Page 47 of Hiding Rose
Chapter Thirteen
“Dinner was scrumptious and this resort is beautiful. I can’t believe Gideon sold it,” I said as we walked toward the resort, a blanket under his arm from the hotel room. Gideon set us up in a room at Orchid Reef Resort, which he sold to the current owners a few years back. Lei used to be the general manager here, until the unexpected death of the manager at Kupid’s Arrow. Gideon brought Lei over to Kupid’s Arrow, and sold this resort for millions.
“Their surf and turf here is legendary. I used to fly over with Gideon once a month or so and do some cooking and training with the staff. I miss it, to be honest, but I do have my hands full at Kupid’s Table.” He tapped his chin with his free hand. “Let’s see, now you love Mahi-Mahi, lobster, and shrimp; all creatures who swim in the sea.”
I bumped shoulders with him as we walked through the sand. “You’re a real comedian. Apparently, Minnesotans don’t know how to cook seafood. It’s certainly growing on me.”
“Anything else growing on you?” he asked, his voice husky.
It took me a moment to catch his drift, but when I did, I smiled in the darkness. “Blooming might be a better word for it.”
“I’ll take blooming,” he whispered, kissing my cheek. “Do you want to go in the hot tub when we get back to the room?” he asked, his hand tightening on my waist.
“Our private one?” I asked. Gideon had put us in a room with a two-person corner jacuzzi in the suite. “I can’t get in it, to be honest. It’s too high and there are no stairs.”
“I’ll lift you in. I’m hoping it might relax your leg and let me massage it.”
“I used to use the hot tub in physical therapy and it did relax it. I still use the one at the resort, but only when no one else is around. I’m self-conscious about all the scars.”
He kissed my head as we stepped carefully onto the path, and picked up my crutches. “I understand why you feel self-conscious, even though everyone would understand. It doesn’t bother me, though. I want you to know I’m not put off by the scars. Okay?”
“I don’t know how you aren’t. It’s a web of destruction and missing a significant chunk of meat from the thigh.”
He rubbed my arm as we walked. “It bothers me in the aspect of how much it had to have hurt when it happened and what you went through, but only, and I mean only, in that aspect. I’m not repulsed by it in the least. If anything, it’s a badge of honor you should carry proudly. You survived, sweetheart. That said, before we get to the doctor tomorrow, you should probably tell me what happened,” he said as we strolled through the lobby to the elevators.
The elevator was filled when we stepped on, so I stayed mute on the ride to the sixth floor, waiting until we were alone to discuss it. He swiped us into the room, holding his hand out for me to wait as soon as we were in the door. He did a fast tour of the suite to make sure there were no surprises and then motioned me in. I sat on the edge of the bed and slipped my shoes off, being careful of the sand rattling around in the bottom. He rested his butt on the edge of the bed next to me and I sighed.
I dug my phone out and he pointed at it. “What are you doing?”
I busied myself on the browser without making eye contact. “Showing you what happened.”
His hand shot out and he stilled my hand. “I don’t want to see pictures, baby.”
“No, not of my leg. It’s easier to show you this picture than explain how bad the damage was. A guy used a .357 magnum Hydra-Shok and shot it point blank, which is what Jarrett did to my leg, into a Christmas ham.” I held the phone out to him and he held it close to his face, his breath catching in his chest.
“Lord have mercy, Rose. This is what your leg looked like?”
He set the phone down as I hiked up my dress to show him my thigh. “The bullet hit here,” I said, pointing at a hole which had scarred over with fibrous tissue, “but it blossomed once it broke the skin and turned the tissue in my thigh to liquid, essentially. The doctors had to clean this whole area away,” I said, making a circle motion over the inside of my leg. “It’s the fleshy part, but I didn’t have a lot there to start with, so now—”
He palpated the area gently with his fingers. “Now it’s skin on bone there.”
“Basically, but they didn’t have a lot of options. The bullet missed the bone, luckily, or I would have lost my leg. Unfortunately, it bounced around and damaged my femoral nerve which branches into the saphenous nerve going down the leg. They did the best they could with repairing the damage, but there was only so much they could do. The rest is up to my body to regenerate or not. My foot turning outward is concerning, but it likely has more to do with the loss of feeling in my leg. If I turn my foot outward I have a better sense of where it is on the ground and I can stay upright.”
“Wait, you can’t feel your leg?” he asked, confused. “How come it hurts then?”
I laid back on the bed, my feet still touching the floor. “Nerves are funny things, Sawyer. You can be paralyzed and still have nerve pain. You can be an amputee and feel the foot or arm as if it were still there, because the nerves think it is. It’s my lot in life for being dumb and not seeing the warning signs before I got involved with him.”
He laid beside me on his elbow and rested his hand on my chest. “Don’t say that, Rose. You didn’t ask him to shoot you. A man doesn’t shoot a woman in cold blood. He’s an animal, and you couldn’t predict what he would do. Did you see any signs of a personality disorder before that night?”
I shook my head. “No, which was the confusing part. It’s like he snapped when I told him I was pregnant. The first thing he did was punch me in the stomach, twice. I was on the floor, already cramping, knowing my baby was dying when he shot me. I don’t remember a lot of it, but I distinctly remember him saying he wouldn’t let me ruin his life. I remember the pain in my stomach and the blood as it poured from me.”
He caught a tear with his finger. “I can’t find the words to tell you how much I wish you hadn’t gone through this trauma. It kills me inside to see you in pain and not be able to help you, and I don’t mean only the physical pain. Emotionally you live with this every minute of the day. I don’t know how you stay sane, probably because you’re stronger than I could ever hope to be. Let me take care of you tonight. Let me carry the burden for a few hours. I want to give you some peace.”
My lips trembled, but I nodded. “I’d like to spend time with you without thinking or worrying about the outside world.”
He kissed me, his lips tender as he made love to my mouth the way I dreamed he’d one day make love to my body. “I’m going to get the jets going in the Jacuzzi and then I’ll help you in. Do you have a suit?”
I eyed him curiously. “We’re supposed to wear a suit in a private jacuzzi?”
