Page 118 of Time to Bounce

But then a cool hand was touching my face.

“I’m here.”

There was my angel.

“Athena,” I whispered.

“Open your eyes, Gable.”

I tried.

I couldn’t.

My eyes were too heavy.

“Can’t,” I admitted. “Heavy.”

She reached down and opened them for me.

I saw the shimmer of her tears as she looked down into my face. “I’m here.”

I tried to smile but couldn’t.

That was too hard, too.

“Love.” I drew in a shaky breath. “You.”

She moaned. “I love you, too, Gable. I love you, too.”

“I have an officer down here who’ll die if you don’t find me a fucking OR,” I heard an angry male voice say.

Maybe Felix again.

The sound that came out of Athena had me trying to comfort her, despite not having the energy.

“Did you know,” I coughed, tasting blood on my tongue. “That when you die, your brain lives for another seven minutes, replaying its best memories?”

“Yeah, yeah I’ve heard that before,” she whispered.

I felt a hot tear fall from her eyes and roll down my throat.

“You’ll be in all of those memories.”

A keening sound left her throat, and I reached up with the last of my energy and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered. “But I’m happy that I got what I got with you, even if it was too short.”

A choking sob left her throat, and she dropped her forehead to mine. “Fight, Gable. Please fight.”

“Fuck it,” Felix snarled. “Everyone out. We’re doing this here.”

That was the last thing I remembered.

Warning, to avoid injury, don’t tell Gable how to do his job.

—Text from Athena to Gable

ATHENA

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