Page 37 of Before You Can Blink
The ride last night had been an absolute disaster. Not only had I landed my ass in the dirt, but I’d gotten my brain rattled, fucked up my collarbone so bad I needed surgery, and had been dealt a punctured lung.
I vaguely recalled asking the woman wheeling me back to surgery how long before I could ride again, but deep in my gut, I already knew it wouldn’t be this season. Swear to God, every damn year something got in my way. When was it finally going to be my turn?
A soft sniffle caught my attention, and my eyes lifted to the open doorway of the hospital room. At the sight of my wife’s trembling form on thethreshold, clutching the strap of her purse like a lifeline as her eyes spilled over with tears, any frustration I felt over the postponement in my quest for glory seeped right out of me.
I might be the one injured, but my girl was hurting. And it killed me to know I was to blame.
“Daze,” I croaked out. “Come here.”
Weakly, Daisy shook her head. “You’re hurt.” Lower lip wobbling, she added, “Really bad.”
There was no sugar coating this. “Yeah.”
“I-I should have—” A sob burst free from her chest, and she clamped a hand over her mouth to try and stifle it. Eyes squeezing shut like it was almost too painful to look at me, she whispered, “I should have been there.”
“No, baby. I’m glad you weren’t.” If she was this wrecked seeing the aftermath, watching me get thrown and trampled on would likely have been enough to give her nightmares.
Those damn dark circles under her eyes were more prominent than ever, and she looked dead on her feet.
“Come here, sweetheart.” This time, it was more of a command than a request.
Shuffling across the polished floor, Daisy moved closer at a snail’s pace. My fingers twitched, desperate in my need to touch her, to comfort her.
My wife stopped at the edge of my hospital bed, shaking like a leaf.
I patted the thin mattress. “Get on up here.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to cause you any more pain.”
“Well, you’re breaking my heart by not letting me hold you close while you’re suffering at my expense.”
Daisy let out a stuttered exhale but finally climbed into bed with me, careful to stay on my good side.
My fingers tangled in her long brown tresses. “See? That’s better.”
With her face pressed to the bare skin of my right pec, she whispered, “When Layla came beating at the door last night, I thought . . .” When her words trailed off and she shuddered in my arms, I knew she’d feared the worst.
The wetness from her tears slid down the side of my chest. “I can’t lose you, Jett.Wecan’t lose you.”
“I’m okay and on the mend, Daze. You and Ma don’t have to worry.”
Voice soft, she said, “I wasn’t talking about your mother.”
My brows drew down. “Then who’s ‘we’?”
A movement caught the corner of my eye, and I watched as Daisy placed one hand on her lower abdomen.
My entire world came to a screeching halt, and I wasn’t sure if my struggle to breathe had more to do with the collapsed lung I’d suffered or the bomb my wife just dropped.
Iknewsomething was going on with her, but the idea that she might be pregnant had never crossed my mind.
Daisy’s tear-streaked face lifted off my chest, and she began to sob uncontrollably. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how it happened. It was just that one time, and I truly thought we were in the clear. But then I missed my period, and Layla bought me a test. When it came back positive, she told me to keep it quiet until the end of the season so it wouldn’t steal your focus and be a distraction. I wanted to tell you; it twisted me up inside keeping this secret from you.” When I merely stared at her, struck mute, she continued to fill the silence with her nervous rambling. “I know this wasn’t planned or something that you ever wanted. But what’s done is done, and I won’t lie to you, Jett. I’m so happy about this little life we’ve created. It’s a piece of you and a piece of me, and already, I love it so much.”
All I could do was blink at her as my mind raced, trying to process this life-altering news. In the span of one breath, everything had changed.
At my continued non-response, her face fell, and she scrambled off the bed, backing away until she stood against the far wall of the room. Arms hugging her middle, she curled in on herself.
“You’re angry; I get it. But the least you could do is say something. You owe me that much.”
