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“Don’t even say it. You’re going to be fine. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when they brought you in.”
“It’s all right. You were having dinner with Desiree,” she said. “I’d forgotten until just now.”
The nurse walked in. “Good news, we have a room ready for you. Let us get her transported up there and then you two can come in and say goodnight. She needs to rest.”
Together, they walked out of the room and were greeted by his brothers.
“They’re admitting her. It’s not a stroke, but they want to run more tests and make certain her blood work is good,” she told the men who all stared at her.
The guys relaxed and she couldn’t help but reach out and pull them all in for a hug. “Thank you for taking good care of her.”
“She’s everything to us,” Blake said.
“She’s our second mother,” Cody replied.
Dakota and Evan grinned. “We want to see her. We want to make certain she’s really going to be all right.”
Only Garth remained quiet, his face white with worry.
“They’re going to move her to a room and then we’ll all go up and see her,” Adrian said. “But we can’t stay long because she needs to rest.”
Garth, the youngest, shook his head. “I think one of us should stay here and make certain she receives the care she needs.”
This was the family she wanted around her. Not her stepsisters, stepmother, or father. These were the people who cared about her and her mother.
Glancing at Adrian, she decided she needed to be honest with him. As soon as they left the hospital, she would tell him her feelings.
Thirty minutes later, they all stood around her mother’s bed, smiling at her and telling her to get better when the nurse came to the door.
“All right, folks, you’ve had a chance to tell her goodnight. It’s time for me to take her vitals, give her some medication, and turn down the lights. Time for you to go home.”
Madison leaned over, hugged her, and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, sweetie,” she said. “Remember what we talked about.”
She nodded. Then the boys, one by one, hugged her goodnight.
When it came Adrian’s turn, she reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “Goodnight.”
They all left the hospital together and when they reached the parking lot, he glanced at her. “Do you want one of the other boys to take you home?”
“No, I want you,” she said.
His brows rose and he opened the truck door for her and helped her inside.
They were silent on the way to her apartment. But when they pulled into the parking lot, she gazed at him. “Come up, we need to speak.”
Once they were inside the door, she took off her coat, put her purse on the counter, and then she motioned for him to sit on the couch.
Sinking down beside him, she sighed. How did she tell him the reason she ran was because she had fallen in love with him?
“You know my family situation,” she said. “After you left last week, my father called and demanded I give him money. I told him that you and I had broken up and he called me all kinds of names. Said I was the biggest fool. And in some ways, I have to agree with him.”
Adrian shook his head. “You’re not a fool.”
“No, but I realized before the ball last week that I was falling in love with you. That you were the perfect man for me. We had fun, we laughed, we played, and that scared the hell out of me. I still believe that I’m not good marriage material because of who my father is. And yet, this week I’ve been so miserable without you. I’ve missed you. But you don’t want to marry either.”
He’d shown no reaction to her telling him that she was falling in love with him. None and that scared her. What if he didn’t want her love or thought she was just another woman after his money?
