“Badger?” Katy suggested.
“Grizzly. He’s all big paws and growls.” She grinned at Katy’s sputtering laugh. “Have you considered a broody, tech-obsessed dingleberry to snuggle with?”
“Did you just liken William to a dingleberry? Oh my God, I wish someone had recorded that so I could listen to it every time he ignores me. Seriously though, I doubt snuggling is in the cards. He hasn’t looked me in the eyes for two years,” she sighed.
Rowan sighed too. “Life would be so much easier if men were as relationship savvy as women.”
“I have to pee,” Katy whined.
“Oh God, me too. Do you think if we leaned on each other, we could hobble to the bathroom?”
“Here’s a better idea. I slide back into the wheelchair, and you sit on my lap, and Iwheelus to the bathroom.”
“Ahh, the brains of this group, I see. Fine. Hurry though, all those IV fluids at the hospital have made this a 911 situation.” With a bit of rolling and twisting, Katy settled in the chair. Rowan had just placed her hands on the chair’s armrest and was pushing off the bed when they both realized at the same time that the chair brake wasn’t engaged.
As the chair made an abrupt reverse, Rowan was dragged partially off the bed. Unfortunately, Katy sat forward to grab onto Rowan’s shoulders, which tipped the chair forward. Katy fell to the ground, pulling Rowan the rest of the way off the bed and onto the floor beside her.
They looked at each other from their now prone positions and burst out laughing. “So help me God, if I pee on myself again, I will never forgive you,” Katy gasped out between hysterical shrieks.
The door burst open, and Hugh and William looked like they were fighting each other over who got to go through the door first, cursing and elbowing. Hugh won. They stopped abruptly when they saw her and Katy lying on the floor with giant smiles on their faces.
Katy broke the silence. “I see a Grizzly.”
“I see a DG.” At the reminder of the whole dingleberry comment, a fresh round of giggles assailed the two floor huggers.
“Row?” Hugh’s concern instantly sobered her.
“I’m fine, babe. Honest. We needed to go to the bathroom and decided to try to make it on our own. We fell off the bed?—”
“You.Youfell off the bed,” Katy interrupted.
“Since you and I are both on the floor, your correction is noted and discarded. Hugh, please help us up.” He looked grim-faced. His go-to look when he was feeling...well, anything. She was about to put his mind at ease when her Becky rushed in.
28
5 MINUTES EARLIER
“Katy should already be in bed,” Stanton repeated for maybe the fifteenth time.
“Maybe she and Rowan needed to talk some things out. Have you fucking thought of that?” Hugh was on edge himself. He needed to hold Rowan against his chest and feel their hearts beat against one another. He needed the reminder that she was safe.
“Yes, I have, actually, asshole. I just…she hasn’t…Jesus, she hasn’t spoken one word to me,” he admitted, looking crushed.
“Think about it from her end. I understand you didn’t know she hadn’t truly cheated on you, but you admitted you divorced her without ever talking to her. You never asked herwhy. She knew she hadn’t really cheated, but she also knows you didn’t love her enough to find out why she might have.”
Stanton took Hugh’s words and swallowed them. He didn’t deny them or make excuses. He sat heavily on one of the chairs in the hallway outside Rowan’s room, where they’d been camped out for a while now.
“I know you’re right. Until this whole kidnapping thing happened, and because of my fucking work, I didn’t realize, or I didn’t let myself realize, how badly I took her for granted. Shewas someone I loved and that I always felt would be there. Had she really cheated, there would have been no one to blame but myself.
“And yet, even after the divorce, I still felt like she was my wife, and even though I threw her away, I still wanted her to acknowledge that she’s mine. She never dated after the divorce. Not that I know of, anyway. Christ, what if she did? Rowan was the first woman I was serious about, but even then?—”
Hugh cut him off. “Don’t.” He couldn’t elaborate more. His jaw was on lockdown, and his fists were clenched. Another man casually discussing dating Rowan didn’t work for him. Between Delton shooting her and this kidnapping, Hugh was feeling on edge, unbalanced, and volatile.
“Right,” William grimaced. “I just wish I knew if I had a chance of getting her back.”
“Have you considered talking to her instead of skulking outside her room? Yes, before you ask, everyone has noticed. My boys told me she accepted an invitation to Dublin for the holidays, and your kids did, too.”
“I heard that,” he groaned, tipping his head back to rest against a wall.
