Burying my face in my hands, I started to cry. Melanie wrapped her arms around me and held me tight.
“She makes me happier than I’ve ever been before. She scares the shit out of me.”
We both chuckled.
“She is the only woman who will have my heart. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to make her happy.”
Withdrawing, she smiled. “I am one-hundred-percent positive she feels the same way, but the first thing she’s going to think is that she can’t give you a child.”
“I don’t care.”
“Maybe not right now, but in her mind, you will at some point down the line. I want you to be ready for that when it happens and fight…fight harder than you’ve ever fought before.”
I nodded. Deep down I knew we were both going to have to work through this. Right now, my only concern was Waylynn. Everything else would have to work itself out. I knew if we had each other, we would be able to make it through anything.
“We’re going to be okay. We’ll be here for her through all of this and do whatever it takes to help her heal physically and emotionally”
She gave me a weak smile just as the rest of the Parker family showed up.
They rushed over to us, and I whispered, “We’ll be okay.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Waylynn
Opening my eyes, I glanced around the room. Jonathon was sitting in a chair with his head back, eyes closed. I wasn’t sure if he was awake or sleeping. To my left, my mother sat next to my bed, her head resting in her hand and her eyes closed.
Taking a deep breath, I looked at Jonathon again. “Jonathon…” I whispered.
His eyes opened, and he immediately came to my side.
“Hey, baby. I’m right here.”
“What happened?” I asked, my mouth feeling so dry.
“Waylynn, my sweet baby!” my mother said, drawing my attention back to her.
“Momma.”
“Let me go let the nurses know you’re awake.” She glanced at Jonathon and nodded.
“I’m so thirsty.”
She stood and kissed my forehead. “I’ll get some water, sweetheart.”
Jonathon took my hand and kissed the back of it while I watched my mother walk through the door.
“Are you in any pain?” Jonathon asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. There were two turtles in the road. Another car was passing and I tried to move over to the side to avoid them, but the road was uneven and my tire must have caught. I lost control of the car. I went off the road and the next thing I remember…I was in the car and they were trying to get me out.”
A tear slipped from his eye and rolled down his cheek. He wiped it away. “Your car flipped a few times, and you went through a fence. A tree stopped you from rolling down a hill.”
Everything seemed to come back to me at once.
“Blood. There was blood all over my hands, and I felt a terrible pain in my stomach.”
Jonathon swallowed hard. “You had to be airlifted to the hospital here in San Antonio and they did emergency surgery.”
I lifted my left hand to see it bandaged up. “Did I break my wrist?”
“No. You sprained it pretty badly, but no other broken bones.”
I stared at him. “Then why did I have to go into surgery?”
Tears filled his eyes, causing him to blink several times. He held onto my hand tighter. “A piece of the fence went through the car and impaled your lower stomach.”
The memory of me looking down and seeing metal sticking out of my stomach hit me hard. I swore I felt the pain all over again.
“Oh my God. I saw it…I screamed when I felt it push into my stomach. Did they do any damage getting it out? Will I have a big scar?”
Jonathon’s chin quivered as he pressed his lips together. “It did a lot of damage and they had to…” His voice shook and fear rushed through my veins.
“What? They had to what?”
I could see how hard he was fighting not to get upset. Pulling in a deep breath through his nose, he slowly blew it out.
“They had to do a h…hysterectomy.”
The words didn’t filter into my brain right away.
Jonathon cupped my face and kissed me. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so damn sorry I wasn’t driving that morning.”
Did he say hysterectomy?
“They did a hysterectomy? On me? They did one on me?” A sob pushed from my lips as I repeated myself. “On me, Jonathon? They did a hysterectomy on me?”
He slowly shook his head. “There was no other choice. I’m so sorry.”
“No. No! Why did you let them do that? Why didn’t you stop them?”
“Waylynn, I didn’t get to the hospital in time. It was almost an hour after the accident before I even knew you were in one. I went into town on forty-six so I could pick up the coffee. I didn’t see the accident.”