Page 92 of Staying for You

“Thank you.”

She doesn’t accept my apology but they always say actions speak louder than words and her coming to the hospital speaks volumes.

* * *

“How are you this morning?”Nurse Autumn asks as she flutters around the room, opening my blinds, setting down my breakfast of hospital scrambled eggs and toast, and checking my vitals. She’s been here the last three mornings and if all goes well, this is the last time I’ll ever look into her eyes that are so dark they’re almost black. Autumn has spent a little extra time in my room. But I suspect that’s because Brody’s been here and from what she tells me, her kids are taking too long giving her grandbabies to cuddle and spoil.

“Great.” I smile wide. I am, too. Not only am I feeling better, headache not so prevalent and my double vision mostly gone, today Cami arrives.

“Your girl still coming today?”

“Now, Autumn, I told you she isn’t my girl.”

“Yet. You said she isn’t yours yet.” She smiles and writes down the numbers from my blood pressure and pulse.

“I have to do a little groveling and magic first.”

“Typical man,” she scoffs, shaking her head at me playfully. “You’re stuck with me again today. We had someone call in otherwise I would have been off. Think you can handle that?”

“I think so. But are you sure you didn’t just swap days so you could get a look at Cami?”

Her eyes widen and she whaps me with the back of her hand lightly. “You are such a stinker. I would never do such a thing.”

“Mm hmm. Right,” I tease.

She rolls her eyes and gives me a look that I’m pretty sure they must pull all moms aside when they first become a mom and give them lessons on how to create it.Themom look. It’s universally known to bring a grown man to his knees.

“I’ll be watching for her. What time do you expect her to arrive?”

“Probably shortly after one. You ordered the candlelight dinner for us tonight, right? Have the rose petals to lay out on the floor and bed? Maybe put on some Barry White and chill a bottle of champagne.”

She snickers and shakes her head as she walks out the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

And my thoughts are all over the place, especially when Sawyer, the police detective who first came to my room to ask me questions regarding my fall, strides into my room shortly before lunch. My sister was here already but I sent her and Ethan to the resort. When Cami arrives in her rental car, I want time alone with her and Olivia hanging onto our every word would give us the opposite.

Sawyer’s a well-built guy with a buzz cut, broad shoulders and biceps that intimidate me, but he seems like a genuinely nice person. He’s also made it clear that he does not, in any way, shape, or form, like Scott Moore.

After I gave him my account of the events that led to me falling down the stairs, Sawyer did some searching, as is typical for his career. What he discovered made me a little sick. Once Scott discovered where Cami had been, he started digging around to find out everything he could on me. His internet search was extensive, but at the time, it wasn’t clear as to how he found out that Cami and I had been together as anything more than simply guest and tenant.

“How goes it, man? How’s the head? The leg?” he asks in his deep voice. He has dark skin and black hair and when he reaches out a hand to clamp on my shoulder and the other to shake my hand, I accept both and add in a smile.

“Pretty good. You?”

“Good here. Got some news you’ll be interested in.”

“Hit me with it.”

He takes a seat in the chair next to my bed and leans over, elbows resting on his knees and hands laced together. “Our guy’s a dick.”

“Figured as much.” I sit up, thankful that I can at least be in regular clothes and not in the hospital gown. If I hadn’t had the concussion, I would have been out of the hospital already. But considering the severity of it and the fact that I was knocked out for a good while, I had to stay in this place under observation.

To say that I’m ready to be out of here would be an understatement.

“Not just a dick. A supreme dick.”

That gets my attention.

His deep brown eyes assess me before he admits, “He’s been working his ass off trying to ruin your girl’s career. Not only that, he got some barely-of-age girl pregnant and from what I hear, he’s been a special kind of dick about that, too. Up front was good with her. Made her feel like she was his one and only. Her co-workers explained things a bit differently. What this girl’s not seeing or hearing behind the scenes, what he’s up to when she’s not looking. Spoke with the local guys in your girl’s town, he’s a special kind of dick there, too. A real piece of work, this one. No one believes his tangents, of course, because he is who he is and has proven himself to be that way but yeah, we need your girl out of there and away from this guy because my thoughts on this aren’t good.”

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