AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re refusing transport, too?” The other medic, the one who was looking at Tunnel’s goose egg, asked.
“Yeah, I have a car here. Can’t leave it.” He explained tightly.
Tunnel was pissed. Most likely at himself. Which was good, because I was mad as hell at him, too. Served him right.
“You do know that you’ve got a goose egg the size of a Burger King Whopper on your head.” Paramedic number two clarified.
“Yeah,” he said. “My wife’s a nurse. She’ll take care of me.”
We left shortly after that.
After taking a closer look at Adeline’s cut, I decided that there wasn’t much to be done for it. It wasn’t deep enough for stitches and other than prescribing her headache meds and being told to wake her up every three hours, there was nothing that they could do at a hospital that I couldn’t do at home.
Adeline still didn’t speak, and I could sense her unease. I knew she thought I was upset with her, and I was. She was trying not to say anything in order to keep my temper in check. Which was good on her part, because my temper was eager to go.
I didn’t take the road home, instead deciding to ride. I knew Adeline was probably cold, but she didn’t complain, only buried her helmeted head into my back and held on tight, moving into the turns with me, making me feel as if we were one.
I thought about a lot of things during that ride.
Mainly about how I’d lost a lot of stuff in my life, and I didn’t want to lose anymore. I didn’t want to waste any more time. Didn’t want to wake up one morning and regret what I’d done with my life. What could have been.
When we finally pulled into the driveway of my lake house three hours later, I’d come to a few decisions.
One, I was marrying Adeline.
Two, I was having kids with her. Soon.
Three, it was time to talk with my parents. Have a relationship with my mom. My dad, I couldn’t give a rip about, but I’d seen the longing in my mother’s eyes. I knew she’d wanted to hug me. Talk to me.
If I was truthful with myself, I wanted the same. I missed her.
“This is a beautiful place,” Adeline said softly.
I looked at my place through her eyes. Eyes that only saw beauty in the world. Or had until tonight.
“Yeah, Shannon loved it out here. She’d come and tan on the dock in a vain attempt to get Sebastian to pay attention to her.” I laughed.
It still felt raw inside, to speak about her in the past.
I didn’t know if the feeling would ever subside, and thought that maybe it was a good thing that it didn’t.
I still thought of my child in the same way.
An aching longing poured through my chest at the thought of never holding her.
Hell. I couldn’t do this right now.
“I left because they said your father was trying to arrange the funeral. I didn’t want him to fuck anything up, and the guy that called told me that you relayed a message to me. It sounded like something you’d say.” She whispered brokenly.
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Just, don’t ever do that to me again. I won’t be able to handle it if I lost you, too.”
My voice sounded raw, and it was.
I was feeling pretty raw, too. Sleep sounded like a good thing, and that’s what I declared when I unlocked the door and held it open for her.
“Let’s get to bed. I don’t want to do anything else right now but sleep, if that’s okay.” I said as I locked the door behind us and flipped on the front room’s light.
It was piled to the brim with the furniture that belonged in the rest of the house. The only thing that probably resembled livable space right now was the one bedroom where my bed was, which was a good thing. That’s all I really cared about right now.
