Keeping Gemma (Holiday Cove 2)

When I was lying back again, panting from the exertion and trauma of it all, she stripped off her rubber gloves and came to sit beside me, on the clean side of the bed. “I know it’s hard not to move, but you need to try, Aaron. You’ve lost a lot of blood tonight. A piece of shrapnel from the crash gored your side. You’re lucky you still have all your internal organs. Regardless, we had to open you up to stop the bleeding. You have an incision on your left side. That alone will take four to six weeks to fully heal. You also have a broken wrist—” she nodded down to my right arm. “—and a smattering of other contusions, mostly from the safety harness from what I can deduce.”

I sucked in a slow breath and looked away, over at the window behind Gemma, wishing I could go outside and get away from the sterile air inside the hospital room.

“Mr. Rosen, do you understand?”

I dragged my eyes back to hers, noticing, for the first time, how the soft grey mixed with a hint of blue, like the horizon after a storm when the sky began to clear. I let my eyes rove over the rest of her features.

Her dark hair was cut just past her shoulders and hung down, like she’d spent the day at the beach, not in an emergency room. Her face was soft, but there was a fierceness to the set of her jaw as she waited for my answer.

“I understand,” I finally replied with a nod.

“Do you have anyone you’d like me to call? Your parents? Siblings?”

A new pain—one that had nothing to do with the stitches in my side—flooded over me, knocking the air from my lungs. “I don’t have anyone.”

Gemma placed her hand on my shoulder, the warmth spreading through the thin hospital gown I hadn’t even realized I was wearing until she touched me. “I’m sorry. Please let me know if you need anything. Here’s the call button,” she gestured at a small control panel on the side of the bed. “If you want to adjust your position, you can use this, but be careful. You’re on some pretty heavy painkillers right now, so you might not feel the discomfort at first, but that makes it even more imperative that you stay still and don’t try to move around too much. If you need to use the restroom, please call, and someone will be here within minutes to assist you.”

I nodded my understanding before she could ask, and she lifted up from the side of the bed. She slipped from the room with a smile.

My condition improved, thanks to a lot of sleep. By the next afternoon, I was finally able to get out of bed with minimal assistance. The only problem with getting better, and sleeping so much in the first twenty-four hours, meant that I couldn’t get back to sleep—and when I wasn’t asleep—I was thinking about Talia. It was hard to believe she was gone. I’d only known her for a handful of weeks, but now, I knew I’d never be able to forget her.

As the hours ticked by, I tried to watch the game on TV, but I kept waiting for her family—if she had any—to come bursting through the door to my hospital room, ranting and bitching at how I’d killed her. That I was a murderer.

But, as the afternoon dragged on, no one other than nurses and doctors came and went. Gemma had come by earlier in the morning, and I found myself wishing she would return. For some reason, it was easier to not think about Talia when she was here.

“Aaron!”

I turned away from the TV to see Boomer rushing into my room, his face tight with concern and his voice thick with emotion. Behind him was his girlfriend, Holly, who looked like she’d been crying.

“Shit man! Boomer! What are you two doing here?” I asked, frantically pushing the buttons on my bed to get into a sitting position. Jack and Holly lived in Germany on a naval base, while Jack completed a three-year stint as a hotshot Lieutenant Commander after his heroic tour over in the Middle East.

Jack came to my side and gingerly wrapped his arms around me in a brotherly embrace. “Player, man…dude—the fuck? How are you?”

“I’m all right Boom, how’d ya know I was here?”

“Carly messaged Holly on Facebook to let us know you’d been involved in a crash.”

I nodded and he released me. Holly gave me a quick embrace and began sniffling before she pulled away. “Sorry,” she whispered, wiping her eyes. “I can’t seem to stop. Are you okay?”

Jack wrapped her in his arms and she automatically lay her head against his chest, still wiping at her tears before they could get too far.