Page 71 of A Reclusive Heart

“I’m tired,” Jamie mumbled around a yawn as her eyes closed.

“That’s fine, baby. Go to sleep and I’ll be right here waiting when you wake up,” Nick whispered against her forehead.

“With chocolate,” she mumbled sleepily, making him chuckle as he promised, “All the chocolate you can eat.”

“You lied,”Jamie said accusingly as she leveled the most adorable glare that he’d ever seen on him.

“The doctor hasn’t cleared you for solids yet, but the second she does, I’ll have a truck full of chocolate delivered,” Nick said, hoping to appease his grumpy little recluse.

Five days without sugar and she looked close to killing someone. He’d briefly considered bringing her a chocolate milkshake or a Coke only to decide against it. Her doctor thought that he was kidding when he suggested that she should attach a bag of sugar to Jamie’s vein.

He hadn’t been.

She looked up at him, allowing her bottom lip to quiver as she said, “But I love you, doesn’t that mean anything?”

Lips twitching, Nick leaned over and kissed the tip of her nose. “It means everything, but until your doctor clears you, you’re not getting any chocolate.” When she opened her mouth, most likely to argue, he added, “Or sugar.”

“Big jerk,” she mumbled under her breath as she dropped back against the pillows.

“But you love me,” Nick said as he sat down next to her on the bed and took her hand in his, careful of her IV.

“I suppose I do,” Jamie said with a heartfelt sigh.

“Does your stomach hurt, sweetheart?” Nick asked, reaching over to run his fingertips along her delicate jaw.

“Just sore,” Jamie said, shifting her hand in his so that she could entwine their fingers together.

He watched her look around the room curiously. “Are these all for me?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Yes,” Nick said, his lips pulling up into a smile when her glance turned predatory as she took in the flowers, the fruit baskets, teddy bears, and hundreds of cards that were taped all over the walls and-

“I had the nurses lock up the chocolate,” he said, chuckling when she grumbled.

For a moment, she didn’t say anything, and he was content to sit there with her. He still couldn’t believe how close he came to losing her. If it hadn’t been for the fast-thinking police officers, she probably wouldn’t be here now. While he’d been losing his fucking mind, one of the officers applied pressure and bought his little recluse a little more time.

When they loaded her into that ambulance, he felt as though his heart was being ripped out of his chest. He wanted to ride with her, to hold her in his arms, but they wouldn’t let him and Rick and several officers had to hold him back.

Once he made it to the hospital, no one would tell him a fucking thing because he wasn’t family. They ended up throwing him out a few times when he flipped out, but he came back each and every time, demanding to see her.

When they called her father, he’d struggled to keep it together. Her father didn’t bother asking how Jamie was doing before he signed over Jamie’s medical proxy to him. Nick calmly thanked him before he walked him outside. Once they were in the parking lot, he’d decked the asshole, breaking his nose in the process. He did it for all the years the bastard happily ignored his little recluse. While his wife treated Jamie like nothing because Jamie was the reminder of her husband’s infidelity, her father had happily ignored her because she was the reminder of what he did to a seventeen-year-old girl.

“Did my family visit while I was sleeping?” Jamie asked the same question every day, and each time, it nearly broke hisheart. Her father only came that one time and that was because of him.

He gave the bastard the choice of telling her the truth or staying out of her life. Her father chose to cut her out of his life and save his own ass. It was his loss. If the son of a bitch had looked at her, really looked at her, he would have realized what a precious gift he’d been given.

“No, baby, I’m sorry,” Nick said, wishing like hell that things were different for her. She deserved a family that loved her, but that didn’t seem to be in the cards for her.

At least, not yet.

“It’s okay,” Jamie mumbled quietly as she peered around the room. “Do you know if my doctor’s here yet?”

“I haven’t seen her.”

“She’s very pretty,” she pointed out conversationally.

“I guess,” Nick said slowly, wondering where she was going with this.

“I, um, think she might be interested in you,” Jamie said quietly while she looked down at their entwined hands.

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