Page 65 of You Are Cordially Invited

Sometime during the night, he slid off the bed and into the La-Z-Boy, but I doubted he slept. Every time I woke and glanced his way, he was staring out the window or scrolling through his phone, his jaw tense enough to crack teeth.

Something was wrong. Maybe I’d upset him more than I knew. Maybe he was having second thoughts about us, after all. Maybe the injury had stirred questions in him. Maybe he’d worried he couldn’t live with me in a chair. It didn’t sound like Cam, but how the fuck would I know when he wasn’t damn well talking to me?

And when I finally woke at seven to a weak stripe of early morning light across my chest, he was gone.

The nurse came in with breakfast and found the note on my table.

Gone home to shower and see Cory. Ask Leyton to phone me about imaging results. I’m sorry. Love you. C.

It should’ve been reassuring, but fuck if it wasn’t. He hadn’t bothered to wake me when he left, and that alone scared the shit out of me. What? He couldn’t wait until after the doctors had come? That wasn’t Cam. The note wasn’t Cam. Nothing about the last twelve hours was Cam.

I relived our conversation from the previous night and cringed.

Jesus Christ, could I have been a more thoughtless arsehole? Already stressed with the wedding and the idea of a new baby, Cam had been hit with me being injured in a way that must’ve scared the shit out of him.

And what had I done the minute things improved? Gone and told him he needed to step back and chill out.

Fuck. Me.

I’d been a complete jerk.

I automatically reached for my phone only to remember I hadn’t seen it since I’d been injured. A new nurse brought my breakfast and briefly looked for the phone when I asked but came up empty-handed. It was probably with Cam.

I managed to feed myself some toast before the doctors arrived to poke and prod. Leyton was clearly curious as to where Cam was, no doubt expecting the third degree once again, but I merely shrugged and said he’d gone home to shower. He frowned but didn’t call me on it, finishing his examination with a bright smile instead. I had movement back in all my limbs, even if everything felt a bit like unset jelly, the right worse than the left.

When they were done, the others left, but Leyton pulled up a chair and smiled. “At this rate, if the imaging comes back clear again and you continue to improve, then I can see you home by the end of the weekend.”

“I’m getting married on Saturday.” I eyeballed him.

He frowned. “You might just have to—”

“I’m getting married on Saturday,” I repeated. “If I have to do it in this room, I will. But I’d really like to think that I won’t still be here if everything continues as it is. Would that be at all possible?”

Leyton sighed and sat back in his chair. “Let’s get the imaging done and see how you are by Thursday. No promises.”

“Yes.” I did a tiny fist pump and Leyton laughed.

“No promises,” he repeated sternly before he left, and I poked my tongue out at his back.

Then I was bundled off for another full round of imaging with the promise I’d be able to get rid of everything but a soft neck brace if the results were good. I wished with everything I had that Cam was coming with me and asked Leyton to call him and Michael and bring them up to date. He promised he would.

Two hours later I was back in the ward, but still no Cam, and no message for me either.Goddammit. I was past worried and quickly approaching thoroughly pissed off.

Was he trying to punish me? If so, he was doing a damn good job.

Leyton and Michael appeared in my room within minutes of my return, all smiles and thumbs up, so that was something. The awkward metal brace came off and a soft neck collar replaced it. I had to remain in bed—not that my legs were capable of holding me up anyway—but I was allowed to sit, thank God.

It felt like a prison sentence had been lifted.

Craig and Georgie came to visit, and it was incredible to hold my best friend in my arms—one of a million things I’d taken for granted. Even Craig came in for a hug, the tight lines around his mouth and dark circles under his eyes testament to a touching concern I hadn’t expected. I held on to him longer than he probably wanted, but we’d survived our father, the two of us, and that was no small thing. We needed to find a better way forward.

He broke down immediately and apologised for telling Dad about my injury, looking confused when I said I had no idea what he was talking about.

Georgie blinked hard, a deep frown settling on her forehead. I made her show me the online commentaries and explain.

My blood boiled. Was this what Cam had been hiding? Protecting me yet again.

“Don’t be mad at him,” Georgie tried to soothe me. “You had a concussion, for fuck’s sake, on top of everything else.”

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