Page 125 of Time to Bounce

He caught my hand and squeezed back. Hard. Then let me go.

Felix pushed the door open but didn’t go inside.

“He’s awake but could be a bit loopy still thanks to the medication he’s on,” Felix said. “His new doctor will likely make rounds in just a few minutes.”

Then he left us, likely busy as hell thanks to the day’s events.

“Athena.”

My head whipped toward the bed, and there he was, wide awake, staring at me like he’d never seen me before.

“Gable,” I breathed.

He lifted his fingers toward me, and I hurried his way.

My fingers tangled with his, and the tears that I’d managed to hold at bay fell.

“You’re okay,” Garrett said softly.

My face dropped, and I let my head rest on his thigh as I tried to find a way to breathe past the tears clogging my throat.

He was alive.

Alive.

He’d made it.

“Yeah,” Gable sounded worried, though. “I just want to be completely open and honest with you. The doctor wanted to sound positive, but he pointed out that there was a reason that surgery is done in sterile rooms. Says the likelihood for infection is high, and that they’re going to have me on strong antibiotics in hopes that it’ll help with infection, but that I will probably have issues despite their measures.”

I lifted my head, tears blurring my eyes. “What’s that mean?”

He grimaced. “That it’s going to be a long road.”

I stood and cupped his face in my hand, dropping my forehead to his. “Then we’ll travel it together.”

One week later

“Is he okay today?” Garnett asked as she came into the room.

I looked at the man who’d given us not one, not two, but three more life or death experiences in the last week and said, “I think so.”

Today was the first day he actually looked like he had some color to him.

She walked to the bed and fixed his hair.

It was overly long, as was his beard.

He was starting to look like he did when he was undercover.

I loved it and hated it at the same time.

A knock at the door sounded, and Garnett and I both turned.

“Yes?”

That was the last breath I was able to take for a full minute as I stared at the doorway.

“Who are you?” Garnett asked defensively when she saw my reaction.

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