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“Do you know what you’re asking? Or better put, what you’re agreeing to by asking me to stay?”
Aine nodded. “I don’t care.”
“I know better.”
“What if I’m the reason we can’t have a family? What if it isn’t you? Would you leave me then?” she asked.
“Never.”
“Then don’t force me to do what you wouldn’t.”
His eyes remained fixed on hers as though he was gazing into her soul, looking for the slightest hesitation.
Aine put her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him closer so her lips rested just below his earlobe. “I love you, Griffin.”
He pulled back, but only so far that his lips could cover hers. He kissed her deeply, one hand gripping her arm, the other cupping her cheek.
With his forehead rested against hers, he uttered the words she longed to hear but never dreamed she would. “I love you, Aine.”
She kissed him the same way he had her, holding him tight to her and vowing silently never to let him go.
The door opened, and Striker ended their kiss, but the spell between them remained solidly in place like his hand gripping hers.
“Good morning, lovebirds,” said the nurse Aine recognized from the afternoon before, but couldn’t remember her name.
“I’m Elizabeth,” she said in a South African accent, erasing Paula’s name from the board and adding hers back in its place.
Maybe it was the voice Aine remembered more than the face.
“Ken will be working with me today. He’s next door, but he’ll come over shortly and take you for your first walk of the day. The more you walk, the sooner you can go home.”
Elizabeth set the same laptop Paula had used the night before on the bedside tray. She checked the monitors, pounding her thick fingers on the keyboard. She moved the blanket and sheet away, checked the incision, and then put her hands on her hips. “How badly do you want to go home for Thanksgiving?”
“Will I be able to?”
The nurse slid a piece of paper toward her. “If you can check off each of the milestones on this list, you will.”
Aine studied the paper. All but one seemed surmountable. No seizure was the only thing out of her control.
She looked up at Griffin, who was reading over her shoulder.
“You can do it,” he whispered.
“The doctor will be in shortly. Start working on that list,” Elizabeth said before leaving the room.
“It says you have to eat,” Griffin told her, picking up the room’s phone. “What sounds good this morning?”
Aine rattled off most of the breakfast menu.
“You’re hungry.”
“Starving,” she said, wondering if he knew her hunger had nothing to do with food. She craved Griffin’s naked body next to hers. Only that could satiate her.
He leaned forward and kissed her. “Let’s get you out of here.”
When the door opened again, Aine expected the doctor but saw Sam in her sister’s arms instead.
“Oh, sweet boy,” she cried, so happy to see her nephew.
