Her hand tightened. “Evan… You came back.” she garbled. “You…”
I stiffened until I almost shattered her in my arms. “Simmy… ”
She rubbed her cheek against my stubbled one and her lips grazed the edge of my mouth.
My throat almost closed up.
“I love you, Evan,” she muttered in an airy breath, but before I could return the years’-old sentiment, she collapsed against me.
Chapter Four
Jaxson
When Simone’s eyes fluttered open again, she was propped up in a hospital bed. At the first signs of life, I jerked forward and gazed into her face. “She’s up,” I called out. I was talking to the only other person in the room – the woman in the bad-ass power suit. Her name was Dinah, and as many times as I’d told her she could leave, she’d refused to do it. Not that I blamed her. She didn’t know me from a hole in the wall. Still, I wanted her to know that her friend would be safe with me. In fact, as far as I was concerned, save the doctors, there was no one who would be able to take care of her better than I would.
The words she’d spewed right before she fainted had tormented me for hours. Recollections of the sweet way in which her mouth had twisted to say those three, barely lucid words, were sitting heavy on my brain. The moment they’d hit my ears, everything in me had seized.
I’d heard those words before, from my parents, my siblings – from countless women; but never had they made my heart explode the way hearing them from Simone Storm had. Not only that, hearing them come from her confirmed that I needed to hear them over and over again, and I’d do whatever I had to, to make her say them.
But she’d called me Evan…
Did she know? Did she realize that I was the one she’d been writing about? Did she understand that I had come to claim her, once and for all?
I slowed the rushing thoughts and my shoulders folded.
No, she didn’t know, I told myself. She’d only been rambling. Simone had no idea what she was saying in that moment, and while I sat next to her in the hospital room, I did all I could to reduce my expectations and accept reality. The effort didn’t stop a thin thread of hope from winding through my soul, and I was anticipating the moment she would be lucid enough to pick up the conversation where we’d left off.
‘I love you, Evan…’
My heart leapt.
Do you recognize me, Simmy?
Dinah rushed to the side of the bed, knocking me out of the way in the process. “Oh my God, Storm! Can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I…” Simone tried to sit up but grimaced before thumping back against the hospital bed. “Damn, my entire body is sore,” she whined, rubbing her arm. “I feel like I was hit by a truck.”
“Not a truck. A car,” I chimed in, smiling.
For the first time since being in the back of the ambulance, her eyes zipped to my face, finally registering my presence. Her brows pulled tight and waves of apprehension washed over her countenance.
I stared back; hoping, praying.
It’s me, sweetheart.
“Dinah…” She swallowed and shook her head like she was trying to clear it. “Who is this guy and why is he sitting at the edge of my bed?” She was whispering, as if I wasn’t right there and could hear every word she’d said.
Dinah huffed. “His name is Jaxson,” she answered on my behalf.
“Jaxson?”
“Yes, Jaxson,” she confirmed in a grunt, “and he’s your knight in shining armor. He’s the guy who saved your stubborn ass from the car that almost took your freaking lights out!” Dinah’s voice was a shrill of emotion and her eyes glazed over with tears.
“I was in an accident?” Simone balked, as if we hadn’t gone over these details a million times before now.
In the back of the ambulance, she’d been in and out of consciousness, asking me what had happened and who I was, over and over. She’d also told me a few other things, totally unaware that I already knew everything there was to know about her.
“You were almost in an accident,” I answered patiently, using the same line I’d used several times already, “but the doctors have checked you thoroughly and they say you’re fine, except for a minor scrape to the knee.”
Simone eyed me and Dinah huffed again, as if I’d said there’d been a scrape to a major artery in addition to the knee.
“The point is, had you listened to me and waited for the damn meeting to finish instead of venturing off on your own, none of this would have happened,” Dinah barked, now pacing the hospital room floor. “Had it not been for Jaxson,” she threw her hand in my direction, “God only knows where you’d be right now!”
“You’re right,” Simone muttered, chin dipping low. “I can’t argue with you on this one.”
“The hell you can’t!” Dinah confirmed.
“It was a stupid decision,” Simone was saying. “I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. I was thinking about Evan and…” The words died away before she sighed and turned a reluctant gaze in my direction. “Thank you, Jaxson. It seems I owe you big time.”
My jaw jerked. Simone didn’t owe me anything. If anything, it was me who owed her. Still, if she felt she had a debt to pay, I could think of ways for her to handle it – starting with an opportunity to talk privately. I wanted to tell her everything, but now wasn’t the time. The last thing I wanted to do was say too much, too soon.
My heart was crushing at the realization that she didn’t recognize me, and that her whispering out Evan had all been an accident; but if I could get some time with her, get her alone, it would give me a chance to tell her the truth about who I was.
Before the conversation could advance any further, the doctor was hustling in, lab coat swishing from left to right. The minute she saw Simone, her face brightened, and she pushed out a sigh of relief. “Miss Storm, you’re back with us!” she chirped heading straight for the bed.
I moved to the side to give her complete access.
The doctor whipped a thermometer out and quickly took Simone’s temperature. Then, she strapped a blood pressure monitor band around Simone’s arm and tapped a button, forcing it to tighten around her small bicep.
Simone winced a little but settled quickly, trying to toughen up. “Yes, I’m back,” she confirmed warily, “though to be honest, I had no knowledge that I’d even gone.”
The doctor chuckled and scribbled numbers onto the chart in her hand, before slapping the folder closed and packing the equipment away. “Just like last time,” she noted shaking her head, and then she grimaced. “Thankfully, this was nothing like last time, all thanks to your real-life hero over here.”
“So I’ve been told,” she agreed with a meek smile. Our eyes met again, and Simone blushed. The color was returning to her face, so the rosy spread taking over her cheeks made her skin glow. It looked good on her.
My heartbeat escalated.
“And you seem to be lucid,” the doctor continued, flashing a small light into Simone’s eyes.
Simone’s pupils dilated and the doctor clicked off the light.