Page 22 of Tempting Gabe
"What about you? Whose taking care of you when you get home?" his mother said while he finished with his shoe lace.
Megan's voice rang in the air. "I am."
Gabe jumped off the bed, but his heart thumped. She was here. She held a brown paper bag in her hand that must be her lunch. His lips ached to kiss her again and again.
But the moment lapsed and he glanced at the clock behind them. She was early, though with her here he felt a sense of belonging. "Megan, I thought you went to get lunch."
"I'm back." Her gaze narrowed at him and he felt like he said the absolute wrong thing. Then she shrugged and held out her hand to greet his father and mother. "Nice to see you both again."
"Nice to see you too." His mother ignored the handshake and hugged Megan. "Gabe hasn't looked at a woman like he looks at you before."
Megan swayed on her feet as the hug ended. "What do you mean?"
Gabe stepped closer to them and put his hand on Megan's back. "Mom!"
His mother winked and turned toward his father. "He likes you. It's good to see. We'll leave you both now."
Gabe’s eyes widened.
His father kept his hand on his mother’s back but met his gaze. “Don’t worry son. Harrison ensured the public believes us to be out of the country on an extended holiday and he told your board of directors you went out of town on business.”
Good. He trusted his friends and it was good they all remained underground.
Neither Megan or he moved until the door closed. Silence stayed for another few moments until Megan adjusted her brown paper bag with her lunch and the crinkle echoed in the room. She coughed and asked, "Why don't you want your parents to go home or talk to lawyers?"
He sat on the edge of the bed while his mind imagined how his parents were nearly gunned down in the middle of the street, again. He massaged his temples to make the image disappear but nothing did. In the corner of his vision he saw how Megan put her things down, smoothed out a wrinkle in her pants, and sat next to him. "They will. I just want to know they are safe. Once I hear them bickering about the same old things and they offer me a cup of coffee on a visit, I'll probably start to lose the knife I feel in my stomach every time I think they might have died on me."
She held still and though she sat close, she felt far away to him. He reached for her hand. She sighed and held him close. "My brother was wrong. If you don't want to see me anymore, I understand."
Now he grew cold at the idea she might leave him. He turned his good leg onto the bed and stared at her. "I thought you were taking care of me when I check out of here."
Megan reached for his hand, but the orderly who wheeled him here and returned in a huff and shuffled the paperwork from the nurse's station. Megan tugged her hand away and folded them in her arms while she looked at the linoleum floor.
Gabe stood and read the nurses papers. "Thanks."
The orderly left.
Without supervision, Gabe stood and offered his hand to Megan. She raised herself but locked her arms under his. "You're getting out?"
Good. When she was with him, the world was right. Now he needed to go home. "The bullet did not penetrate the skin. I was grazed and didn't need surgery."
"That's great." She reached out and opened the door. They walked in step to elevators and neither said anything with the crowd around them. Once the elevator arrived and they were alone, she shook her brown bag in her hand. "So why did you want me to go get lunch when the doctor arrived?"
The last time he saw a doctor about his burns, they told him it was time to leave the Marines. He had to face the doctor alone. All of that scared him. "I didn't want you to worry."
"I was more worried because you didn't want me here." She patted his arm.
"I wanted you." There was no one else in his life that made him feel complete. The past blurred, because his only focus was her. The elevator dinged and the doors were about to fly open as he asked, "Are you coming home with me?"
"Is that what you want?" The fluorescent lighting of the first floor flooded the elevator.
"Yeah."
They walked in step together but the moment they passed the emergency room he saw a skinny teenage boy with a fresh burn on his upper arm and a frantic mother who spoke to the nurse. His own scar felt the heat of what happened to him instantly.
Megan checked his forehead and with her palm on him, she stepped right in front of him. "Is everything okay?"
He needed her with him. The moment she lowered her hand, he reached out and pressed his forehead on hers. "We'll talk when we get home. I hate the sound of machines that make me feel like I'm sicker than I am."
