SIX MONTHS (A Seven Series Novel)

The IV pump by my bed clattered and I feared it would be impossible to sleep because of the noise.

 

Reno leaned in and kissed me on the mouth, gentle and sweet. Then his lips reverently kissed my cheeks, nose, and forehead.

 

“What do you want? Name it and I’ll get it for you,” he said, brushing a finger lightly over a dark bruise on my right arm.

 

My eyelids drooped and my mouth barely muttered, “Cookies.”

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 21

 

 

My doctor advised me to wear a large boot for three weeks and then come back for X-rays to see how it was healing. I had to keep it elevated when sitting and not put any pressure on it. The crutches were tiresome and hurt my arms. I practiced in my room for a little while before Lexi helped me into the bathroom to get dressed and remove the round adhesives they’d used for the heart monitors. They were all over my chest, and they left red marks when I peeled them off.

 

A knock sounded on the bathroom door.

 

“Just a minute,” Lexi said.

 

“Open up,” Reno insisted. His voice raised the tiny blond hairs on my arms. She unlatched the door and as soon as it opened, he cupped her arm and pulled her out.

 

“Wait a second!” she complained. “Don’t manhandle me.”

 

Reno ignored her and shut himself in the bathroom. “Let me see,” he said, kneeling down to look at one of the stickers I was struggling to pull off from beneath my breast. He splashed a little water on it and peeled it away, dabbing my skin with a cool rag.

 

“What did he say about your head?”

 

“That it’s empty, just as I’d suspected all along.”

 

He smiled. “I see you have your rapier wit back.”

 

“I had a mild concussion. It was precautionary to keep me here, but I’m glad he’s letting me go home.”

 

Then I got the big picture as Reno knelt there, caring for something as trivial as a red mark left on my skin by an adhesive.

 

Reno could heal.

 

He had sustained serious burns in the fire and yet was fully recovered, while I was in a walking boot with bruises and a few scars from the IV. I had no place in his complicated world. How could I expect him to hang around and watch me get hurt, or what if I got cancer someday?

 

Maybe I shouldn’t have been planning our future when we’d only been seeing each other for a short time, but it felt like it could go that way if I let him in. He seemed willing, but I don’t think he’d taken into consideration what he was getting out of this deal. We were pulling on a wishbone and he’d gotten the short end, while I was getting the fairy tale.

 

I ran my fingers through his bristly hair and down to his pensive brow. Reno’s weathered face had lines etched in his cheeks and forehead, but it didn’t make him look old. It made him look rugged and sexy, like a man who expressed himself. He glanced up at me with smoldering brown eyes and I realized what made him so attractive to me—his commanding presence combined with a softness whenever he looked at me. My fingers traced the deep lines carved in his cheeks, and when he smiled, they became pronounced. Reno appealed to me in so many surprising ways.

 

“Have you led a hard life?” I asked in a quiet voice.

 

He tipped his head side to side. “I’ve seen my fair share of death and war. I guess that toughens a man.”

 

“Why did you go to war? I mean, doesn’t that require being enlisted, and how did they not discover what you were?”

 

“We can get fake identification, social security numbers, you name it. The Breed look after their own. I believe in fighting for what’s important, April. I didn’t always think so. When I was young, I had a foolish heart.”

 

“Is that when you smiled more?” I asked, grazing my finger over the laugh line in his cheek, trying to imagine the young man he’d once been before the pitfalls of life had caught up with him.

 

Reno stood up and threaded his fingers through my hair, studying the roots. “You should grow out all this shit. I’d like to see the real you. I bet you’re a knockout.” He straightened the brown T-shirt that Lexi had lent me.

 

“Are you saying I’m not a knockout?” I grinned wryly and Reno struggled for words. “I’m just teasing. But feel free to remove your foot from your mouth anytime.”

 

Reno bent forward and wrapped his strong arms around my waist. I draped mine over his neck as he lifted me up and walked into the room. “Got everything?”

 

I sniffed out a short laugh. “I don’t think I came in here with anything.”

 

“Yeah, you forgot something,” he said with a smile in his voice. Reno set me down and picked up a package of cookies he had bought from the vending machine. “For the ride,” he said, putting them in my hand. “I’ll get the nurse and tell her you’re ready.”

 

After I signed the papers and was wheeled out front, Reno lifted me out of the chair and carried me to the passenger side of his blue truck. The crutches were tossed in the back.

 

“Where’s Trevor?”

 

“Trevor isn’t taking you anywhere. You’re coming home with me,” he said in a thick, leathery voice.

 

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