the rumors, I’ve heard your own admissions, but to me, you were perfect and still are, Galen. I need you to make me live life. If you leave me now, I’ll go back to the old me, too disinterested in the world to know it’s even there.”

I don’t know where the words were coming from but they flowed out as I watched his face, my eyes taking in every red mark and purple bruise.

“Rikki needs you too. Now that Sarah’s confessed she lied, the whole thing is going to fall apart. I can almost understand why your in-laws wanted Rikki now. They wanted her to take Kayla’s place, I think, to fill that hole. I watched her that day you know, Kayla’s mother, at court. She was so full of pain. She doesn’t realize that you can’t take that pain away. You have to learn to live with the loss of a loved one or you’ll drown.”

I went quiet, stunned at myself. Where was all of this coming from? My heart, I decided.

“I can’t fill the hole in Rikki’s life, or yours, but I can make it better, just as you’ve both done for me. You gave me something to embrace when I was trying to live around all of the hurts in my heart.”

This time I stopped speaking because Galen shifted in the bed, and then his beautiful eyes opened. He looked at me blearily for a moment, gave a glimmer of a smile, and then shut his eyes again. I thought he’d gone back to sleep, but he spoke.

“Love you too, Tar-wah!” He said it as Rikki did, his playful voice a whisper. Tears filled my eyes and I sobbed before I stood up to kiss his cheek.

He’d gone back to sleep, real sleep this time, not the unconscious state he’d been in.

I sat back down in my chair to wait. I’d sit in it until I was fused to it if I had to, but I wasn’t leaving him. Not when he’d said he loved me.