Page 72 of Wildest Desire

“Travis took him home to get you some clothes. To put it mildly, he isn’t a happy man right now,” Dan says, sitting on the side of the bed. “You can’t push him out like this.”

“Dan, I might not be able to give him something he wants…”

“Has he said that’s what he wants? Did you even give him a chance to talk to you about it?”

“He’s mentions it here and there when we’re together,” I reply, and Dan wipes the tears falling down my cheek, “So why—”

“No, Lexi. You’re trying to take the easy way out. You know what he said when the doctors told us?” I look at him, surprised they knew about it before I did. “He said, ‘I don’t care. Until the day I die, I’m not leaving her.’ So, he doesn’t care what you have to say about it, he’s not going anywhere. The other thing he wanted me to tell you was that he didn’t back down the first time, and he sure as hell won’t back down this time. So, whether you want him around or not, he’s not going down without a fight,” Dan tells me. I already knew Ethan wasn’t going to listen to me, or let me walk away from him without a fight, but he needs to think about his future.

“Is Jon here?” I ask, changing the subject to something a little less stressful. I look over at the nurse. “I’m finding it hard to breathe, and it’s…” I look up at the beeping monitor.

The nurse presses a button to silence the alarm. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” she tells Dan, then puts my bed down to a lying position again as I try to breathe.

“Is she okay?” I hear Dan shouting as the nurse nudges him toward the door, allowing room for the doctor to get in the room.

“Lexi, look at me.” I look up at the doctor’s concerned face. “We’re going to have to take you back into surgery right now.”

Chapter 32

Ethan

“Hello?” I answer the phone before looking at the caller ID. Travis is keeping in touch with Selena on the business side of things, so I know it isn’t anyone calling about work.

“Ethan. They’ve taken Lexi back into surgery,” Dan says.

“Turn back around,” I tell Travis. “Dan, I’m on my way back.” Ending the call, I look over at Travis. “Lexi’s been taken back into surgery.” The second the words leave my mouth, he makes a U-turn and speeds back to the hospital.

As hard as I try, I can’t stop thinking the worst. There are so many bad endings to this situation. She could die during the surgery, or she could survive it just to leave me. Or worse than leaving, she could just run away like she’s always done from Sam. I can't think of one good outcome. It's killing me that I can only think of the worst-case scenarios.

I close my eyes and shut out everything else for a moment. I know the fact that I’ve only slept an hour in the past two days is only making it worse.

“We’re here.”

Opening my eyes, I stare at the hospital doors. I’m unable to move, unable to run in and do whatever it takes to save her. “This shouldn’t be happening. After Edward and Angie, I deserve something good. Even after what they did to me, I’m still paying to save their child. The only thing I have to show for it is possibly losing Lexi, whether it be by her injuries or her running away from me. I don’t deserve this,” I say, wiping away the tears that I’ve been holding in since I found her on the ground. “She doesn’t deserve this. We should get the second chance that we—” I stop as I can’t find the words through my tears.

“Ethan, she’ll fight this. You two will be together, get married and have children.” Travis places his hand on my shoulder. “You go ahead and break down here. Let it all out, because when we walk through those doors, you have to be the asshole that Lexi fell in love with.”

He’s right. I need to be the strong one—I need to be there for Lexi. I have to let this out now and then get ready to fight to keep us together. Wiping my face, I get out of the car and head to the waiting room. Looking around for Dan, I see him waiting by the door. Walking over, I stop in front of him.

“She was finding it hard to breathe, then the monitors started beeping. The doctor came in and said they were taking her to surgery, then kicked me out,” he tells me.

Putting my hands into my pockets, I stand next to him and wait for the doctor to come out.

“Ethan, I’m going to get Lexi some clothes and then pick us up some food,” Mom says as she and Jackie walk over to me. My mom places her hand on my cheek. “Are you back with us?” She looks into my eyes.

“I’m back,” I tell her. She holds eye contact with me for a moment to make sure I really have come back from feeling sorry for myself. Mom kisses me on the cheek, then walks away from Dan and me. I look around the waiting room and see Tanya and Travis talking to each other.

All this time Lexi wanted to run, thinking the only family she had was Dan and Jon. Looking around the waiting area, it's obvious at how very wrong she was. She has a big family here, and seeing them will make her happy.

My head turns to the doors as they open. Seeing the doctor come into the area, I walk over to her.

“The sutures from the first surgery didn't hold, so we had to go back in and re-do the operation. We wanted to wait until she was a little stronger, but she would not have survived the initial injury if we waited. She’s sleeping at the moment, but there were no complications this time around. She looks like she's going to pull through just fine.”

Air whooshes from my lungs and escapes from my mouth in a loud exhale. “Thank you! Can I see her?” I ask.

“At the moment, we really do want her to rest. Let her wake up, and for us check her over, then you can,” the doctor tells us.

I nod in agreement. I don’t want anything else to go wrong. The doctor said she's fine and that’s all I care about. If I have to sit out here all night to make sure she gets the rest she needs, then that's what I'll do.

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