“What exactly are you saying?” I ask, wanting to make sure I’m understanding him.
“We removed your wife’s spleen. She’ll have to stay here for a few days, so we can monitor her recovery, and she’ll have to take it easy while she recovers for the next four to six weeks. She’s a lucky woman. This could have been much worse.”
“Can I see her?” I ask, ignoring everyone around me.
“I’d normally tell you to wait until she’s brought to her room, but you’re not looking too good, Mr. Hayes. How about you let us take you back to your wife and we can look you over too?”
“Take care of my wife, and I’ll be fine, doc. Just make sure she’s okay.”
Becket helps me back into the wheelchair, and Ashlyn calls out for me.
I stop and look at her.
I should feel guilty because I didn’t offer to let her go back there to see her daughter, but I can’t.
I need Lindy.
I need to feel her breathe.
“Take care of my baby, Easton.”
I nod, feeling like I already failed, but I don’t say anything as the doctor moves behind me and wheels me into Lindy’s room.
The room is cold and quiet. The hum of the machines, the only sound.
The doctor wheels me over to her bed, and I rest my head against her arm as a nurse comes in and checks Lindy over. Then she looks at me, and I shake my head. She looks like she’s going to fight with me but changes her mind and leaves us alone.
I press my lips against Lindy’s limp hand. “I’m so sorry, baby. So sorry I couldn’t save you. Please be okay. I can’t do this without you.” I drop my head down and do something I haven’t done in fucking years.
I pray.
Lindy
The hum from the overhead lighting is the first thing I notice when I wake up.
The pain is the next thing.
“Lindy.” My mom’s voice pulls me further from the fog, and I open my eyes and try to focus.
“Mom.” I find her next to my bed, with Brandon behind her.
I’m in a hospital room.
The pieces of a fuzzy puzzle start slowly falling into place, and I remember the accident.
I remember being wheeled into the hospital and told they needed to take me into surgery.
“Easton?” I ask, and my mom points to the other side of my bed, where my husband’s head is laying on top of my hand. His arm is splinted, and his hair is a tangled mess.
“He hasn’t left your side since they wheeled you out of surgery last night. His doctors wanted him to go back to his room, but he refused. He followed you from the recovery room to this room once you were admitted and hasn’t moved since.”
My eyes fly open, and I lift my numb hand and run it over his hair. “Hockey boy,” I whisper, my throat dry and sore.
He doesn’t move.
“I don’t want to wake him up,” I tell Mom and Brandon.
“Oh, sweetheart. That man was ready to take on anyone who got in his way to get to you. He was barely out of surgery when he got himself down to the surgical floor to wait with us. Wake him up and show him you’re okay. That’s the best thing you can do for him. We’ll go find a nurse and tell her you’re up.”
Mom leans down and kisses my head. “I love you, Madeline. You’re never allowed to do this to me again, got it?”
“I’ll see what I can do, Mom.”
She and Brandon close the door behind them, and I run my hand over Easton’s head. “Wake up, husband,” I call to him, and he mumbles something.
“Easton . . . I need you. Please wake up for me.”
He moves his head and looks up at me. “Baby . . .” It takes a minute for him to focus, and then his hazel eyes transform from brown to golden-green, and he smiles and pushes to his feet. Immediately, his lips press against mine, and we just breathe each other in.
“Oh my God, baby. I thought I lost you.”
I slowly reach up and cup his face in my hands. “You couldn’t lose me. You saved me.”
“I didn’t save you. If I did, you’d still have a spleen and wouldn’t be waking up in a hospital bed, Lindy.” The utter heartbreak in his voice guts me.
“Easton, you did everything you could to stop what happened. We can’t control other people or Mother Nature. And even then, when that car was coming right for us, you threw your arm in front of me.” I gently touch his splint, and he winces in pain. “In my dreams, you always save me, E. And you save me in my reality too. You always do.”
“I love you so much, princess. Old and gray, remember? You can’t ever force me to live on this Earth without you.”
He lowers the rail of the bed.
“What are you doing, E?”
He gently lies down next to me. “They’ve been trying to get me to lie down for hours. I’m following the doctor’s orders.”
“They’re going to make you move,” I tell him as I carefully rest my head on his chest.
“Let them try, baby. Let them try.”
“I love you, Easton. Only you. Only ever you.”
“Only ever us, baby. It was only ever us.”
LINDY
“I hate that I’m wearing flats with this gown.” I turn around and look at myself from behind in the mirror.
“Princess, you had your spleen removed less than two weeks ago. Are you sure you even want to go to this tonight? Nobody would blame you if you wanted to skip it. We could stay in and watch the ball drop from the couch with Myrtle.” Easton moves behind me and runs his hand over my bare back. “I’m sure I could find plenty of doctor-approved, non-strenuous activities to keep us busy.”
I turn to face him and adjust his black bow tie. “Easton Hayes. I am wearing a lace and silk, hand-dyed pink panty and strapless bra set that cost more than some people’s mortgage payments. At the end of this night, we’re going to partake in all the doctor-approved activity we can. But in the meantime, I’m going to walk the black carpet in an Everly Sinclair original with my unbelievably hot husband next to me.” I look him over and lick my lips. “You really do clean up nicely, husband.”
I sway in my pink watercolor ballgown that was hand-sewn by Evie. A small, pink satin ribbon ties around my neck, leaving my back completely bare. Add to that, this stunning gown cinches in at the waist and flares out in box pleats, and it’s the most gorgeous gown I’ve ever seen, and my incredibly talented best friend made it just for me.
“We’re going to show the world we’re all right, and I’m going to start a campaign to change the privacy laws in this country. I don’t want anyone else to ever have to go through what we just went through. And with Becket’s help, I don’t plan on stopping until we’ve got the change we want. One day, we’re going to have babies, E. And I don’t want them to have to deal with this too, just because they’re the children of a fabulously skilled hockey player and a mother who hit the genetic lottery. We’re no different from anyone else, and I want our children to be safe and able to live a normal life like everyone else.”
“You are incredible, Madeline Hayes.” He takes my face in his hands. “I love you, baby.”