Page 47 of It's Always Us

“I know you’ll be busy and out of it, but can you text me when surgery is over.”

“You want me to text you?” I tease her, inhaling a full breath for the first time in weeks, and it feels good.

“Yeah, a thumbs up or something, so I know you’re still alive.”

I smile, a portion of my anxiety falling away. “Baby, I’ll text you something.”

There’s that pause again, and I can imagine the slight pink tint to her cheeks, and it warms my cold insides.

I’m not ready to hang up, but I have to. “I gotta go.”

“Hey, Mark.”

“Yeah.”

“I miss you, too. So much. I’m not going anywhere.”

I’m still scared shitless about a lot of things, but I hang up with a renewed sense of hope that somehow this might actually work out. It hasto. It just has to.

Chapter 14

LEX

I stare at my phone, resting my hip against the vanity. Mark said he’s scared. I could hear it in his voice, in the way he snapped at me, and it only means one thing. He’s absolutely terrified.

I know how he feels about hospitals and medical facilities and the memories they stir. I want to make it all better for him, but I can’t, and I hate it.

I run a hand over my stomach. It’s definitely not the time to drop a teeny, tiny baby bomb on his mountain of anxiety. But, as soon as he’s out of surgery and I know he’s ok, I’m telling him about our baby.Our baby.

My lips tug upward as I open the bathroom door to head back out to join the guys. I stop in the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and find Slade cracking open a beer.

“You all right?” he asks, tossing the metal cap in the trash.

I grab a water from the fridge and twist off the plastic lid, trying to act like everything is fine. Normal. I’m secretly married, pregnant, and unsure of exactly what happens next. Plus, Mark is freaking out and heading into surgery to see if he’ll ever be able to throw again. I’m fine.Justfine.

“Yeah.” See, that sounded . . . fine.

He takes a pull from his bottle, his eyes staying on me. “You feeling better?”

“Yes.” I take a sip of water. I barfed three times today, but what’s new?

“You sure? You were pretty antsy out there watching the game.”

Watching Mark hit the ground, his arm twisted behind him and writhing in pain is not something I ever want to see again. My heart and my stomach hit the floor, one on top of the other, and didn’t pick themselves back up until I saw his face as he was helped off the field.

I knew it meant he was done, and everything he’d been suffering for just went out the window.

I pick at the plastic label. “I’m fine. It was a close game.”

He stares at me like I’m full of crap, and I am to the very tip-top.

“He’ll be fine. I’m sure he’s got the best of the best at his fingertips.” Slade’s cool, smooth tone hits a nerve, and my spine stiffens. He lifts his bottle but stops halfway to his lips. “You know, it might be time to actually do something about it. This shit has been going on long enough.”

I glare at him and his big, burly bluntness. “Really? I might suggest where you can shove your opinion.”

I see a hint of a smirk, and I’m tempted to throw my water bottle at him. I love him, but this man is the absolute last person I’d take any sort of relationship advice from. What sucks is he’s not wrong. I plan to do something about Mark and me. He just needs his shoulder repaired first.

I lean against the counter, crossing my arms over my baggy sweatshirt. “You know, I might be willing to listen to you if you’d dated someone in the last, I don’t know, ever.”

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