Page 105 of Single Mom's Bodyguards
Eli giggles. Maeve smirks, shaking her head, but I catch the softness in her eyes. She’s scared. They both are. I can see it in the way they’re hovering too close, in the way Eli keeps reaching out like he’s not sure I’m solid.
“Hey,” I say, my voice low, catching Maeve’s gaze. “Don’t worry. Big guy like me? Takes more than one little hole to put me down.”
“You lost a lot of blood,” she shoots back, sharp.
I grin. “Not my first time.”
Her lips twitch, then she crosses her arms. “I lost a lot of blood too, you know. Last month. But you don’t see me lying in a hospital bed over it. So stop being a baby and get up.”
I bark out a laugh, clutching my side as pain rips through me. “Wow, kid. That’s savage.”
Sean coughs into his fist, but I catch the smirk he’s hiding. Wesley just shakes his head, muttering, “She’s not wrong.”
I wheeze, still laughing even though it hurts. “Alright. Alright. I’ll stop whining.”
I prop the paper against my chest, studying it. Eli’s Hulk has crooked teeth and an arm way bigger than the other, but the tattoos—hell, the kid nailed those. He even scribbled my wolf skull across the shoulder in green marker.
“This is art,” I tell him seriously. “You’re wasted in second grade. Should be apprenticing at a tattoo shop.”
Eli snickers. “You’d really put this on you?”
“Hell yeah. Forearm, maybe. Or right across my back. Big as life. You’ll see it every time I take my shirt off.”
“Ew,” Maeve groans, rolling her eyes so hard I think they might fall out. “Nobody wants to see that.”
“Plenty of people wanna see that,” I shoot back, grinning. “Ask your mom.”
Bailey flushes crimson, swats my arm—the good one—and glares, but she doesn’t let go of my hand. “Don’t you dare put that on me.”
The monitor beside me spikes, beep-beep-beep, tattling on the way my pulse jumps when she touches me. Sean raises an eyebrow from the corner, his version of amusement. Wesley shakes his head like he’s embarrassed for me.
The room eases after that. The air isn’t so heavy. The kids bicker, Wesley and Sean trade looks, Bailey squeezes my hand every few minutes like she’s checking I’m still here. The beeping evens out again. I close my eyes for a moment, the drawing still clutched in my hand.
The Incredible Huck.There are worse nicknames.
Jessica shows up not long after, hovering in the doorway with her purse strapped tight across her chest. She smiles at the kids, then at Bailey, and I see the silent conversation pass between them—time to give us space. “Alright, troops,” Jessica says, clapping her hands once. “Let’s go raid the vending machines while Huck rests.”
Jessica herds them out, and Maeve shoots me a final smirk before vanishing down the hall. The door clicks shut, and the room drops into quiet.
Bailey lingers by the bed, her hand still wrapped around mine. For the first time since I woke, her shoulders sag. She looks tired, worn thin, but her eyes never leave me. “You scared the hell out of me,” she whispers.
“Scared myself too,” I admit. My voice comes out rough, softer than I mean it. “Didn’t plan on catching bullets, but that kind of thing usually happens without a plan.”
Her mouth twitches, like she wants to smile but can’t. Instead she leans down, her hair falling against my cheek, and kisses me. Not a gentle kiss. Not a careful one. A kiss that takes the air from my lungs and makes my chest monitor shriek. The beeping skyrockets, screaming like a tattletale. My pulse pounds, my head spins, and I don’t care. I kiss her back until I’m dizzy.
When she pulls away, I’m grinning like an idiot. “You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”
Her lips curve into a real smile this time. “You saved me. I already thanked Sean. I already thanked Wesley. Now it’s your turn.”
“Pretty sure that was better than a thank-you,” I mutter, still grinning.
Sean clears his throat from the corner. “Monitors don’t lie.”
“Shut up,” I fire back, cheeks burning.
Wesley just smirks, shaking his head. “You’re pathetic.”
“Worth it,” I say, my voice low, eyes locked on Bailey.
