Being With You (The Redemption Series) (12 page)

Tristan shut his eyes and let his head loll back to rest on the bed. The doctor sighed, but finished, “You’re lucky to be alive, Tristan. Your roommate’s quick thinking when she found you is what saved your life…you were on the verge of your organs shutting down from the extreme temperature your hypothalamus was putting your body through.”

“Would you like more ice chips, or maybe something to eat?” A cool hand pressed against his wrist and he looked over to say “Thank you” to the nurse who had been by his side this whole time, but he had yet to acknowledge. Tristan was sure he’d died when his eyes landed on her sweet face, the great big green eyes and her dark hair, which was pulled up and back.

“Hey, Tristan…” she said and his world ground to a halt.

Peyton…

H
e’d died. That was the only explanation. He’d just recently dreamed he was holding Peyton when it was really Susy and his mind was fucking with him.

Maybe that was what was going on now. He was in the mental institute again, and his brain had flown the coop. He was now a vegetable in a psychiatric unit, forced to go through his life as a bystander and not an active participant.

Yup…all that was left was for a giant talking lion to come out of the bathroom and talk about another land through the wardrobe. He was coo-coo.

Peyton smiled a lazy smile and winked at him as she looked at her watch again and then back to her fingers pressed against the pulse point on his wrist. Christ, his dreams were thorough if he’d imagined her doing something as mundane as taking vitals.

The doctor pulled them both out of their mental stare down when he asked, “Why isn’t he wearing a pulse ox monitor, Peyton?” He said the name with a familiarity that made Tristan’s heart squeeze a little.

“He wouldn’t leave it on. Even in a light coma he still found a way to remove it. We gave up and went back to checking his vitals on the hour.”

“59…Dr. Sheridan. Last check was 52,” Peyton told the man sitting on his other side.

“Much better, Tristan. Your vitals are all stabilizing. We need to run a few more tests today, but I think you’re on the mend.”

Tristan shook his head a bit and looked back and forth between the pair, finally deciding he would question Peyton first and then the doctor. After all, his sanity was only in question because his mind was re-creating his ex-girlfriend for a mindfuck that he didn’t really want to leave. If the reason she was here was plausible, then maybe he really could believe he wasn’t dreaming.

“What are you doing here, Peyton?”

Dr. Sheridan interrupted, “I’ll be back to check on you before I leave for the day. Glad you’re feeling better. Ms. Bauer has already told me that you would be shocked to see her here. I’ll leave you two to talk. Peyton…” The man nodded to her in an all too friendly way, and she looked down to the floor and nodded as he left.

Once he was out of the room and the door was closed, Peyton turned to look at him and simply smiled. “Hey…you.”

Tristan laid his head back, but kept his eyes trained on her. “Hey, Peyton. Could you fill me in on what the fuck is going on? Without any of the mumbo jumbo. How did I get here? Where’s Susy? And when did you start working at the hospital as a nurse?”

Peyton rolled her eyes, but laughed. “So many questions, Tristan.” She walked around the bed to the chair the doctor had been sitting in and wheeled herself up next to him.

“Well, you must have been feeling pretty shitty for the last few weeks, because you’ve been carrying around a lot of extra bacteria in your urinary system, which backed up and gave you a kidney infection. Your bender that night was really bad timing and put your system into overload and the infection took over. I wasn’t here the morning your roommate brought you in, but she was here most of yesterday sitting by your side once they got you to your room.

“I finally talked her into going home last night and getting some sleep. I expect her to be back sometime today, and she talked about your boss coming this morning, too.”

Tristan sighed, finally accepting that this was his reality. It was all starting to make sense…the back pains, feeling crappy, the hallucinations in the night when he’d practically begged Susy, or who he’d imagined was Peyton, to sleep in his bed so he could hold her.

“When did you start working at the hospital as a nurse?”

Peyton smiled and looked off into the distance then answered, “I’m an LPN, Tristan, and always have been. I couldn’t find a decent hospital job, so I chose to work with handicapped individuals. I got lucky when this one opened up in December, and at the time, I was looking for a change.”

She shrugged and added, “Susy said
your boss
and
Gabriel
in the same sentence yesterday. Do you still work at his Supper Club? How’s that going?”

Tristan was so happy to see Peyton, and wanted to keep talking, but his stomach was rumbling loudly and his head was starting to throb again. He closed his eyes and the pain in his head was a bit better, but still there. Moaning, he tried to stretch out his body to recline a bit. Peyton was up in a flash and was working the controls of the bed so that he was lying back.

“We can talk more later, Tristan. I’ll get your breakfast ordered and visiting hours will be starting soon. Your girlfriend and boss will be here right at ten to see you, I’m sure.”

Tristan wanted to shoot up out of the bed to question her further, but knew what that would do to his aching body. Instead, he reached out and grabbed Peyton’s wrist to stop her from leaving with the wrong impression. The instant his hand touched her skin, the connection between them was there, and they both gasped at the contact.

Peyton had closed her eyes, but didn’t pull away from him. He watched as her throat worked hard at swallowing, and she had a pained look on her face. Immediately, he released her wrist and could feel the loss of contact the minute her hand dropped away.

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s my roommate and my best friend.”

“And Cara’s sister, Tristan. You still dipping your wick in that whore?”

Peyton gasped and pulled her hands to her mouth in shock. She spoke right away before he could, “I’m so sorry, Tristan! That was completely out of line!”

She was so cute when she was flustered, and right now he could see she was turning beet red through her dark bronze complexion. Tristan couldn’t help but laugh and it nearly made his sides hurt and his head pound like it was a drum, but it was worth it to see the tiny smile that graced her lips.

“It’s okay, Peyton. But you should know that just because Cara is Susy’s sister doesn’t mean Susy is anything like her. And I would never
dip my wick
in Cara again,” he tried matching her tone of voice to say her phrase. “She is a whore, fancy pants,” Tristan decided to use Peyton’s old nickname to make sure she knew he hadn’t taken offense to her off-handed remark.

It worked, too, because she relaxed her shoulders and blew out the breath she was holding. “You’re right, Tristan. Susy has been nothing but polite and sweet as she waited for you to wake up. We can’t choose our family and sometimes bad seeds are there and we have no control over them.” She looked down at him with a bit of pity that instantly reminded him why they were no longer together.

“Tristan!” he heard called from the hallway before Susy came barreling in, running at full speed. She practically jumped into his bed and wrapped her arms around his middle. “Oh my God, I’m so happy to see you’re awake!” she said into his chest, and then Gabriel was standing next to him, holding onto his free hand.

“Christ, man, you scared the shit out of us,” Gabriel said with his trademark growl.

Tristan tried to look around them both for Peyton, but she’d left them alone, for which he was grateful. He could only handle one thing at a time right now, and having his ex-girlfriend whom he was still in love with, but who smothered him, his roommate, whom he was casually sleeping with, and his boss, whom was going to lecture the shit out of him, all in the same room at the same time was way more than his currently overtaxed brain could handle right now.

Tristan sank back into the bed and sighed as he rubbed Susy’s back as she held onto him. He scooted over so she could crawl into the bed with him if she wanted, to which she immediately complied.

“Hey, Sus…I’m okay. Thanks to you,” he added with a kiss in her hair. “You can stop squeezing the stuffing out of me now,” he teased and patted her arms so she would loosen up a little.

“Sorry, Tristan,” she said and sniffled before sitting up, but remained on the bed with him. “I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on with you, but you were beyond out of it. I knew you needed help when I could practically fry an egg on your forehead.” She said it to be joking, but there were tears in her eyes that she couldn’t hide, and lowered her head, letting her hair fall around her face.

“Hey, sweetheart, don’t cry. I’m gonna be okay,” he said and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

Susy looked up at him and wiped at her eyes. “Sorry, honey. I was so scared when I called 9-1-1 and I had no clue if you were even alive when they hauled you away.” She laughed a little bit and added, “The last thing we talked about was you calling me your ex-girlfriend’s name.” She laughed out loud and it wasn’t a forced laughed either. “I swear, even your nurse yesterday looked just like her, too. It’s like she’s your guardian angel and is everywhere around you, Tristan.”

Gabriel looked at the pair of them like they had both grown two heads, but he wasn’t laughing at all. He pointed to the hallway, and asked very succinctly, “That really was Peyton, wasn’t it, Tristan?”

Susy stopped laughing immediately and she got up from sitting on his hospital bed, walking over to the door to look through the small bit of glass. “I’ll be damned. It really is, Peyton,” she said with no emotion, and smiled at someone before she pushed open the door to his room and walked out without another word to either of them.

Tristan lay there half-heartedly wishing he was still in a coma as Gabriel summed up the situation for him with a teasing voice, “Your ex-girlfriend that you never really got over and your roommate that you are sleeping with are out in the hallway talking about you as you lay in a hospital bed, unable to defend yourself. I’d say you’re fucked, buddy.”

O
h for fuck’s sake, please let this be a dream… nightmare would be a better word…

Tristan thought to himself as he groaned and pulled the covers of the hospital bed around him tighter. He’d just woken up after being out of it for almost a day with something life threatening, but he was more worried about the threat to his life that was waiting for him on the other side of the door to his room.

There were two women out there, hashing out where things stood between the three of them. Or so he hoped. Neither of the girls was violent in any way, but that didn’t mean either one of them wasn’t capable of throwing down if necessary. He was just glad they were in a hospital in case the scratches and war wounds they gave each other required medical attention.

Carnal thoughts of Susy and Peyton duking it out in the hallway blazed through his brain; they were barely clothed, of course. Maybe even a mud pit could spice things up; he always wanted to see what Peyton would look like in a two-piece white bikini against her darkened skin. He bet Susy would look like a frickin’ wet dream in thong bottoms and two tiny triangles covering just her nipples.
Now it just became a sexual event
…Tristan groaned at himself. He really was fucked up in the head if this is where his thoughts were going.

The sound of Susy’s laughter in the hallway brought him out of his erotic thoughts. The door to his room opened and she came back in with Peyton right behind her carrying a tray.

“Hey, big guy. You doing okay?” Susy asked with genuine concern on her face. It shocked the hell out of him that she was smiling. Not just smiling, but
not
leaping at him with a sharp object in her hand. Not that she’d ever been overly hostile about anything before, but he never in his wildest dreams would have imagined this scenario. Jealousy could bring out the worst in people.