AllFreeNovel
Share Us
?Before me was Suzie in her hospital bed. The final bed she would ever lay in. Tubes went up her nose, in her arm, and under the covers to parts I didn’t want to think about.
?She looked up at me and gave me a weak smile. “We’ve had a great marriage, while so many of our friends split up.”
?“It’s all because of you,” I told her.
?“No, you’re a good man to be married to.” She forced a smile. “It looked easy because it was easy. Once I’m gone—”
?“Please don’t say that, Sooz,” I said, the tears falling.
?“I want you to find someone,” she told me, her eyes wide and imploring. “And I want you to make her as happy as you’ve made me.”
?Then, there was darkness.
34. Golden Ratio
Sheryl Homes
?The next few hours were the toughest for me. An unconscious Mark was rushed to the hospital, and I rode in the ambulance.
?They got us into emergency, and I was ordered to a waiting room and told to be patient. I am not good at patience, but it did give me a chance to go over my notes and put the final pieces together.
?Mark had lost a lot of blood, but I was told he would pull through, and I insisted I be there when he woke up. So they put me in his room, and I did a lot of thinking.
?This had been quite an adventure, but now, was I really thinking about a relationship with a man eighteen years my senior? Sitting in the hospital, I knew that someday this was how it would end. With me holding a death watch over this man.
?That is if we could even make it work.
?On the other hand, had I been really living? With the divorce, I had gone into my protective shell and lost all interest in men and sex. Meeting Mark had reawakened my desires, as well as my dreams of a real relationship.
?I would seriously be a fool not to take a chance if it could be a success.
?But I was afraid—so damned afraid. To open myself, physically and emotionally, seemed so scary.
?“Hey there,” came a whisper from the bed.
?I jumped, and with a strangled cry, I moved out of the chair to the prone form of Mark. “You’re awake!”
?I couldn’t stop the tears that fell down my face.
?“Hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t get up,” he croaked.
?I ran my fingers through his hair. “You lost a lot of blood. Good thing there were EMTs nearby. They said you could’ve bled out.”
?“Didn’t even know I was cut,” he apologized, and looked over at his right arm. It was wrapped in gauze. He then looked at the pint of plasma which hung with an IV and went into his left arm.
?“Thirty stitches,” I said and adjusted his pillow. “It’s going to leave a scar, but they say you’ll be fine.” I couldn’t keep my hands off him, and I kept touching his hair, his arm, his face.
?“A scar. Won’t I be manly?” he joked.
?“You tackled Hypno and jumped in front of me when she had the gun. That is pretty manly—”
?“Thanks.”
?“If manly means idiotic—”
?He gave a shrug. “Do what you’re good at, I always say.”
?Just then Detective DeStadler walked into the room. I immediately rubbed my eyes to stop the tears, but it had probably made my eyeliner run so I appeared like a raccoon.
