Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
She blinked and looked around the room again. “Huh? Where am I?”
“The hospital. Don’t talk. Let me get the doctor.”
“Where’s Mo?”
I blinked. “Mo? It’s me, Jasper.”
Sadie’s eyes closed, and fear spread through me. What if she didn’t understand me? What if her brain was all fucked up?
“Mo,” she said again and opened her eyes. “Where is Mo?”
“Mo isn’t here.” Why in the hell was she so concerned with Mo? Her eyes closed again, and my heart stopped. She wasn’t waking up.
“I’ll go find the doctor,” Virgil grunted, giving Sadie’s hand a quick squeeze before he beat a hasty exit.
Sadie’s eyes drifted open again, trying to take in all the details, probably wondering why we were all so worried about her. “Thirsty.”
“Okay. The doctor will come to check you out first.”
“Thirsty,” she groaned and pointed her finger toward the cup of half-melted ice on the table. I hoisted Ava on my hip and managed to grab the spoon and fish out some crushed ice, spilling some on the tray table.
How did women do shit with babies in their arms? Then I carefully put the spoon to Sadie’s barely open mouth. Luckily, Ava didn’t start bouncing on my hip until I put the spoon back in the cup.
“Where’s the fucking doctor? Kat, call Thomas. I think she’s finally awake!”
Terry laughed and clapped his big hands loudly. He winked and raised a glass of Velvet Fire. “To Sadie, finally awake, soon to be raising hell. Again.”
Just then, Cal returned, and Ava Rose reached out for him to take her back. I have to admit, I felt a pang of jealousy, but then a round of cheers went up all around the room.
The whiskey flowed, but I couldn’t move from my spot beside the bed. Couldn’t take my eyes off Sadie.
Couldn’t believe she was finally awake.
And that scared the ever lovin’’ shit out of me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Jasper
It was a fluke. A fucking fluke. Sadie woke up, smiled, and talked some shit about Mo doing her makeup before she started asking questions about why she was in the hospital, and how long she’d been there.
Then, while Virgil was out of the room looking for Dr. Purcell, she closed her eyes again and hadn’t woken up since.
It didn’t make any fucking sense. “What the fuck, Doc?”
Purcell let out a frustrated sigh. I could see the man reaching deep into his well of patience before he looked across the bed at me, Sadie unconscious between us. He shoved his hands into his lab coat. “She woke up, Jasper, and that’s a good sign.”
“Yeah, well, she hasn’t opened her eyes since.”
“It takes time, Jasper. She’s been out of it for months, and now that she’s starting to wake up again, her body needs time to acclimate. Everything will feel new to her for some time. Walking and talking and eating, not to mention her memory. She’s not going to just wake up and become the woman she was the moment before the shooting.”
The sympathy in his voice was the only reason I didn’t lay the fucker out.
I nodded, too fucking exasperated to say or do anything else. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I knew Purcell was doing all he could to help Sadie.
“So you’re saying she could stay asleep for another few months, or she could wake up any minute now?”
“Pretty much. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but we can’t rush head trauma. The most important thing is that she wakes up in her own time, when she’s ready, to minimize any further trauma.”
“Yeah, I got it, Doc. Thanks.” I’d been at the hospital since last night because I couldn’t bring myself to leave after she woke up. I had a childlike hope that she would wake up again in the night and everything would just go back to normal. Ashby normal, anyway.
Doctors and nurses were in and out of the room for hours, checking vital signs and looking at her body under the sheets. I only left her side a few times to smoke and check in with Terry and Virgil.
Eventually, the sun lowered in the sky, sending the last rays into the room, so at odds with how I felt about the fact that she wouldn’t wake up.
Sadie, always the drama queen, woke up slowly just as the sun pushed below the horizon. It wasn’t quick like it was last night.
No, this was a painful hour or so of her eyes working hard to flip open her lids, her mouth twitching as if she was trying to speak but couldn’t. Her fingers moved slowly, one at a time and never all at once. She seemed to be taking stock of her abilities, what she could and couldn’t do yet.
I sat close to her ear and took her hand in mine. “Wake up, Sadie,” I urged as if all she needed was encouragement. I knew she’d wake up if she could. I could see her trying like hell.