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Then she stomped out, closing the door (most of the way, anyway).
“I love you,” he called.
She popped her head back into the narrow opening. “I love you too, you stubborn man.”
“Just saying,” he said as she started to back out. “I learned from a master.”
A glare, but her lips were twitching.
And she left the door cracked.
Which meant she came back in approximately two-point-two seconds after he’d flushed the toilet, helped him stand up and wash his hands. She even held the back of his gown together when as they shuffled back to bed together so he didn’t flash anyone who might happen to come in.
Which had been a lot of people.
Coworkers. His big ass family. Lex. Frankie. Misty and Rob. Maggie and Kim.
Even Cole had briefly stopped by, bringing Connor one of his favorite choo-choos (trains now since Cole was too big to call them choo-choos any longer—but they would always be choo-choos to him).
“It made me feel better when I was in the hospital, Uncle Connor,” he said, passing it over.
That had been the only moment Connor had thought he might cry.
Because…damn he’d almost died.
And he was relating to a child who’d almost done the same.
He knew that Raven felt that, and felt it as deeply as him, because their eyes had connected and held and—
Her past had been written on her face.
“Baby?” he asked.
“Hmm?” She snagged the sheet and blanket, holding it so he could sit in bed, could slowly and painfully position himself into bed. She lifted his legs, tucked the blankets around him.
“You’ve been holding it together pretty well.”
She stilled, her eyes hit his.
Damn.
She wasn’t holding it together.
It was a façade and—
“You didn’t see my breakdown in the ER,” she whispered, eyes drifting away. “I wouldn’t let them change my clothes or wash my hands or—” A shake of her head. “Lex finally carried me into the bathroom, stripped me down, cleaned me up, and got me into fresh scrubs before he schlepped me to the waiting area.” She blew out a breath, sat on the bed next to him, taking his hand, squeezing gently. “And as we waited for them to come out with news about you, he set me straight.”
Lex had—
“What?”
She smiled weakly. “I was…obviously not in a good place. My mom hurting you, my past flaring up to ruin shit again. And you didn’t have a pulse for…God, for toofuckinglong.” She exhaled. “But Lex took me in hand.”
Connor scowled. What the fuck didthatmean?
Raven saw, of course she did. “He just made it clear to me that if I hadn’t clamped that artery, hadn’t shoved John aside to use the defibrillator again then you wouldn’t be here.” Her eyes drifted to the bed then back up to his. “If I hadn’t resuscitated you, you wouldn’t be here,” she whispered. “He made me realize that—and by making me realize,” she added, “I mean, he kept stating the facts until it finally passed through my thick skull and sank into my stubborn brain.”
His lips twitched, but then he reached up and touched her cheek. “How long did that take?”
