Blended (Redemption #1) (32 page)

I lean my head on Isla’s shoulder after we smile knowingly at each other. Being with her makes me feel closer to Wade. I’m unsure as to why, but it does. They seem to be cut from the same cloth, and it settles me down from the fear that I might have lost him.

Forty minutes and another two paper cups later, Madelyn walks out in her aqua-colored scrubs. “Mrs. Brass, Isla . . . Hadley,” she adds my name onto the end as if it’s laced with poison, “I can bring the three of you back to see him now.”

All three of us stand together. I toss our cups in a trash receptacle close by before Isla comes beside me to link her arm with mine. “I lied about having eaten earlier, and I believe that you did too. We might need each other to ensure we don’t walk into the wrong room or a wall.”

“I may have lied as well.” I squeeze her arm underneath mine as the excitement of seeing Whiskey hurtles through my body.

“Right this way,” Madelyn says as we all fall into step behind her as she scans her ID card and leads us through a countless number of doors until we are led down a quiet hallway with rooms on each side. The air is stuffy, and cheap pictures are hung up on the wall in an attempt to be uplifting. Madelyn comes to a stop and stands in front of the third room down before scanning her badge, and it unlocks with a click. She pushes the heavy door open and holds it for the three of us to enter.

I let go of Isla the second I see him, and I feel like I’m experiencing
deja vu
. He’s asleep and unmoving as Lilly walks up to him. Isla follows behind her, but I stay my distance as I scan over him from my spot next to the door.

He looks beyond his thirty-one years with all of the machines and wires surrounding him. The room is filled with sounds that distract me from him; I want to know what they all mean. I’ve started to fidget with the cuff of his sweatshirt that I’ve been wearing all day when I finally register my name being called.

“Hads? Are you okay?”

I turn to face the direction that the sound is coming from: Isla.

My head starts to spin as I watch Madelyn adjust the wires hooked up to him. I think that I’m going to be sick at the sight of him so vulnerable. I cup my hand over my mouth in an attempt to stop myself from being ill, but my body lurches. A trashcan meets my face just in time as Isla shrieks while holding it in place.

“Oh sweetie,” I hear Lilly say at a distance.

I force my eyes shut and wipe my mouth off with a paper towel that Madelyn hands me. “You should sit down. I’ve got enough on my hands with watching his vitals. I’d need an extra hand if you decide to pass out on me.”

I nod in compliance as Isla leads me to the single seat in the room. Before I can lower myself down to it, though, she drags both it and me closer to Wade, I sit down and curl up into a ball. I stretch my arm out and rest my hand on his as it rests on the white sheets covering the bed.

“I’m sorry,” I croak.

“Oh, quit it,” Isla says at the same time that Lilly says, “There’s nothing to apologize for. It’s a lot to take in.”

I rest my head against the back of the chair and shut my eyes as I run my thumb over the top of his hand. I think back to our time on his yacht and how he took care of me. It feels as if it was years ago, but I miss it. My heart yearns for him.

“Isla, would you mind sending Colin an update on Wade and asking him to bring the three of us something to eat before you pass out on me as well?” is the last thing I hear before sleep overtakes my worried, overtired, and underfed body.

From what I have been told, I’m alive, which has been difficult to comprehend because of the narcotics swimming through my bloodstream. I’ve found solace in watching Hadley sleep instead of concentrating on the ache in my lower back. There was no one besides her in the room when I woke up five minutes ago, and I’m thankful for that. It has allowed me the time to come around on my own. It’s provided me with time to come to terms with just having gone through surgery instead of waking to an overcrowded room.

Slowly, I run my thumb across her palm as it lies on top of my hand. I cannot think back to the time that ultimately tied us together, but I refuse to fight what has progressed between the two of us. The door opens, stealing my moment of reprieve. I turn my head from Hadley and lock eyes with my mother. She gasps and rushes over to my side.

“Welcome back, Waylon. Isla, go fetch Madelyn or Dr. Heath and let them know that he’s awake.”

Before Isla responds to my mother, she joins her at the bed and leans over me, giving me an awkward hug before smacking my chest. “I’m glad that you made it, Brass.”

“Fuck off,” I croak out at her, but manage to wink at her.

She gives me the finger as she turns and walks out of the room to find a medical professional, returning in a minute flat with Madelyn on her heels just as my mother was explaining the results of the surgery to me.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Brass,” Dr. Heath says as he follows Madelyn and Isla in. He picks up the digital device at the end of my bed, checks his watch, and then types something on it before looking back up at me. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel like I just did a line of cocaine. My back is sore, but that’s about all that I’m able to feel right now, physically at least.”

I look back over at Hadley, who is still asleep in the chair, and it concerns me that she hasn’t woken up yet. I haven’t stopped running my thumb over the palm of her petite hand, soothing the thoughts that must be running through her head right now, even in her sleep.

“Is she okay?” I ask because she’s been waking up when people come into our room at the hotel, and just another voice in the room would have normally woken her up. Especially lately.

Isla giggles and speaks first. “She passed out when we were allowed back to see you. Well, she got sick first when she saw your ugly mug, but I’m sure that had something to do with the whiskey we drank on empty stomachs.”

“You’re going to end up killing her if you let her drink before she eats, Isla.”

“I’m not her mother, Brass,” she says with a smile and my mother scolds the both of us for interrupting Dr. Heath.

“Please, Doctor, continue,” she says.

“Well, Mr. Brass, my team of surgeons and I reconstructed the pinched nerve, and we’ve supported it with hardware. We have no doubt that you will make a full recovery. I’d actually like to test out your senses now if that’s all right.”

“Very well.”

He places the device back at the end of the bed before Madelyn removes the sheet covering my body.

“Mr. Brass, you need to understand that you will have strict restrictions when it comes to what you can and cannot do. I have provided the ladies with the information, and I will be sending you back to the suite with a packet of information that I need you to read through. The muscles around the incision area will be weak and uncomfortable for a while,” he says as I feel a sharp pin-like object pressing against the bottom of my foot.

I swing my head to look at what he’s doing instead of staring at Hadley. He’s holding up a metal object with multiple metal pins on a wheel. He runs it down the bottom of my foot again, and my eyes widen in astonishment. “I can feel that.”

My mother gasps excitedly before stepping closer to Isla and squeezing her.

“Wonderful,” he says before repeating the action on my other foot and once again, I am able to feel the sensation of it. He repeats the same actions he’s done over the past couple of weeks, working his hands up my calves, but this time, I can feel everything. It seems rusty, but it’s definitely something.

“Good,” he says to himself. “Mr. Brass, as eager as you must be to walk around, I’m going to request that you go through the regular rehabilitation process before over-exerting your body. After the nerve reconstruction, it may feel like you have a new pair of legs that you’ll need to get used to. I’ll have your physical therapist come by this evening, and together he and I will develop a recovery and exercise plan.”

“Thank you.”

“If you’ll excuse me now, I need to document and finalize a few things with your records before you will be able to leave. I’ll stop by later this evening before your release in the morning to your suite where Madelyn will be required to stay for another two weeks or more. I’d like for Mr. Brass to have time to sleep off the remainder of the anesthesia. Ladies, I’m going to have to close visiting hours early for him today.”

I nod, and speak before the others can. “Hadley is staying right here.” I turn my attention back to her, and give them no other option but to agree with me.

I say goodbye to my mother and Isla before they leave with Madelyn and the doctor, once again leaving me alone with the woman I love—the woman who has the potential to destroy me, but I’ve just now come to the conclusion that she has no idea of how much power she currently wields over me.

I squeeze her hand in an attempt to wake her. The static that runs between us seems to send a live shock into my heart when her eyes flutter open. “Rye, wake up for me, gorgeous.”

She stretches out in the chair as she blinks. I’m assuming that she’s attempting to remember where she is. I watch the recognition sweep over her face: her body straightens and goes stiff before she moves to the edge of the seat. “You’re awake,” she states.

“Barely. This shit that they gave me is potent, and I think you might need a hit or two of it. You’re pale.”

A crease forms across her forehead at my words. “I think . . . did I pass out?”

I can’t help but chuckle at her. I’m unsure if she’s fully awake yet, or if she’s in that odd dream-like state after waking up suddenly. “That’s what my mother said.”

“Wait, how are you? Where is everyone?” She seems thoroughly confused as she rubs her temple.

“They just left with Madelyn and Dr. Heath.”

“You’re okay? God, please be okay, I don’t know if I can—”

I interrupt her before she forces herself into a panic attack. “Relax for me, Rye. I’m great.”

I realize that it’s going to take her a few minutes to come around to me so I throw the blanket off of my legs and pat the bed next to me. “Come.”

“What about . . . ?”

“I don’t give a fuck. Come,” I demand and this time, she lifts herself to her feet before climbing into the small bed with me. It’s a good thing that she’s as petite as she is, or we would not be able to do this. She settles next to me on her side and runs her fingers down my chest and to my waistline.