With Every Heartbeat (Forbidden Men 4)

I smiled. “You didn’t have to wait with me.”

Ten glanced away and grumbled something under his breath. I bumped my knee into his as my way of telling him thanks for sticking around anyway. It was Christmas Eve and everyone else in our group was home with their families right now, celebrating the holidays.

I was sitting here, though, because this was the date Cora had chosen from a handful of options to receive her new kidney. Worry lanced through me anew. They’d already been in surgery for over two hours. How much more time did they need for Zoey’s part of the whole ordeal to be over?

“You think everything’s going okay?” I asked under my breath as I glanced across the room to where Mr. Wilder and his wife—Cora’s mother—were seated, waiting for news about her.

“Blondie?” Ten asked with a snort. “Hell, yes, she’ll be fine. God wouldn’t let something bad happen to one of his angels.”

I glanced at him in surprise, because what he’d said didn’t sound like anything he would say, ever. But then I saw the anxious gleam in his eyes, and I realized he was worried too.

He and Zoey had grown close since she’d moved in with us two months ago. He always found a way to talk her into doing his laundry or cooking his favorite breakfast, and she not only tolerated his crude, foul mouth, but she seemed to adore it and liked to pamper him. They acted almost like…siblings.

I was just glad they got along as well as they did because to me, they were the closest thing to family I had. Zoey was my other, better half, and Ten had turned into a much better friend than I’d ever thought he’d be.

Before I could respond to Ten’s uncharacteristically sweet comment, Zoey’s surgeon appeared in the doorway of the waiting room. I’d met him before they’d put her under the anesthesia. Remembering me, he came straight over. “Her surgery went well.”

Relief poured through me, and Ten patted my knee in congratulations. Across the room, Cora’s dad stood as if to stretch, but I could tell he wanted to listen in on Zoey’s report. I narrowed my eyes at him and then kept listening to the surgeon’s technical jargon until he said we could go wait in her room and be there when she was brought down from recovery.

We waited for a little over half an hour before they wheeled her in. Her eyes were drowsy and her face a little swollen and pale, but her smile was all for me.

“Hey, you.” Her voice was hoarse and barely above a whisper, but I didn’t care. She was alive and smiling.

“Hey, yourself.” I took her hand and sat beside her. “How’re you feeling?”

“Cold.” Her teeth began to chatter, so Ten and I hunted up some blankets to cover her.

I tucked the last one gently over her shoulders. “Any better yet?”

She closed her eyes and nodded with a sigh. “Yes. Thank you.”

I kissed her forehead and began to stroke her hair behind her ear. “The doctor said you did great. Hardly any bleeding and no complications.”

“Any word on Cora yet?” she asked, her lashes fluttering open.

I shook my head. I didn’t care what happened to Cora or how her end of the surgery worked out, but then...I guess I didn’t want Zoey to part with a kidney, only for it to go to waste and be rejected by Cora’s body. So maybe I did care a little.

“No. Haven’t heard anything.”

Zoey nodded her understanding, and her gaze shifted to the other side of her bed where our roommate lingered with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

“Ten,” she said and slowly reached out an IV-stuck hand his way.

He caught her fingers. “Hey, Blondie. Glad you didn’t die. Ham probably would’ve become a pain in the ass to live with if you had.”

Her chest shook as she laughed softly. “I imagine he would have.” Her smile settle

d into a gaze of adoration. “You’re seriously never going to call me Zoey, are you?”

Ten shrugged. “Probably not.” His eyes filled with a pain I’d never seen in him before. Glancing away, he mumbled what sounded like, “That was my sister’s name.”

Zoey’s smile died. “Was?” she repeated.

He cleared his throat and met her gaze before nodding. “Yeah. Was.” With a wince, he shook his head. Then he leaned down swiftly and stamped a quick kiss to her forehead. “I better go. I’ve got a fucking family thing I should probably go suffer through before the holiday’s over. Just…take care of yourself, will you? And make sure this asshole takes care of you, too.”

“Okay.” Zoey let go of his hand and watched him stride from the room. Then her concerned gaze found mine. “Did you know he had a sister named Zoey who died?”

I shook my head, in just as much shock as she was in. “I had no idea he’d even had a sister.” Much less that her name had been Zoey, or that she’d died.