Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry, honey.”
I inhale long and hard and let it out slowly. “The ER was crazy like usual, and I kept thinking of her… I didn’t want her to be alone, so any chance I got, I would go in there to check on her. Throughout the day, she opened up to me. She told me about how she didn’t have a mom or dad and she was raised in foster care.”
Gabe pulls me to him, holding me tighter.
“She did get married, but she couldn’t have kids. Her husband died last month, and she was alone in the world. She kept saying that she missed him and she wanted to be with him.”
I wipe the tear off my cheek before it hits his chest. “I tried to tell her that she had so much to live for, and she told me she didn’t. She has no one that would care if she lived or died.” I sniff loudly in the quiet of the room. “But I told her I cared, and I wanted her to live.”
I clench my eyes shut as I relive the moments after that. “There was a code blue, and I had to go. I told her I’d be back. I was doing CPR, waiting on the doctor to come when I heard another code blue called. It was her… her heart gave out, and nothing they did could get it pumping again.”
I start crying in earnest then, and he pulls me until I’m practically on top of him. He’s kissing the top of my head, stroking my back. “Oh baby, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that you had to go through that.”
“She died alone, Gabe. She died believing that no one cared about her and no one loved her.”
“No, honey. She didn’t. It was her time to go. You told her you cared and that you wanted her to live.”
He’s rubbing his chin across my head softly, and we’re both quiet for a few minutes.
“Can you promise me something, Gabe?”
“Anything,” he answers without question.
“When I die… I mean, I don’t…”
I let my voice trail off, unsure how to say what I want to say.
He brushes the hair off my face and lifts my chin. We’re so close to each other, I can feel his warm breath on my cheek. “You’re my person, Chrissy. Do you know what that means?”
I just blink up at him.
He strokes my hair with his hand, twirling it in his fingers. “It means that no matter where you are, I’m going to be with you.”
“But you’re going to have a family one day and—”
He cuts me off. “You are my family, Chrissy. I’m going to be by your side forever, through the good and the bad. You will never once think that no one cared about you or loved you… because I care about you… I love you.”
There’s so much emotion in his eyes and in his voice that it is almost overwhelming. I lay my head down on his chest because I’m afraid he’ll be able to see exactly what I’m thinking if I don’t. “I love you too, Gabe.”
He locks his hands together around my waist. “I know you do, honey.”
We lie quietly, and I can feel myself getting more tired. “Are you staying the night?”
His voice is groggy. “Yep, I’m here for the duration. No nightmares on my watch.”
When we were younger and I had nightmares, Gabe would always stay with me until I went to sleep, and he’d always say the same thing: “no nightmares on my watch.” To this day, I’ve never had a nightmare any time he’s been with me. I smile against his chest and burrow deeper into his side, knowing that I’ll be able to sleep through the night.
8
GABE
It’s like heaven and hell, all wrapped into one. Heaven because I have Chrissy in my arms. She was able to sleep through the night, and any time I tried to move away, she held me tighter. It is hell because my cock is hard, and I can’t do anything about it. I want to push her to her back and slide into her, but I don’t have that right. Hell, she’d probably freak out if I even tried it.
Chrissy is sprawled on my chest, and as she lifts her leg higher, her thigh grazes against my hard manhood, and there’s no holding in the groan that erupts from me. I know the minute she wakes up and realizes what’s happening by the way she tenses against me. I gently untangle myself from her and move to the edge of the bed, head in my hands. “Sorry,” I mutter.
The bed shakes as she sits up behind me. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. It’s a natural reaction for a man to wake up with nocturnal penile tumescence, also called morning wood.”