Grinning, I shook my head. “You too, Jack.”
I got busy with dinner, knowing she’d be there soon.
Not so shockingly, she was late, but I was grateful for the extra time to prepare.
“Hey,” I said, pulling the front door open.
Remi jerked when she got a good look at me. “Oh my God, what happened to your face?”
As soon as I’d seen myself in the mirror, I’d come up with the lie. I’d even practiced it a few times before she’d arrived. That didn’t make the burn of telling it to her any less acrid. “It’s nothing. I was playing ball with the dogs and one rolled under the swing. When I tried to grab it, the corner of the swing clocked me on the cheek.”
Framing my face with her hands, she pushed up onto her toes and traced her thumb beneath the cut Mark had left. “Jeez, I had no idea my clumsiness was contagious. You should lay down and let me get a better look at it.”
Chuckling, I hooked my arm around her hips, pulling her flush against my front. Her breath hitched and her eyes flashed dark. I would never, not for as long as I lived, tire of the way she responded to my touch.
Dipping low, I ghosted my mouth across her lips. “It’s fine. Though, if Nurse Grey wants to examine it later during a sponge bath, I wouldn’t complain.”
A mischievous grin split her lips. “I have a feeling it wouldn’t be your cheek I’d end up examining.”
I peppered kisses down her neck. “How very unprofessional of you—but no complaints about that, either.”
Her giggle breathed a new life into my chest.
And it was that same new life that I would do anything to hold on to.
Bowen
Nine days after the plane crash…
“You have lost your fucking mind!” I boomed, sitting up straight in my hospital bed.
My ribs screamed, but after nine days, my body was on the mend for the most part. Still, my blood boiled as I stared at Jack, Mark, and Aaron at the foot of my bed. Tyson stood beside me like a sentry, but even he had been stunned into silence while listening to their bullshit.
Mark didn’t let my outburst slow him. “Aaron is already making plans to move back into the house. Her phone wasn’t recovered after the crash, so short of a few pictures in her bedroom, there isn’t much of you to remove from her life. It sounds crazy, but the three of us have talked it out and believe it’s what’s best for her. As awful as this plane crash has been, this is our chance to finally give Remi her life back.”
“Her life is with me!”
“She doesn’t remember you,” Mark implored.
“You haven’t given her a Goddamn chance. We haven’t even seen each other,” I shot right back. “Get her on the phone. FaceTime. Whatever.” I glowered at Jack. “This is insanity, and you know it.”
He shook his head and his defeated eyes closed as he began to speak. His words sounded rehearsed and forced, but they came out with conviction, nonetheless. “My baby girl is sitting in a hospital across town, laughing and cracking jokes, back to her old self for the first time in almost a year, son. She hasn’t stopped smiling since she opened her eyes, and after we told her about the plane crash, she’s thanked every doctor and nurse who has walked into her room for saving her life.” His voice was weak but clinging to hope. “Damn it, she’s finally happy to be alive again. I don’t know about you, but I’d really like to keep it that way. If I have a choice to give her back her joy again, that’s the choice I’m making. I love you like you’re my own, Bowen, but I won’t lose her again.”
“Oh,” I laughed without humor. “So losing her is just something you’re expecting me to do then?”
When Jack found himself speechless, Mark stepped in. “The last thing we want is to trigger her memories while she’s still healing. Let her brain and body recover without having to deal with all the rest of that shit.”
The funny thing was, that part I understood. If they had come to me and asked me to lay low for a few weeks, I would have done it. No questions asked. They were right. Remi didn’t need a fucking refresher course on her emotional trauma while healing physically.
I even understood why they were concerned I would be the trigger to bring it all crashing back to her. Together, Remi and I were a tangled web of tragedy. If she remembered me, there was no way she wouldn’t remember the hell we’d endured as a couple.
They’d mentioned none of that the morning when they came into my room—forty-eight whole fucking hours after she’d woken up. Which, by the way, no one had called to tell me about. While they’d been celebrating with the woman we’d all loved and missed since long before the devastating flight, I’d been lying in a damn hospital bed, consumed by worry, my life playing on the backs of my eyelids, Remi starring in every scene. I wasn’t entirely convinced that, had Tyson not stopped by her room after a shift at the hospital, they’d be standing there at all.
No. It had all been thought out when they appeared in my room. Conspiring without me, they’d concluded to pick her stuff up from my house and asked what I wanted them to do with her engagement ring. They’d already made up their minds and executed decisions that hadn’t been theirs to fucking make.
My temper ablaze, I directed it at Aaron. Pale-faced, he stood with his shoulders squared, but he wasn’t far from tears. It made me an asshole to go after him when he was so clearly on the verge of self-destruction. But I wasn’t far from it, either.
“And let me guess. It’s what you want too? Fucking months of me cleaning up your mess after you all but called her a Goddamned liar and an addict. Now you want to swoop in and be a hero, casting me aside so you can get her back?”
My blow landed right where I’d intended, but Aaron’s wince didn’t make me feel the slightest bit better.
“Hey,” Mark snarled, stepping in front of his friend to block my view. “Watch your fucking mouth. You know good and damn well none of us knew how to handle it when she got back. We did the best we could.”
If my glare had been as tangible as it felt, I’d have sliced him clean in half with this one look. “Some of us did a better job than others. While you were off trying to open a failed second bar, I quit my job and devoted my entire life to Remi. Yet, somehow, she loses her memory and I’m the person you three have elected to erase? I’m the one who has to sacrifice a future with her in it? Get the fuck out of here and take your bullshit scheme with you.”
As I maniacally laughed at how ridiculous the whole scene was, my throat burned from how dry my mouth had become. “It won’t work. You’ll see. But you can have the rest of the week for her to heal up and get stronger. That is, if she’s not asking for me sooner. There is not a scenario in this whole damn world where Remi and I don’t end up together. Do with that what you will, but please, save your breath and get the hell out of my room. Shame on all fucking three of you for leaving her alone this long already.”
Mark opened his mouth again, but Tyson launched forward, his hand raised to silence him. “How about we put a pin in this for a while? There’s no rush. He’s said he’ll wait another week before reaching out to her. We all want the best for Remi, but it won’t happen going back and forth like this. And let’s not forget he’s still in a hospital bed himself.”