Page 34 of Fierce-Hyde

Ten minutes later he was taking his third lap and noticed his sister standing in the doorway. He rushed toward her. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” CeeCee said. “I wanted you to see me. But I do need to go lie back down. Just feel weak more than anything. And hungry. That is probably why I smelled the grease on you.”

“Let’s get you back in bed,” the nurse said. “Your food should be here soon.”

He helped the nurse with CeeCee and got his sister in bed, then all but collapsed into the chair next to her.

“Do you feel better seeing me moving around?” CeeCee asked.

His sister was pretty smart.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Good. Now get the hell out of here and get some sleep. You can come back in the morning. Tell Mom and Dad not to come too.”

He laughed. “They aren’t going to listen to me, but I’ll try. They will feel better when they see you like I did too.”

Hyde kissed his sister on the cheek, left the hospital, and sat in his car while the tears rolled down his cheeks in relief.

12

WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART

“Iknow I told you I could handle things and I didn’t want you in the middle,” Tori said the next morning when Raina answered her phone. “But I need a favor.”

“Anything,” Raina said. “You want to know when Hyde is here, don’t you?”

She let out a sigh. “Yes. He’s not replying to me and I’m not sure what that means. I don’t want to assume anything else like I did and made a mess of everything.”

“You did do that and it’s not like you, but as you said, everything with Hyde isn’t what you’re used to.”

“No,” she said. “It’s not. I have to figure that out. I can understand if he just wants to say we won’t work. Maybe we won’t and it’s for the best, but I can’t leave things the way they are.”

“Of course you can’t,” Raina said.

“Have you heard anything about Hyde’s sister? Is she okay?”

“What I heard came from Ryder. He talked to Hyde last night. I guess they expect CeeCee to make a great recovery and she’ll need physical therapy. They want Cody, so Ryder called last night to talk to him.”

“That’s good to hear,” she said, letting out a big breath. “I’m glad.”

“I’ll send you a text when he’s here, but I’m not positive if he’s coming in. I didn’t ask.”

“That’s fine,” she said. “On one hand I want to get it over with, and on the other, maybe I could stand to use a bit of time to figure out what I’m going to say.”

“Go with what is in your heart,” Raina said.

“It’s about all I can do,” she said.

She hung up and got to work. She had a busy day planned but would drop anything and everything to speak to Hyde if she could.

She wasn’t sure the last time she felt ashamed of her behavior.

It felt like the roles were reversed now. Maybe she could use that as a conversation starter?

At two her phone went off with a text. She picked it up to see a message from Raina that Hyde was in his office now and his calendar looked clear until the end of the day.

She got up and left her office. “I’ll be back in about twenty minutes,” she told Justine at the front desk.

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