Page 49 of A Different Husband

“Okay, but you explained the situation right?”

“I did, but she got hurt, so as a result of what she overheard, so I don’t think it quite sunk in that it wasn’t what she thought. Either that or she thinks I’m lying for you.” Bea shrugged her shoulders. “The good news is, she doesn’t have a concussion and the doctor thinks she only has a bit of superficial bruising and a spot or two of deep tissue bruising. It’s near her hip and radiating out toward her belly, which is why they want to monitor her. The doctor assured us that it looks worse than it is.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Bea. I can’t lose her. I can’t lose any of them. How the hell am I supposed to convince her that she’s the love of my life when she’s laying there, alone, thinking I regret marrying her?”

“I’m going to head back in, but you might as well go home to wait because she hasn’t changed her mind.”

“I’m not leaving until she does.”

“Okay, I’ll let her know.”

“Bea, tell her how much I love her. Please, make her believe it.” As my sister walked away, I had to swipe the tears away that blurred my vision. How was it possible that my wife was hurt, in the hospital, and I couldn’t even see her, check on her, or be there for her?

My sister never came back out and eventually I fell asleep, curled up in a ball, on a series of three very uncomfortable plastic chairs. If I was smart, I would have gone out to the car to sleep, but I didn’t want to take the chance that my sister would come out to the waiting room to get me if my wife changed her mind about seeing me.

Someone tapped on my shoulder. I felt it again before I managed to come fully awake. I groaned as my body shifted on the hard chairs in an attempt to get up. “Fuck, that hurts,” I grunted.

“Flynn?”

Her voice woke me the rest of the way up immediately. “Court? My Nemesis?” I asked as I took her in. She stood in front of me looking beautiful as ever, even if her face was puffy from crying about overhearing the wrong fucking thing, and probably the pain from her fall as well.

“Bea was going to take me home, but since you’re here, you can save her the trip.”

“I told you it wasn’t a bother,” My sister admonished.

“Go home, Bea.” She rolled her eyes at me and mumbled something about gratitude. “Thank you for staying with her,” I called out. My sister waved her hand and continued out the door as Courtney stood there staring at me. “Right, sorry.” I jumped up and immediately landed back down on my ass in the chair as my dead leg gave out on me. The minute I thought about it being asleep, the pins and needles sensation started.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Fuck the blood flow.” I heard a giggle and looked up to see my wife laughing at me. “You think it’s funny?”

“It’s not - not funny,” She insisted.

“Give me a minute to get the blood flow back and I’ll help you out of here.”

She was seated in a wheelchair that my sister had been pushing. “Did you guys steal the wheels?”

“No. It’s hospital policy to be wheeled out, but we were already in the hallway on the way to the elevator when some alarms started to go off in one of the rooms. The nurse told me to wait, but Bea took off with me as soon as my nurse ran into that room.”

“Nice, my sister jail-breaked you from the hospital.” It felt good to be able to joke around with my wife after a night of wondering if we were over. “Court, you know you didn’t hear everything-”

She cut me off with a shake of her head. “Let’s wait for that conversation until we’re home.”

Once we got to the car, I helped Courtney in and then pushed the wheelchair up on the sidewalk. We were nearly home before my wife spoke again.

“Bea told me that you’ve been in love with me since we first met.”

“That’s true.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“Because you were with Beckett, and I thought you were happy.”

“There were times when we broke up,” She reminded me. “That one time…”

“I would have taken you from him then, but he showed up and you followed him off into the sunset again. I loved you. I fucking loved you enough to go along with whatever made you happy, even if it was my fucknut cousin.”

“I wish you wouldn’t have.”

“No use looking back, Court. We can’t change any of it.”

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