Page 60 of Unexpected Love

Chapter Nineteen

Joe

I’ve been in the hospital for a week and a half, and I’m ready to lose my fucking mind. I finally woke up the day after I got shot to find Chloe asleep, curled up in a chair in the corner of my room. I had pressed the call button, and after that it was nurses and a doctor coming in to check on me. It felt like someone had stomped on my chest, and it was hard taking deep breaths.

Chloe had been quiet, and then she disappeared while they were checking on me, but she returned with my sisters and brother when they were finished. After that, everyone came in and out until the pain was too much and they had me press the button to get some more pain meds, causing me to fall asleep immediately.

It was nighttime when I woke up again, and this time my mom and dad were sitting in my room. Mom fussed over me until finally Dad had to walk her out of the room. They returned a short time later, and my mom sat in the corner while my dad helped me get comfortable. Again the pain was too much, and after pressing the fancy little button, I fell asleep.

That’s how things went for the first several days, and it wasn’t until five days after the shooting that I could grin and bear the pain. My entire family has been here—even Violet flew home to see me for a couple of days before she had to go back. According to my dad, Chloe’s been here every day. She left long enough to shower at my parents’ place, but then she came right back.

The day I got shot, I noticed I had a text from her that I’d missed the night before, but I’d been running late and hadn’t had the chance to respond to it. I knew she just needed time, and apparently she hadn’t needed much since it was only several hours after I left that she’d texted me.

I was thrilled when the nurse took my damn catheter out. Nothing like having what looked like a rubber hose yanked from your dick. The worst was the day before yesterday when they finally removed the chest tube; luckily, they medicated me first. Four times a day, respiratory therapists have come in to give me breathing treatments and to check the numbers from some breathing test I’ve been made to do every hour.

They’re worried about pneumonia, so I’ve been on IV antibiotics for the past week. Today, I have to have another chest X-ray, and as long as my lungs are still clear, I’ll get to go home. It’ll be at least six months before I’m able to go back to work…at least active duty, anyway. First, I’ll have to have physical therapy for my shoulder, and then I’ll need to speak to a specialist about being shot.

So far, I haven’t had any issues, but they said it could happen anytime. There’s no way I want to jeopardize my career or my future, so if I need help, I’ll go get it. I’m not too proud to realize there may come a time when I’ll need to talk about it.

A knock on my door has me looking up to find Chloe standing in the doorway. Every time she’s been to see me, there’s always been someone else there. This is the first time we’ve been alone. I hate how unsure she looks standing there. Raising my good hand, I wave her in. “Come here, baby.”

She hustles toward me and grabs my outstretched hand. “How do you feel today?” Chloe reaches out and brushes my hair out of my face. I seriously need a haircut.

“Better. After they do the X-ray, they’ll decide if I can go home or not.” I let go of her hand and reach out, my fingers brushing over the skin under her eyes. “Have you gotten any good sleep?”

She smiles and shakes her head. “I’ll sleep better once they release you. Your mom says they’re getting a room ready for you there.”

“No. I’m not going there. I love my mom, but she’ll smother me, and that’s not what I want.”

“What do you want?” She sits down in the chair next to the bed, but I shake my head and pat the spot next to me. Chloe gingerly sits down, and I lace my fingers with hers.

“I want to go home but only if you’re there.”

“Done,” she says but then starts to cry.

“Hey, hey, hey. Why are you crying?”

She wipes at the tears. “The last time I saw you, I had freaked out about us, and I thought maybe I blew it, and what if you didn’t make it? I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to tell you that I was sorry and that I love you, and if you’ll have me, I want us to live together. I don’t care if we live here, Atlanta, or somewhere totally new. You are my life now, and I realized that none of that other stuff matters. I just want to be with you.”

I pull her carefully down until our lips are a hair’s breadth apart. “I just want to be with you, too. I love you so fucking much.” I kiss her lips hard, and she opens for me, my tongue dancing with hers. It isn’t until we hear a throat clearing that I pull back and see that it’s the radiology tech to take me for my chest X-ray.

Chloe helps me get into the wheelchair, which I fucking hate, but I could be dead right now, so I’m not going to complain. The tech gets ready to take me down. “Will you wait for me?”

She gives me that smile of hers that I love and bends down to kiss me. “I’d wait forever if I needed to.”

As the tech pushes me out the door, he mutters, “You are a lucky man.”

“No shit,” I say and laugh as much as I can without being in pain. It feels good knowing that when I come back, my girl will be waiting for me, and I’ll never forget how lucky I am.

***

Six Months Later

“Hey, baby, are you home?” I call out as I step into our apartment. The sound of her getting sick has me rushing toward the bathroom. As always, Ragnar and Lagertha stand guard.

So much has happened since I got released from the hospital six months ago. Chloe moved in with me to help take care of me while I recovered, and my whole plan was to get her moved in and never let her go again. She hated leaving her job, but her boss was a super nice guy and understood her reasons why.

Once I started therapy, the healing went much faster. Mentally, I only had a couple of instances where I lost it a little bit. That was when I had to face the asshole who shot me. Thank God for dashboard cameras, because it was an open-and-shut case. He was going away for a long time for attempted murder. Chloe was so strong while I dealt with all of that. She was patient and loving when I was moody and irritable. When I had nightmares, she would hold me until I was able to fall back asleep.

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