Page 120 of Star Crossed
“Mrs. Wellings, I’m Dr. Miller. I’ve been taking care of you. How are you feeling?”
Jules swallowed against the dryness in her throat and turned to look at a tall, older man standing next to Wyatt. “Been better.”
“Okay,” he said in a soft voice as he leaned over and touched her face. “Your color’s improving. Can you look at me, Juliet?”
“She goes by Jules,” Wyatt cut in.
The doctor held up a penlight and instructed, “I want you to follow this with your eyes.”
Jules did as he asked, but hearing her full name had her asking, “Where’s Romeo?”
No one answered, and Jules put up with the doctor doing a series of other mundane tests while an uncomfortable silence hung in the air. She was still fighting to wake up more fully and started taking stock of her other aches and pains. Wyatt finally let go of her hands and knowing touching her neck was off limits, she started messing with the sheets, feeling something uncomfortable around her waist, like a belt against her skin.
“What is this?”
“We’re monitoring the babies.”
“The babies? What?” Jules looked to her brother in confusion.
Wyatt was rubbing a hand against his forehead the way he did when he was extremely stressed out. “She doesn’t—”
“Dr. Carver has been coordinating with me on your treatment. We’ve paged him. He’ll be here shortly. He’s one of the best ob-gyns in our area. He specializes in high-risk pregnancies.”
“What is going on?” Jules asked Wyatt wildly. “What happened to me?”
“What’s the last thing you remember, Juliet?”
“Don’t ask her that.” Wyatt hissed at that doctor.
Jules became more aware of everything. The hospital room. The doctor. Wyatt, who looked like he was about to come out of his skin from anxiety. Then other memories started flashing at her. Running away. Marrying Romeo under the magnolia tree. The guns. The blood.
Jules started to hyperventilate. “Where’s Romeo?” The monitors were beeping faster. She didn’t care as she reached past the doctor for her brother. “Where is he? Where’d he go? I wanna know where he is!”
“Can you have them call Dr. Carver again?”
Jules started crying. Something in her knew Romeo was not okay. Someone would have told her otherwise if he was. Her voice was soft, broken as she pleaded in a choked voice, “I need to know where he is.”
“Y’all need to take ’bout ten steps back.”
“Mr. Conner—”
“It’s Sheriff Conner, and I saidback up,” Conner growled in his scariest, most intimidating voice. “She’s overwhelmed, and I need two minutes. Ain’t nothing gonna change on those machines in that amount of time. Lemme talk to my sister.”
Jules reached for Wyatt when he leaned over her, and she clung to his shoulders, shaking with fear as she whispered in his ear, “Is he dead?”
“No.” Wyatt shook his head. “And you’re not either, but you got to calm down, Ju Ju Bean. ’Cause they’re gonna come in here and pump you full of drugs if you don’t.”
Jules blinked past the tears, trying to focus on Wyatt’s face that was nothing but a blur. “Is he gonna be okay?”
Wyatt was quiet for a long moment before he whispered, “I dunno.”
“Oh God.” Jules tried to cover her face with her hands, but her shoulder hurt something fierce, and the damn IV was getting in the way. She finally gave up. Her whole body felt weak, and she dropped her arms and cried while completely exposed. “He’s gonna leave me alone. I just know it.”
“Hey, look at me, darlin’.” Wyatt grabbed her chin, forcing her eyes to him. “You’re not gonna be alone. You heard the doctor say you got something else to live for, right?”
Jules thought Wyatt was talking about himself, but he touched her stomach gently and she looked at him in confusion. “What?”
He gave her a smile, his light eyes crystalline. “You’re pregnant.”
