Page 177 of Love Me

I lift my eyes, and everyone is running down the hallway toward me: my friends, family, and her parents.

“Any news?” her mother asks.

“They can’t give him that information,” her father says.

“I told them I’m her husband.”

He looks at me in shock. “What?”

It’s not a lie. A piece of paper wouldn’t make a difference when our hearts signed the deed for life with our vows.

“She’s in surgery right now.”

The two hours she spends in surgery, I pace around like a nervous wreck.

When the doctor informs us she is out of recovery and has been brought to her room, I drop down onto a chair, finally able to breathe.

“We did it,” Abi says, placing a hand on my knee, and I nod.

“We’ll be there for her. She won’t be alone,” she assures me.

It takes everything in me to let Celine’s parents go to her first, but I know what it will mean to her, to see her mother, her parents reunited.

“We have the upper hand now.” I infuse all the confidence I have.

Bailey arrives next. Without her, the plan wouldn’t have come to fruition.

“Ah, look who’s here, the princess in the ivory tower,” Hunter snickers.

“Hunter,” Mia says in a low voice.

“What? It’s the fucking truth.”

“You don’t know shit,” I say, and Bailey pins me with a stare.

“Whatever.”

I glance at my watch. How long does it take for them to catch up? I miss Celine. I want to look into her eyes and know she’s fine.

When the door finally opens, her father says, “Celine wants to see you.”

I jump from the chair and run straight into the room.

“Someone is eager to see me.”

The IV drips into her vein. She’s hooked to a monitor, and hearing her steady heartbeat puts me at ease.

“I think this is making me high.” She pulls at the IV and giggles. “No pain, no thoughts.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

“I won’t. I have you, even though you’re not even half as efficient as they are.”

I chuckle. “I’ll remind you of your words when you beg me to let you come.”

Her eyes dilate and she pats the spot next to her, but my feet are rooted to the spot.

“Baby, come here. I am not in pain. I feel like I could fly.”

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