Page 61 of All It Takes

“Are you sure you don’t want to see him first?”

She smiled warmly. “Wes loves you. Pretty sure he loves me too, but I can wait. All I need to know is that he’s okay.”

“Everything went okay in surgery?” Alice asked, ever practical.

“It went well. He’s going to be sore and have a nice scar, but he’ll be fine. We got him all cleaned up too,” Holly assured us.

“Is there anything we need to worry about for recovery? And when will he be out?” I asked.

“He can be discharged as soon as they clear him in recovery. Usually, that takes…” Holly moved her hand back and forth. “About two hours. We need to make sure his pain is managed. Let me go check on him, and then I’ll come get you. Should be just a few minutes.”

I was way too nervous and couldn’t sit down after that. I paced in a loop in the waiting area with my arms crossed tightly. It felt like forever—even though the clock told me it was only a few minutes—by the time Holly reappeared, beckoning me with her hand. “Follow me.”

After a short walk down a hallway, she stopped in front of a door and glanced over her shoulder. “Other people are in the recovery area, but there’s a sliding door, so you’ll have privacy.” Her eyes were twinkling. “He’s a little loopy.”

A moment later, I was alone in the room with Wes. I heard the door slide closed behind me. Wes was lying in bed wearing a hospital gown with the blankets tucked around his hips. He still had an IV in. Just looking at him made my heart ache. He didn’t usually look vulnerable, but here, he did. His dark hair contrasted with the white pillows he was propped on. He rolled his head to the side, and a slow smile broke across his face when he saw me.

“Hey,” he said slowly. “You’re here.”

Tears spilled over my cheeks as I crossed the small room to his side and rested my hands on the bed railing. My throat ached, and my chest felt tight. “Of course I’m here,” I croaked.

“Did you get my message?”

I blinked away my tears before dragging my sleeve across my face. “Ross will be here soon. My dad took him to get pizza until you were out.”

“Oh man, I’d love some pizza,” he said, his voice a little slow.

“I love you!” I burst out as more tears rolled down my cheeks.

Wes looked at me, reaching for my hand, his touch a little clumsy. He missed, but I caught his hand. It was the hand with the IV needle taped on the back of it. I carefully adjusted the IV line so it didn’t get tangled in the bed railing.

“That was my other message,” he said. “Really important stuff. Why are you crying?”

I sniffled and shrugged, my lips tugging into a smile. “It is really important stuff.”

He squeezed my hand, his eyes holding mine. “I know you’re worried about it being complicated, but it’ll be okay. I’m not going to fall out of love with you.”

I leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I love you too. I want to give us a chance. I’m not planning on falling out of love with you, either. I suppose it’s complicated no matter what.”

“Oh, thank God!” he exclaimed. “I thought I was going to have to really persuade you.”

I smiled down at him, brushing his hair back. “I missed you,” I whispered hoarsely.

“I missed you too.” He never looked away as his eyes held mine. “We’re going to be okay.”

“We are?”

Even though he’d just come out of surgery to clean a burn wound, he smiled. I could’ve sworn I saw the banked embers of desire flickering in his eyes. “Yeah. I love you. You love me. We have a lot of reasons to make it work.”

My heart felt as if a light was flooding into it after too many days of darkness. The curtains pushed back, and the windows flung open with a fresh spring breeze gusting through. I thought about what Alice had said. Despite my worries about Ross and the complications that came with Wes and me being his guardians, his presence would push us to take it seriously. That meant we would be more fair to each other, stay on the field of honesty, and have the difficult conversations.

I felt the brush of Wes’s thumb on the inside of my palm, and I took a deep breath, steadying myself. “I love you,” I repeated. “I’m sorry—”

He shook his head. “There’s nothing to apologize for. You needed some space. I think it’s obvious neither one of us planned on this. None of it.” His voice became gruff. “I was terrified.”

“Of what?”

“That I’d gone and fallen in love with someone who didn’t love me back. You’re it for me, Tiffany,” he said solemnly.

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