“Chloe Ellison?” a nurse called from the doorway.
We all stood up.
“You can come back now. He’s awake.”
A collective sigh escaped us all. I handed Aiden’s baseball cap to Lo before I was led down a different set of maze-like corridors to Aiden’s room. The setup surrounding Aiden was similar to what I had seen earlier, minus the mask around his face. Instead, there was one of those oxygen tubes taped below his nose.
“Here we are,” the nurse said pleasantly.
Aiden opened his eyes and looked over at the door.
“Hey, you,” he said. He tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace.
I bit down on my lip, trying to hold back the tears. I would have thought they would dry up eventually, but the supply was apparently endless.
“Hey, yourself,” I responded. I sat down in a chair that looked exactly like the one in the recovery room and picked up his hand, wrapping my fingers around his. I felt myself relax as he squeezed back.
The nurse checked his vital signs and then left us alone.
“You’re okay?” he asked.
“I’m perfectly fine, thanks to you.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and then looked back at me.
“I’m glad.”
“I can’t say that I agree,” I told him. “That was a stupid thing to do, and I’ll never be able to thank you enough for it.”
“Any time,” he said softly.
“You better not.”
“If anyone ever points a gun at you again, you can bet your ass I’ll be between you and the gun.”
I brought his hand to my face and kissed each of his inked knuckles.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” I whispered. “When you were there in the kitchen…and there was so much blood…I couldn’t even think.”
“I’m okay,” he said. “The doctor said so. All the tests were good—no spinal damage. I’m going to be fine.”
I leaned my cheek on his hand and bit my lip as I looked down at the bandage.
“I’m okay,” he said again. “The only thing that matters to me is that they didn’t get you.”
“She might have missed me,’” I said. “You jumped right in front of her.”
“I wasn’t going to risk it.”
I shook my head at him and was about to say something else about how stupid he was when Redeye appeared in the doorway.
“Thanks, I got it from here,” he said to the nurse. He walked over and leaned close to me. “If anyone asks, I’m your brother.”
He winked and then looked over at Aiden.
“Well, Hunter,” he said, “you look like absolute shit.”
Aiden started to chuckle then cringed.
“Motherfucker.” He hissed through his teeth and placed his hand over his stomach. “Don’t do that.”
“Well, someone around here has to be the one to tell ya,” Redeye insisted. “I don’t think you’ve looked this bad since that party last spring when you and Clutch decided to turn Disney movies into a drinking game!”
“Oh, don’t bring that up,” Aiden said. “I still have flashbacks of Clutch naked in the pool, pretending he was a mermaid.”
Redeye snickered.
“I’m not going to keep ya,” he said. “I just had to see for myself that you were all right. I’ll make sure Chloe’s taken care of while you’re out of commission.”
“Thanks,” Aiden said. “I appreciate that.”
“My pleasure.”
Redeye moved to leave but looked back at us from the doorway. His eyes dropped to our linked hands, and he grinned.
“Nothing says love like taking a bullet to the stomach.” He turned and sauntered out.
I bit down on my lip, not sure what Aiden’s response to the comment would be. He turned his mouth into a half smile and glanced at me but didn’t say anything.
I held his hand and ran my thumb over his fingers. We didn’t talk very much—Aiden kept going in and out of sleep as he lay there. We just looked at each other. Words didn’t seem to be necessary.
“He was right, you know,” Aiden finally said. He looked down at our hands.
“Who was?” I asked.
“Redeye.”
“About what?”
He took a deep breath and tightened his hand around mine.
“Why I did it.” He licked his lips and met my eyes. “I love you, Chloe. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”
All my blood seemed to pool to my feet. I wasn’t expecting anything like this, certainly not given our situation. Despite the hours that had passed since we had been wrestling on the living room floor, it seemed like such a short time ago when we were together, laughing playfully and talking about our plans for the day.
Tragedy has a tendency to bring out strong emotions. It’s easy to confuse a bond over a terrible situation for something more. Is that what Aiden was doing now?
No.
It wasn’t.
I knew it wasn’t, because I loved him, too.
Mare had been right. Despite all the alarms in my head, I had been drawn to Aiden’s forthrightness, his willingness to pursue the unknown without fear, his desire to make me a better person, his bright smile, and the boyish twinkle in his eyes. My feelings for him had been growing every second I was with him.
It didn’t matter that he didn’t look like my usual type or that he drove a motorcycle and had giant muscles covered with tattoos. All of that superficial stuff was just that—superficial. It didn’t define him. The real Aiden was underneath it all.
I reached up and ran my fingers over his sweet face.
“I love you, too, Aiden. More than anything.”
And with that, our bond was complete.
TWENTY
The day after Aiden was transferred from the intensive care unit, a heavy-set man wearing shorts and a black concert T-shirt came into the hospital room and introduced himself as Justin Walters, one of the hospital’s counselors. Aiden glanced at me, but I just shrugged. I didn’t know anything about him.
“When injury accompanies tragic or violent circumstances, it’s standard for me to come in and have a little chat with you to see how you are doing,” Justin informed us. “I’m just here to see how Aiden’s coping with everything that’s happened.”
“I’m fine,” Aiden said bluntly.
“Aiden,” I said softly, “this might be a great opportunity.”
I didn’t want to push too hard, but he needed to talk to someone, and I wasn’t going to be intimidated by his glare.
“I don’t care about being shot,” he said. “I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
Justin started to say something but then stopped and watched us instead. Aiden looked between us, then sighed and pulled his cap off his head. He stared down at it and ran his fingers along the rim before glancing back at me.
“Could we talk about other stuff, too?” Aiden asked.
“Of course,” Justin said. “Whatever you would like.”
“Okay,” Aiden said with another sigh. “Let’s talk.”
I bit my lip to hide my smile, but Aiden noticed anyway, and responded by rolling his eyes. I leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving them alone to talk. I knew it would be difficult for him, but seeing him take the chance brought out a sense of pride in me.
I wondered if it compared to the times he’d pulled me out of my shell.
For the next week, Aiden recovered slowly but steadily. He talked to Justin every day while he was there and seemed to be making a little headway. After the sessions, Aiden would usually tell me a little something about Cayden I hadn’t heard before. Sometimes there were tears in his eyes, but he mostly focused on the good memories of times with his son.
I stayed at the hospital as much as I was allowed and spent my nights at Aiden’s house. Mo and Lo had found a service that specialized in crime-scene clean up, and mo
st of the mess was gone before I returned. I was extremely grateful for it. If I had walked into a kitchen covered in blood, I probably would have had a meltdown. The patio door had to be boarded up, but Lo said someone would be by in a couple of days to replace the glass. During the cleanup, Lo had found my phone. I hadn’t even thought about calling anyone all this time, but when I looked at it, I saw a dozen missed calls and texts—mostly from Mare and my mother.
I called Mare and told her what had happened. After I finally convinced her everyone was fine, I promised to call her again as soon as I was back in town. I called my mother as well. Instead of the freak-out I was expecting, she was surprisingly quiet about the whole thing. She said she was just glad I was all right.
Weird.
Her reaction probably should have set off alarms in my head, but they were surprisingly silent. The very next day, she was walking up to the hospital receptionist’s desk as I was waiting for Aiden’s session with Justin to end so I could sit with him.
“Mom?” I ran over to her.
Mom turned and gave me a giant hug without a word. Then she pulled back and held my shoulders at arm’s reach as she looked me over.
“You really are okay?” she asked.
“I am, Mom. I’m fine. What are you doing here?”
“Well, it doesn’t sound like Thanksgiving is going to work out,” Mom said, “and I had this plane ticket that was non-refundable, so I just had it changed to Miami.”
I hugged her again as I tried to stop myself from crying. My emotions had been all over the place since the day Aiden was hurt, and I seemed to have no control over them at all.
“Stop that now,” Mom said. She pulled tissues from her purse and dabbed at my cheeks before handing them to me. “I want to meet this man who is apparently willing to die for my daughter.”
I sniffed and took her hand to lead her down the hallway to Aiden’s room. Justin was just leaving, and I waved at him as we passed by. All of a sudden, I realized I hadn’t prepared Mom for Aiden’s appearance, but it was too late to say anything because we were already at the door to his room before the thought had struck me.
Aiden was sitting up in his bed, his favorite cap sitting backward on his head. He was wearing one of the hospital’s gowns, open part way down the front and plainly showing all the tattoos on his arms, across his neck, and down his chest.
Mom stopped in the doorway and just stared.
Aiden looked up from the motorcycle magazine Redeye had brought for him and looked from me to my mother, obviously confused.
“Well,” Mom said with a bit of a huff in her voice, “I can’t say you were what I was expecting, but then again, I never expected anyone to have to save my daughter’s life.”
She dropped her purse on a chair and marched over to the side of the bed. Without hesitation, she leaned over and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Aiden could only look at me, confused, as he reached up and returned her hug.
“Thank you,” Mom said quietly. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you for keeping my daughter safe.”
Aiden’s eyes fluttered closed for a moment, and I saw him take a deep breath.
“Always,” he replied.
She pulled back, and I could tell she was trying to subtly look over Aiden’s tattoos. She pursed her lips and looked back to his face, glaring a little.
I put my hand over my mouth, terrified of what she was going to say to him as she straightened her shoulders and pointed her finger at his face.
“Now if you ever try to get her to go skydiving again, I will have your balls. You understand me, mister?”
Aiden coughed and sat up a little straighter.
“Uh…yes, ma’am.”
“Good!” She pulled up the chair and sat down next to his bed. “Now tell me everything about yourself.”
After an hour, it was clear they were hitting it off really well. I had to commend Aiden—he hadn’t dropped a single F-bomb, and he was definitely on his best behavior. Mom grilled him with questions, and I realized if I had done the same thing, a lot of our misunderstandings might have been avoided from the beginning.
Live and learn.
Despite my protests, Mom had a hotel room arranged. She wasn’t comfortable staying at Aiden’s house, and I guess I didn’t blame her. She stayed near the hospital and visited Aiden every day while she was there. Strangely enough, she got him to open up quite a bit to her about Cayden. Maybe it was a parenting thing, and she just knew all the right things to say, but she even had him laughing as he talked about the first time Cayden puked all over him as a baby.
“I thought projectile vomiting was just in The Exorcist,” Aiden said. “I had no idea it was a real thing before it was suddenly all over me. And it wasn’t just once—he did it over and over again! Then the pediatrician said it was normal, and I’m screaming into the phone that there is no way it can possibly be normal at all, and the whole time, he’s spewing down my back as I’m on the phone.”
They were both laughing so hard, they had to wipe tears from their eyes.
“All the things no one ever warns you about,” Mom mused as she dabbed at her eyes. “If we knew about all of it beforehand, we’d never have children at all.”
“Yeah.” Aiden cleared his throat and sat up a little. “And then you just wish you could have it all back again.”
I ran my hand down his arm, and he looked over to me with a sad smile.
“I can’t bring him back,” Aiden said quietly. “Even with those shitbags in jail, he’s still gone.”
“I know,” I said as I squeezed his hand.
“The memories of him will live with you forever,” Mom replied. “It’s hard at first, because your focus is on the loss. In time, you realize how important your relationship was and how much joy you gave to him. Even if it was far too short a time, you made every moment count.”
“I wasn’t there when he needed me the most,” Aiden whispered. “I failed him.”
“You did your best,” Mom told him. “Success isn’t defined by a single moment. Your success came from all of the moments you did have, all of the moments you spent loving him. No one can take that from you. It’s yours.”
Aiden pressed the heel of his hand against his eye as he tightened his hand around my fingers.
“At least I was there for you,” he said under his breath. “I couldn’t be there for him, but I was there for you.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and brought his head to my shoulder. Mom came up to the other side and joined in the hug.
The next day she had to head back to San Francisco, and I was sorry to see her go.
“I’m really glad you came,” I told her as I gave her a big hug in the hospital waiting room.
“I’m glad I did, too.” Mom hugged me back. “I’d tell you to be careful, but I have the feeling Aiden’s going to keep a close eye on you as it is. No more crazy stuff.”
“We’ll see,” I said with a smile. “I don’t think he’ll be up for much in the near future.”
“We can make Christmas plans after I get home.”
“Definitely.”
“Hopefully, you will have found a job by then,” she said with a shake of her head. “I still can’t believe you did that.”
“It’s probably best I did,” I said. “With all the time I’m spending down here, I might have been fired anyway.”
“You might not have been here to get shot at,” Mom pointed out.
“True.” It wasn’t the first time the thought had crossed my mind. “But then Aiden would have been alone, and he might not have come out as well as he did.”
Mom nodded, hugged me again, and headed out with her suitcase trailing behind her. I watched her get into the cab and then went back to see Aiden again.
“Everything okay?” he asked as I walked in.
“Yes,” I said. “I think she really likes you.”
“What’s not to like?” Aiden grinned his boyish grin, and I leaned over to kiss
his cheek.
“Your cockiness?” I suggested. I sat at the edge of the bed, and Aiden grabbed my hand.
“I was trying to hide that from her.”
“Hmm…we’ll see if it worked. She’s mostly worried about me finding a job at this point. I haven’t exactly been searching. I need to get on that.”
“You could look for a job down here,” Aiden said. His eyes didn’t leave our hands.
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t get another job in Ohio,” Aiden said. “Find a job around here. There has to be something in your field. Don’t all companies have projects to manage?”
“Well, yeah, I guess so.”
“So find something here.”
“Aiden, that’s a bit of a jump, don’t you think?” I knew people in Ohio. I had contacts and references there. Finding a job in Florida hadn’t even crossed my mind.
“Not for me,” Aiden said quietly. “I want you to stay.”
“Stay where?”
“Here,” Aiden said. “Well, not here in the hospital, but here in Miami. I want you to move down here with me.”
I considered his words for a moment, and the reality of what he was suggesting suddenly dawned on me.
“You mean, live with you?”
He nodded.
“You are asking me to move in with you?”
“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “Why not?”
“Isn’t that a little…premature?”
“Is it?” he asked as he looked into my eyes. “By whose standards?”
“We’ve known each other just over a month,” I said.
He smiled a sweet smile.
“It’s enough for me,” he stated.
As I looked into Aiden’s eyes, I knew his sincerity couldn’t be denied. Reclining in the hospital bed, wrapped in bandages, he’d already made it clear he would do anything for me. Having me live in the same house was a drop in the bucket by comparison.
“Well?” he prompted.