Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
He doesn’t, instead turning my way and holding the napkins to my split-open eyebrow. My vision is blurry due to the swelling.
I sigh, leaning against him, letting Donovan take care of me. When we arrive, he doesn’t let go of my hand, pulling me into the emergency department of the hospital where he works.
“Donovan. What are you doing here?” the triage nurse asks.
“My husband, Eric. He got hit and needs stiches.”
I smile.
“Why are you smiling?” Donovan asks.
“I like hearing you call me your husband.”
His cheeks flush.
“We’re not too busy, and there’s nothing emergent. Come on. I’ll take you guys straight back,” the nurse says.
I sit on the bed in a room, while Donovan tells them all the information and passes over our insurance card. The nurse does her assessment before slipping out of the room and leaving us alone.
“Funny that we’re here. This whole marriage started because of insurance, and now—”
“You shouldn’t have fought him. Not for me.”
I frown. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re my husband. My best friend. What’s worth it other than you?”
“Why?” he asks, and I hate to admit, I’m totally confused. Where is this question coming from?
“The reasons I just said, and because I love you and—”
“Jesus, Eric. You’re killing me here. You love me. You’ve always loved me, and I’ve always loved you, but it’s different now. At least for me. Is it different for you too?”
Because of the sex? But then, I know he wouldn’t be talking about the sex. The pain, the fear in his voice, in his eyes, points to more than that. “Because I love you and…” But he’s right. I have always loved him, and it is different now. It’s more and perfect and everything I didn’t know I wanted or needed. It’s not something I thought myself capable of feeling before now…before him. “And…and I’m in love with you.”
I don’t just love him. I’m in love with Donovan. Maybe that should have been obvious, and maybe I should have realized it by now. Or hell, maybe I didn’t realize it because it’s just so natural, so instinctive, that it felt the same. Have I always been in love with Donovan and just didn’t see it?
“I’m in love with you,” I say again. “I’ve maybe always been in love with you, and that’s why it could never work with anyone else. It never felt real because they weren’t you. I didn’t think I could feel this way, D. I thought this part of me was missing—wanting more, feeling romantic love—but it’s there. It’s always been there. For you.”
Donovan’s brown eyes well with tears, and his chin wobbles.
“Hey, don’t cry. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same.” It might kill me, but I love him too much not to respect him. “It doesn’t have to change anything. I just don’t want to lose you. We can—”
“I’m in love with you too. I’m so fucking in love with you, Eric. You’ve held my heart since the first moment I met you, I was just too afraid to let myself see it.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. “I think I felt the same.”
“You’re really in love with me?” he asks, the question breaking my heart.
“I will always love you. You’re my person. Don’t you know that by now?”
He nods.
“Come here, D.”
Donovan comes easily. He sits on the side of the bed, grabbing my face and kissing me—lips, cheeks, forehead, and around my injury.
Everything settles into place, this truth that was always there making itself known to me.
Donovan and I are in love.
He’s my person in more ways than I thought.
That spark I never felt for anyone…it’s because he’s my spark.
I kiss him again and wince when pain throbs in my eye.
“Shit. I’m sorry.”
He pulls back as a deep voice clears from the entryway. “I didn’t want to interrupt,” a doctor says. “Hey, Donovan. You’re not supposed to be here when you’re off.” He shakes Donovan’s hand.
“No offense, but I wish I wasn’t. My…my husband had a little accident.”
“I didn’t know you got married. Congrats. We’ll take good care of him.” He smiles at us.
“Thank you.” Donovan pulls up a chair and sits beside my bed, holding my hand. We have a lot to talk about, but in this moment, nothing else matters but the man by my side, the one I’m totally, stupidly in love with.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Donovan
It’s late, or should I say early, by the time we get home.
Eric’s brow is stitched up, eye swollen and purple. I haven’t been able to stop glancing his direction all night, not the whole time we were in the ER, nor as we sat in the back seat while a driver got us home.
His shirt is bloody, he looks tired, and…he’s in love with me. Eric and I are in love.
“Hey, baby. Daddies are home,” he says to Butterscotch, who’s sitting on the counter. I don’t even complain that she has a bed and cat tree yet still chooses our countertop. “I need a shower.” Eric yawns.