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“Here, lean on me.” I offer my shoulder and he wraps his arm around me. Even with him slightly hunched over, he towers over me.
I know he’s holding most of his weight on his own as we shuffle over to Maisy’s bed, me pulling his IV pole with us. As soon as we get to the chair I was using, I help him lower to the seat, Maisy’s tired eyes tracking our movements. Judge scoots the chair closer to the bed and grabs Maisy’s hand.
“How are you doing, Mase?”
He started calling her that a couple of days ago, after the day they played on the Xbox for the first time. Their whole relationship changed after that day. It turned less tense and more natural.
“My tummy hurts,” she answers.
He leans his elbows on the bed. “Mine does too.”
“It does? But you’re so big and strong.”
He chuckles. Maisy doesn’t see it, but I notice the slight wince on his face. “That’s true. Big and tough guys act like they never feel pain, but I promise we do. The doctor will give us both some medicine to make it feel better.”
Her eyes lift to mine. “Did the surgery work? Am I going to get better now?”
“Dr. Snyder thinks you’re going to be just fine, but we won’t know for a few weeks. We need to make sure your body will let Judge’s kidney work for your old one.”
“Okay.”
Just then, Dr. Snyder comes in the room, followed by a nurse. The doctor reprimands Judge for being out of bed, but his efforts are ignored. Judge stays by her side until she’s been examined. Only then does he allow the nurse to help him back in his own bed so the doctor can check on him next.
Dr. Snyder deems them both okay. As long as his incision begins to heal properly without signs of infection, Judge will be released in a few days, whereas Maisy will stay at least a week. The thought of going home without Maisy is heartbreaking, but I know she’s better off here in the hospital so she can be checked on often. We only live a few blocks away, so it’ll be easy to get here fast if I need to. Besides, I’ll be spending most of my days and nights here anyway, only going home to shower and change clothes. It does make me feel better that Judge will be here the first few days.
An hour later, I leave Maisy and Judge’s room to go let Declan know how they’re doing. They both fell asleep a few minutes ago, and I know they’ll be out for a while with the pain medication they were given. Judge grumbled, saying he didn’t want anything. The man is stubborn, but I understand his aversion to the way the drugs will make him feel. Being helpless and incoherent is never a good thing.
After I talk with Declan, I force him to go home and get some rest. Today started early and it was stressful for us both. I go to the cafeteria and grab a premade sub and a water and bring them back to the room. Once my food is finished, I curl up in the comfortable chair in the corner, and before I know it, my eyes drift shut and I’m fast asleep.
Chapter Ten
JUDGE
“DO YOU HAVE A FOUR?” I ask Maisy from my chair beside her bed.
“Nope. Go fish.”
I grab another card and stick it with the ones I have fanned out in my hand. I look at my six cards compared to Maisy’s two and know I’m about to lose. I’m being bested at Go Fish by an eleven-year-old.
“Do you have—” She puckers her lips to the side as she thinks. “—an ace?” I pull out the card I just picked up and hand it over. “Yah!” She pairs it with the one she already had and puts them down beside her other pairs.
“Do you have a ten?”
Unsurprisingly, she tells me to go fish again, this time with a giggle. I’ll lose every game I play with her if it means I get to hear that sound.
“Do you have a seven?”
I smirk when I tell her to go fish. She picks up a card and I ask for a jack, the card I just grabbed from the pile. I know she has it, because she asked me for it a couple of moments ago. She gives it to me and I pair it with mine.
We play for a couple more minutes until she sets down her last two cards, one of which she just took from me. We’ve been playing this game for over an hour with her winning more hand
s than me, something Maisy finds hilarious. It’s a simple enough game, so I can’t blame my losing on inexperience.
“I win!” she chirps proudly. “I’ve got fifteen pairs and you have eleven.”
I lean back in my chair and smile indulgently at her. “Guess that makes you the master at Go Fish.”
“Nah. I’m just lucky.” She stacks the cards and puts them back in the box. “When are Mom and Uncle Declan supposed to be back?”
