Page 62 of Slow Burn (Forbidden Heat 2)

But he was tough. He was a fighter. He would survive this. I knew that. There was no doubt in my mind that he would get through this. He would not leave me. He would not leave Amber. He was so strong. There was nothing that would keep him from doing what he had to do for his family. I’d never seen a happier man than Gary was nowadays. He loved being part of a family. It was as if this had completed his life somehow. I was a fool to ever think that he would feel any other way about it.

Amber climbed down off Lucy’s lap and came over to me. She was crying looking on. She knew that her dad was hurt badly, even if she didn’t fully understand. I picked her up and held her. My little girl was trembling now, her tears starting to run out of her sweet, little eyes. She was trying to be so brave, but she was scared. Gary and she had become so close lately. She loved her daddy dearly and he loved her.

Amber reached out right then and touched Gary’s hand. She stroked his index finger and cried louder. “Daddy… wake up… daddy…”

I tried to hold it together but this was the most heartbreaking thing I’d ever heard. She was crying for her daddy to wake up and be ok. That’s all any of us wanted. “Daddy will be alright, sweetie,” I said. I hated telling her something that I didn’t know would be true, but I just wanted to believe it so badly and I wanted to dry her eyes as fast as I could. I hated to see my little girl crying. She was being so strong.

“Daddy, wake up… daddy!” Amber cried again.

Lucy was wiping tears from her eyes trying to keep it together as well. My friend had been so great, so strong for me and Amber. I didn’t know what I would have done without her.

Gary’s hand moved.

I did not imagine it. I could see it clear as day right in front of me. His hand was moving, twitching his finger against his daughter’s little hand.

“Daddy…”Amber said, uncertain.

Gary’s hand began to move more pronounced now, several fingers twitching now. A moment later his whole hand was grasping, lightly holding his daughter’s little hand inside of his.

I couldn’t believe it. This was really happening. Gary was waking up. I stared into his face at his furrowed brow. He was wincing from the pain and from the haze of being between dream and being awake.

“Gary…?” I asked out loud. The words left my mouth subconsciously. I could hardly breathe. My voice was shaky and unsure. Was this real? Was Gary really going to wake up? I reached out and touched his hand as well, squeezing his hand with mine.

Just then Gary opened his eyes. He appeared dazed, but he was conscious. He was clearly there and present. I believed that he even knew where he was and as I locked eyes with his, I could see the recall of the day’s events happening behind his eyes. He had realized what happened and was trying to process it all.

“I’ll get a doctor,” Lucy said. She left the room to alert the staff that Gary was waking up.

“Baby…?” I said. “Baby… I love you.”

Gary looked at me and smiled slightly, his eyes still very dazed and a bit unsure of what was going on. His hand held his daughter’s hand lovingly.

“I love you,” Gary spoke softly. “I love you both.”

I laid my head on his chest and listened to his strong, steady heartbeat pounding in his chest. He was going to be ok. I somehow knew this. He would never leave us. Never.

And I would never leave him, not ever again. His little girl needed him and so did I. We would be together forever. I had no doubts about this.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Gary

Six Months Later…

It had finally happened. I was a married man. I still had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, but there I was standing up in front of all of our friends and family being sworn in as husband and wife, Shelly and I.

Just thinking back about seven months earlier, I wasn’t sure I’d ever even see Shelly again. And then that sweet little twist of fate had occurred and brought us both in to each other’s lives again. That was the strangest thing about the universe, the cosmos, life; you just never knew how it was going to swing things your way sometimes. And you had to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunity.

I thought a lot about what would have happened if I had decided not to fly to Columbus. What if I’d just decided to stay where I was happy and content to continue being miserable and pining over Shelly? What would have happened then?

I imagined that my life would have continued to suck and I would have stayed miserable and completely alone. Maybe I would have come out of it, but I knew that there was no way I ever would have been able to love anyone like Shelly. And that would have prevented me from ever even attempting to try to get close to anyone else.

As fate would have it, I ran into Shelly when I least expected it. That was crazy to think about. There she had been, just randomly out of the blue, almost as if she was waiting for me to find her in some way. And I think looking back on it now, she might have been. She was as lost as I was when I really thought about it.

I’d been so angry at first over the lies and the betrayal, but nothing could have prepared me for the fact that I had a little girl that I knew nothing about. How could Shelly have kept this from me for so long? I… I just couldn’t fathom keeping a secret like that from her. It was unthinkable.

But I did my best to keep a level head and to try to maintain some perspective, or at least try to see things from her point of view and get inside her head to understand why on earth she would have thought it was the best thing. I realized she had never tried to do anything malicious at all. She was in a tough spot and she made the wrong decision. It was a mistake. She was scared and she reacted to her fear incorrectly. Maybe it was my fault for not communicating to her how she could always talk to me about whatever was going on in her world, especially if it affected me. We were a team and we would work these things out together.

The moment I laid eyes on my daughter was the most amazing moment in my entire life. I didn’t know how I would feel, but the fact that it happened so quickly really solidified to me what was real and important in life. I had a whole new meaning, a new role, a brand new purpose. Nothing else in the world really mattered except that I was there for my little girl. I wanted to be the best father I could possibly be and I wanted to be the best husband I could be as well.

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