“I thought you’d never ask.”
I set her down and she ran to get a marker. Turned out to be a bright pink one. I wrote Daddy and drew some hearts around it. “How’s this?”
“I like that. Can you make a oonicorn?”
“I’m not too good with those but how about this?” I quickly drew a pink rainbow.
“That’s cool, dude!” She held up her hand for a high five.
I then handed her a bag that contained some trinkets we bought in Vietnam. “This is for you.”
She opened it to find wooden toys and a T-shirt. “Thank you. I’m going to save it and give it to Mommy.”
“That’s very sweet of you.”
I stayed for about thirty minutes then left. On the way to the hospital, I picked up a huge bouquet of roses for English.
“Hey,” I said, entering the room. “These are for you.”
“Wow. Those are gorgeous. Thank you. You know something? You’re not so bad when you’re not being a butthole to me.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Can you sit?”
“I’m planning on it.” I set the flowers on the ledge near the window and then sat.
“Why did we get married when I really don’t like you?”
“By the time we got married, you’d changed your mind.”
“And there was no other reason?”
“Yes, there was. It revolved around your daughter and my family.”
“Will you tell me?”
“Let’s begin with the part about Easton, your daughter. Does the name Stuart McLure sound familiar?”
She squinted and said, “Yeah. Old high-school boyfriend. No, wait, college too.”
“That’s it?”
Massaging her eyes, she said, “Something’s nagging at me but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Should I tell you or not? Up to you.”
“You can tell me. Maybe it’ll trigger something.”
“Before I go and tell you everything, let me check to see if it’s okay. With the doctor, that is.”
I went to the nurse’s station, which was located out in the center of the grouping of rooms and checked. She said they dealt with it all the time and it was fine.
“Got the okay,” I said as I sat down again. “So, you and Stuart were together during the first two years in college until you got pregnant. He wasn’t too nice to you and you broke up with him after. You had your daughter, Easton, after you moved back home.” I continued to explain the story of Easton, us, and the McLures, bringing her up to the present.
She squeezed her eyes shut as her hand touched her throat. In a quivering voice, she said, “I remember getting choked.”
I touched her arm and she flinched. My shoulders drooped at her show of fear. “English, I will never ever lay a hand on you. You don’t ever have to fear my touch.”
I watched the tension ebb out of her, but it was still distressing to see the memory of what Stuart’s actions did.
“He choked me and… you! You came in and saved me. You beat him up!”
“I’m not proud of beating someone, but I am of knocking the lights out of him. No man should ever lay hands on a woman.”
“Thank you.”
“No need. It’s water under the bridge.”
“For you maybe. But for me, it’s like it just happened. Did he go to jail?”
Nodding, I added, “Not once, but twice and he’s still there. He violated an order of protection.”
“What did he want from me?”
“So here is where it gets sticky.” I explained about Easton, and how they wanted custodial rights. “And that brings me to our marriage and how we ended up in Vegas and proceeding with me adopting her.”
“You would do that?” Her hand reached out for mine.
“English, I love you.” There, it was out in the open now. I wasn’t going to hide it from her or anyone. “I love Easton too. I want you and her as my—our—family.” My heart bumped in my chest, banging a tune against my ribs. I prayed she didn’t send me away, but accepted my love instead.
She eyed her hands, which were gripping the bedsheet. “I can’t say it back yet.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t expect you to. I just wanted you to know, since you asked.”
She glanced up at me through her long spiky lashes. “Can I ask you something else?”
“Of course.”
“Was the sex good?”
A mighty laugh leapt out of me. Of all the things, I hadn’t anticipated this. “The very best.”
She looked up. “For me too?”
“You screamed my name. A lot.”
“I did?” She was shocked and I was sad she didn’t remember that part. But I’d get that back.
“Uh-huh. I can show you when you’re released.” I smirked.
“I bet you can.”
“I gave you this special toy—”
“Oh, my God! I remember that!”
For fuck’s sake. She remembered the damn toy and not me. Talk about an ego-buster.
“Don’t look so deflated. I’m sure I remember it because of how you wielded it.” She acted like the thing was in her hand.
“Mmm. Okay, I’ll take that, but you’re handling it more like a sword.”
“Maybe it’s because of…” Her eyes went straight to my crotch. Well, damn, I hadn’t expected that at all.
“There is something else I’d like to ask. Do you remember anything at all about the accident? Like where it happened?”
“No. I’m a blank slate.”
I wrote in the empty spaces for her.
“Okay, let me reiterate,” English said. “I took Easton to ride at your family’s home with your brother, Landry. The accident happened on the drive home.”
“There are more details than that, but it sums it up. The police are investigating why the brakes went out.”
She mumbled, “The brakes went out. The brakes went out.” Her fingers snapped and she said, “Oh, my God. Not only that, someone ran me off the road in a silver Mercedes!”
My sister owned a silver Mercedes.
Chapter Forty-Eight
English
Three days after I woke up, they moved me to a regular room. I begged them to set me free, to unchain me from my prison, but they weren’t quite ready yet. Hospitals were the worst for getting sleep. Every little noise awakened me and then the nurse came in every few hours to check my vitals. If I didn’t go home soon, they’d be sending me to the nuthouse instead.
On the positive side, my memories were trickling in. I had yet to remember getting married but every once in a while a steamy sex scene would pop into my head and I knew it was a memory fragment. I’d get all sweaty and hot, and would force myself to think of something less dirty. If this was any indication of what we’d done together, I was ready to get back in the saddle. Or hop on the pony. Or ride the man-stick. Or whatever you wanted to call it.
“What is wrong with you? Do you have a fever?” Tristian reached for my forehead. “You are a red as a beet.”