Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
I nodded, understanding that it could be that way.
I’d done a lot of research on my phone and read about a hundred pamphlets while I’d been waiting on them to get her stabilized.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out of my pocket to see the text from Ridley.
Ridley (10:00 PM): No change. Still asleep.
My text was a picture of Emily with the oxygen nose shit taking up the entirety of her face.
Ridley’s response made me snort.
Ridley (10:02): Looks like her mama. Same toes.
“All right, Mr. Apple,” the nurse said sympathetically. “The NICU hours are from eight AM until eight PM. We’re going to have to ask you to leave,” she whispered apologetically.
I winced.
“Are you sure I have to leave?” My voice pleaded with her.
She nodded.
“I am. I’m sorry. But you can be here as soon as the clock strikes eight AM. I’ll also be calling you if anything changes. You can also call me anytime you feel you need an update, okay?” She offered.
I nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
With one last touch against Emily’s cheek, I left the NICU feeling like I’d left my own beating heart behind.
I walked down one flight of stairs and turned left, following the directions I’d gotten from Ridley, arriving at Kitt’s room and stopping in surprise when I saw not just Ridley inside, but Griffin and his wife, Mig and his wife, Casten and his wife, Peek and his wife, and Wolf.
They all stood the moment I came into the room.
“Pictures!” Lenore declared loudly.
I smiled and pulled out my phone, giving it to Lenore.
The other ladies quickly gathered around the phone and cooed over the pictures.
My eyes, however, were all for Kitt.
She looked tiny in the big white hospital bed.
Her head had a huge laceration from the top of her hairline all the way down to her eyebrow.
Her leg was up in the air, wrapped from ankle to thigh.
The bedding was bunched up over her midsection, which looked weird not swollen with our child.
Her eyes were both black, and she had crusted, dried blood in her hair and around her ear.
I grabbed a washcloth from the sink, wet it and gently went to work on the blood.
I had to go rinse it at least three times before I was satisfied that it was all gone, and when I looked up next, the room was empty.
Taking a glance behind me to be sure, I closed my eyes.
Sighing in relief, I took a seat on the very edge of Kitt’s bed, careful not to jostle her, and stared at her, willing her to wake.
“This wasn’t how this was supposed to go,” I told her, lifting my hand to brush a piece of her beautiful hair off her forehead. “You were supposed to have this kid naturally, and I was supposed to cut the umbilical cord. What to Expect When You’re Expecting said so.”
That beautiful laugh of hers didn’t light up the air around me, and I closed my eyes as the tears that were clogging my throat threatened to spill over.
But then something she’d said a couple days back, the night I finally decided to pull my head out of my ass and tell her everything there was to know about me, good and bad, came back to me.
I love you. I love you when you’re you. I love you when you’re not you. I love you when you’re sick. I love you when you’re healthy. I’d take care of you even if you were a quadriplegic. You’re it for me, and I’m it for you. Got it?
“I love you. I love you when you’re you. I love you when you’re not you. I love you when you’re sick. I love you when you’re healthy. I’d take care of you even if you were a quadriplegic. You’re it for me, and I’m it for you. Got it?” I whispered.
She still didn’t answer, but I wasn’t worried. She’d come back to me. And when she did, she was mine.
Forever.
***
Day four after the accident, Kitt woke with a vengeance.
“Get your hands off me, you stupid fool!” I heard yelled loudly. “Where’s my baby?”
I rolled over from my back to my side and stared at the most beautiful vision I’d ever seen.
Kitt. Awake and pissed.
“Ma’am. Do you know where you are?” The nurse, the same one that’d been her nurse for the last two nights, asked her, ignoring her rude comments.
“I’m in the hospital, you twit,” she said. “Even I can see that, and I don’t know what day it is or how I got here. Now, take me to my baby!”
“Ma’am,” the nurse tried to say. “I’ll have to ask your doctor if it’s okay for you to see the baby.” She pointed to Kitt’s leg that was still up in the contraption that kept it immobile. “He said we could take it down today, but I’ll have to make sure before we do.”