Both he and Maman appeared shocked when Claudia burst out laughing. Shaking her head, she looked down at Yasmine.
“Oh, so this was a secret secret, huh? It’s a good thing someone knows what’s going on and that I’m here. Although I see how it is, getting me in here just so you can get to your man.” She shook her head, still laughing, and looking at Papa and Maman. “Don’t worry, she knows exactly who she’s asking for. Give me just a second.”
Claudia disappeared from Yasmine’s field of view, and she looked up at her parents and smiled hopefully at them. Somehow, the need to keep Zeus a secret now felt very far away. She wanted him here. With her. And her parents. It was that simple.
Zeus
Watching Claudia get up to go see Yas made his chest tighten. She hadn’t asked for him. She’d asked for her friend.
“Don’t worry,” Sarah whispered, patting his arm. “She’ll want to see you. She might not know you’re here.”
Right.
Or maybe she was still trying to keep him a secret. After all, she’d just gotten out of surgery. She didn’t know that Zeus had ruined their chances of keeping things under the radar. And she’d be loopy.
Leaning back in his chair, Zeus fought off the desire to leave the hospital. He might get there. He might already be on his way out if not for Sarah. But she was right. And now that he was sitting and thinking, instead of reacting, he could practically hear his old therapist in his head, reminding him that not everything was about him.
Yas was the one who had gotten shot. So, this was about her and what she needed. He needed to get his head out of his ass. He was in love with her, he didn’t know exactly how she felt about him, and they hadn’t gotten the chance to discuss it.
So, no running. No retreating.
He needed to wait. And when she was ready to see him, he’d go.
“Zeus.”
His head jerked up at the sound of Claudia calling for him. Sarah elbowed him in the side when he didn’t answer right away.
“Zeus.”
“Yes?”
“She wants to see you,” Claudia smirked at him. “Apparently, her parents misunderstood her request at first and thought she was asking for a literal Greek God, so she called for me.”
He sat there for a moment, his brain slow to process what Claudia was saying, until it suddenly hit him. Yas had asked for him. Before Claudia. Her parents just hadn’t understood who she’d been asking for.
Yas wanted him.
He jumped to his feet, ignoring the reactions of everyone around him as he rushed to the room. Claudia stayed behind him, and he could hear her reassuring them all that Yas was awake and looking good before he reached her door. One knock, then he opened it, only pausing for a moment when her parents’ heads lifted. They were on the other side of the bed.
Seeing her lying there, one arm immobilized in a sling, hair undone, face bare of makeup, head lolling, hit him with equal parts concern and relief. Her eyes were open, and she was smiling, but he also knew she was injured. She’d been shot.
Her parents were standing on the side of her bed as her immobilized arm, her dad’s hand in hers, where it was sticking out of the sling.
“Soooooos,” she said, happily drawing out his name, as he approached the bed, her face lighting up.
Her parents were watching him and her very carefully. What feelings they might have about him, he wasn’t sure, because both of their expressions were blank. Which wasn’t all that surprising under the circumstances.
He was now also even more understanding of why her parents didn’t realize she was asking for a real person. Yas was high on painkillers, and she was completely loopy. It did not seem out of the realm of possibility that she might be asking for a mythical character rather than a real person.
Just a couple steps took him to her bedside, and she beamed up at him, eyelashes fluttering as her eyes shut the moment he touched her hand. Which left him standing across from her parents while she was out of it. Suddenly, he was very aware that he was dirty, his clothes were torn, and there were still some specks of blood on his arms he hadn’t noticed when he’d gone to the bathroom to wash his hands.
This was not at all how he’d want to meet the parents.
“Uh, hi.” He lifted his gaze to face them. Normally, meeting new people didn’t faze him. But he also didn’t normally care about total strangers’ opinions of him. That was not the case here. “I’m Zeus. I’m ah… Yas and I have been dating.”
“Soos,” Yas repeated happily, beaming up at him as she squeezed his hand.
“Yas?” Her mother asked faintly, then gave herself a little shake before Zeus could respond. “Hello. I’m Maryam, and this is Javad. We um… I wish I could say it’s nice to meet you, but the circumstances…”
