Page 141 of Finding Forever

There was a squeak of the chair, followed by heavy footsteps, some mysterious rustling and then the footsteps returned.

“I’ve closed the blinds. You want to try now?”

She opened her eyes to a much dimmer room, with Cade standing beside her bed. Well,loomingwas a much more accurate description of what he was currently doing.

“How long did I sleep?” she wondered, then licked her lips, her mouth was so dry. “And what did wedolast night? My body hurts so much. Maybe we should lay off the acrobatic stuff for a while, Cade… and stick to missionary or something. Doggy style maybe. Because I feel like I’ve been put through the wringer.”

Cade started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

He sank into the chair beside her bed, folded his arms on the mattress next to her shoulder and dropped his face onto his arms. Still laughing… until she realized that his laughter had turned into something else and she now wondered if maybe…

Was he crying?

She lifted her hand to stroke his hair, and that was when she felt the tug of the needle in the back of her hand. She stared at it blankly, then swept her gaze around the room.

She was in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV drip. And her husband; big, strong, unflappable Cade wasweepingbeside her.

She felt an instant flare of panic and her hand went to her belly. The bump was still there. But that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Further checking revealed a band around her tummy and she sighed in relief as she recognized it as a fetal heart rate monitor. Which had to mean that there was a heartbeat to monitor.

“Cade,” she murmured, using her other hand, the one closest to him, to awkwardly touch her husband’s shoulder. He lifted his absolutely ravaged face to stare at her.

“Oh God… oh myGod,Fern, I was terrified. You were unconscious for so long.”

“How long?” she asked.

“Nearly an hour and a half. It felt like forever!”

“What happened?”

“You don’t remember?” He looked a little concerned, scrubbing self-consciously at his face. “You fell…”

Fern shut her eyes as it all came flooding back in an instant.

“I remember,” she said. “Granger. The meeting. He grabbed me.”

“I should’ve caught you.”

“What? It’s not your fault, Cade, I lost my balance.”

“If I’d gotten to you a split second?—”

“Cade, stop,” she whispered. “It wasn’t your fault. What about Casper. Is he?—?”

“They think he’s okay. They’ve been monitoring his heart rate. Steady, strong, perfectly normal.”

“What if there are latent complications due to the fall? What if it’s done some damage to him that can’t yet be quantified? We don’t know.”

“No, we don’t, but worrying about the possibility won’t achieve anything either. Whatever happens down the road, sweetheart, we’ll figure it out, okay?”

He squeezed his hand around hers and lifted it to his lips.

“Fern, when you fell down those steps…” He shook his head, eyes tormented. “It felt like my life had come to a complete standstill. My world went to hell in a split second and I realized that I can’t exist without you. Not anymore. I refuse to even entertain the possibility of a life without you. And I know this isn’t the time or the place for this conversation, but I feel it’s only appropriate to give you fair warning that if you decide to choose the whole exploring other relationships option… I’m probably going to wind up cock-blocking each and every one of yourdates.”

He looked so perfectly serious and miserable while making the ridiculous threat that Fern couldn’t quite prevent an abrupt bark of laughter from escaping. She immediately winced.

“Don’t make me laugh, Cade,” she chastised.

“Look, I’m sorry,” he said with a grimace. “But I’m not going to watch the woman I love get romanced by some twat with a pornstache and a bad toupee.”

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