“It’s okay,” Avery replies with a laugh, as Morgan leans down and hugs her again. A warm hand clasps my shoulder, I look over to see Marcus and Grayson behind me, staring at Avery in awe.
“Move over, Viper, it’s my turn,” Marcus says, hip checking Morgan and diving in for a hug, trying to stay away from her right side.
“Hey, dummy, have you been terrorizing the nurses?” Avery asks, petting Marcus’s floppy hair.
“Me? Of course I have,” Marcus replies, a goofy grin on his face as he stares at his best friend. Marcus and I will always be close, but I know the bond between Avery and him is one that will forever be unshakable.
“Hey, Ave,” Grayson greets as he moves Marcus out of the way and hugs her, my grip never letting go of her right hand. “How are you feeling, little fighter?”
“Good. I missed you guys,” she replies, taking in our friends, the family we have somehow acquired when ours have always let us down. The room is filled with so much laughter and chatter in the next few hours, thenurses finally have to kick them out when visiting hours are done, almost having to shove the three of them out as they promise to visit first thing tomorrow.
The doctors come and look Avery over, giving her one more day before she can head home, just to make sure the wound is closing and she gets a few more hours of fluids after the blood loss.
Avery
It’s later that night, hours after our friends have left. The hospital is quiet now, and the overhead lights are off as I try to sleep. The meds have started to wear off, and pain shoots through my body. I jerk with it, and Kane’s head shoots up, taking in my face before he hits the nurse call light.
“I’m okay,” I reassure him. He’s still sitting in the chair next to my bed, my hand clutched in his. He refused to move even when the nurses offered to bring in a bed for him to sleep in. He wouldn’t even entertain the idea of being too far from me. The bags under his eyes are so deep and purple my heart breaks a little to know what was going through his head in the hours after it happened.
The events are all a blur for me. All I really remember is showing up to bring Kane lunch and the smile that took over his face when he saw me. I remember arguing and Kane standing in front of me until pain overtook my body and the ground came up to meet my head. The rest is a blur of lights and words that felt all jumbled in my mind.
“You need to take the bed and get some sleep,” I whisper to Kane.
“I’m okay here,” he says, his voice gruff and his eyes red.
“Kane, you need to sleep. I’m okay, I promise,” I plead with him.
He looks at me, firm in his stance of not leaving. I move over to the right a bit more and pat the left side of the bed, raising my eyebrows to tell him to get in.
“Avery, I don’t want to hurt you,” he says.
“Get in,” I demand, leaving no room for argument in my tone.
He huffs and comes over to the other side of the bed. He slides in, then puts his arm behind my head as I roll over to my left side, wincing a bit at the pull but settling comfortably into his side. I let myself breathe him in, the smell of him calming me and making me drowsy.
He always had this effect on me, as if my body always knew how safe I was the minute I was in his arms. My brain would turn off, and sometimes I would relax for the first time all day when he was finally home and I was wrapped up in him. I always felt incredibly lucky to feel that safe with him, to know whatever I said or did, he would still be there. I had always wanted a place that felt like home, my childhood home never feeling like a safe place to land. Then I met Kane and realized that home was never a building but a person who made you feel as if you could never be anywhere safer.
“I thought I almost lost you,” Kane croaks, so quiet I almost think I imagined it.
“It’s going to take more than that to take me away from you again,” I soothe, taking my head out of his neck and looking at him, those hazel eyes shining back at me. Thelove in them is so strong my throat clogs up with how perfect this man is.
“I felt like I couldn’t breathe. For hours, I just sat here trying to fill my lungs, and it’s as if my body forgot how to exist without you.”
My heart breaks at the pain radiating from his voice. All I want to do is reach into his chest and soothe his broken heart, putting it next to mine for safekeeping.
“I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry I couldn’t come back to you sooner,” I say, pulling his face to mine and leaving a soft kiss on his lips, the feel of them plush and warm against mine, filling the space in my heart that has felt empty without him.
“No more time apart. I’m all in. I want to spend every day waking up with you. I want to come home and make us dinner. I want to sing to you and listen to our favorite records. I want to marry you someday, hopefully soon, and I want us to be happy.” He grabs my chin and places another kiss on my lips, this one more bruising than the last but with a gentleness to it still, as if he wants to make sure he can’t hurt me.
“Does that mean we have to raise the white flags with the pranks?” I jab, trying to lighten the mood and get that smile back on his face. The idea of spending forever with this man and someday being his makes an impossibly large smile take over my face as I stare at the man who holds my future in his hands.
“All’s fair in love and pranks, pretty girl,” he says, finishing on a kiss. Sleep soon takes over both of us, the feeling of us bundled together the last thing on my mind as I drift to a dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
kane
TWO WEEKS LATER
