Without letting go of her hand, I stand to rub her back, supporting her while she sits forward coughing. When she finally finishes and falls back to the bed, eyes closed and watering, her chest heaves. This is why they want to keep her, I realize, and it cracks my heart into tiny little shards of piercing glass to see her like this, knowing I’m helpless to make her feel better.
Running my fingers through her hair, I push it back from her face. “That’s it. Slow, deep breaths. You’re okay. It’s going to getbetter.”
I’m not sure if I’m telling her or myself at this point.
“Wy,” she croaks, and even though it doesn’t sound like normal, it’s the best thing I’ve heard in my life. “Arson…ist?”
It’s not what I expected her to say, which has a huff of laughter coming out of me despite the seriousness of the question. Leaning over, I press my lips to her forehead. “We got him. Because of you, we got him.”
She squeezes my hand in response. It doesn’t last long before her hand goes limp, and I ease back to find her eyes closed again. As though she needed the answer before she could return to sleep.
I’m just about to sit back down when her eyes flutter again.
“Wy.” The rasp in her voice has her talking in a near whisper, and I start to lean closer when I realize she’s reaching up to grab her mask with her free hand.
“Baby, no, you gotta leave that there,” I tell her, gently taking her hand before she can remove the mask. I’m careful not to grab her wrist, instead catching her fingertips beneath mine. “The mask needs to stay on. You need the oxygen.”
Her chest inflates with a deep breath, like she needs the energy from it to speak again. “You said I couldn’t tell you…” Another breath. “Until you…could kiss me.”
It dawns on me then why she wants her mask off. To tell me she loves me.
My heart expands in my chest in ways I may never comprehend.
“I still can’t kiss you,” I murmur, bringing her hand up to my lips to press to the back of it. “It’s important to keep that on right now, okay? So that you get better and we can get you out of here.”
The look of disappointment she gives me nearly has me hitting my knees at her bedside.
“I’ve waited my whole life for you, B. I promise I can wait a little while longer. Until you’re better and that mask can safely come off and I can kiss you the way you deserve to be kissed.” Pressing her hand against my cheek, I smile at her. “Because when I hear you say it, I promise you I’m going to kiss you until you’re breathless and weak in the knees so I can catch you. And right now, I can’t do that.”
A light flickers in her eyes. I see it before her eyes close again and she gives in to the sleep her body desperately craves.
I give it a few minutes before I settle back in my chair, her hand still in mine, my thumb running over her ring finger again.
Though I made her wait, I don’t hold myself to the same regard, whispering so I don’t wake her, “I love you.”
Chapter 53
Wyatt
LeavingBrynasleepinher room the next morning, I swing my upper body from side to side as I walk down the hall, stiff as fuck from the hospital recliner. It was better than a simple chair, and I’m grateful for the nurse on the unit who found it for me, but I’ve had better sleep. Granted, it’s probably not entirely the recliner’s fault. Yesterday was grueling for so many reasons.
Slipping through the doors to the unit Bryn got admitted to, I turn right and walk down the corridor until I come to an open area waiting room. Once quiet and deserted, it’s now teeming with off-duty firefighters and a couple of paramedics, though.
“Hey,” I greet my entire crew.
Nate’s the first to step forward. “How is she?”
I kept everyone updated well into the night, and Savanna dropped by to check on Bryn and bring Gran and me food, but this is the first the rest of them have been able to come by, finally off shift as of an hour ago.
“Sleeping. Still drugged,” I nod as Quinn, Liam, Brody, Luke, and Hailey all form a semi-circle around me along with Nate. “When the nurses switched shifts, they said they’d probably be pulling back on the sedation to see how she’s feeling without it. Then monitor with some pain meds as she needs.”
“That’s really good news,” Hailey says from beside me, touching my upper arm. “They probably wanted to keep hercomfortable overnight to give her body a chance to come out of shock.”
“Yeah,” I agree, running a hand over my unruly curls. “Jordan told me and Gran something similar. It’s just…”
“I know.” She squeezes my arm.
“Where is Gran?” Liam inquires. “Still here?”
