Finding Our Forever: (A Defining Moments Novel) (3 page)

Ben and I stay by her side for hours, taking turns going to get coffee or food. Dad stops by, but since neither of us are speaking to him and he knows Mom is going to be okay, he doesn’t stick around long. Cord pops by, thankfully never while Dad is here. We don’t really speak. I think we’re all just in shock right now.

Sara has come in a few times to check Mom’s vitals, and each time she’s asked us if we need anything. I don’t have to look up to know it’s her who just entered the room. I can feel her presence when she comes in, and it’s kind of freaking me out.

THE HAND RUBBING
my back is small and gentle, and I’m afraid if I open my eyes I’ll actually be at the hospital and not at home in bed with a beautiful woman wrapped around me—a woman with soft skin and amazing chocolate eyes. I start to shift and the hand immediately disappears. I stretch my arms over my head but freeze when the throbbing in my jeans coincides with a sharp intake of breath from across the room. Slowly opening my eyes, they land on Sara’s face. She is blushing and her movements seem nervous. She’s avoiding looking at me, and I know she is aware I’m awake.

Looking down, it’s obvious I have a massive hard-on, and I realize why Sara is blushing. She saw it.

Leaning forward, I place my elbows on my knees and put my head down so I can run my hands through my hair. I’m so freaking tired. I press the heel of my hands into my eyes. Remembering I’m in the hospital with my mom makes the tightness in my jeans retreat quickly. One glance at my mom proves she’s still out.

“Sara,” I whisper. She swings her eyes to mine, then drops them to my lap before closing her eyes and turning her head back toward Mom quickly.

“Yeah,” she whispers back, proving to me that she’s as affected by me as I am by her.

“How is she?” I ask her quietly. She continues to mess with the little tube coming out of Mom’s arm before turning to me.

“Her vitals are great. She looks a lot worse than she is—physically, anyways. Now it’s just a waiting game for her to wake up,” she replies honestly.

I nod, having nothing else to say. Putting my head back into my hands, I take a deep breath and let it out slow. This day feels never-ending.

“She’s going to be okay. You know that, right?” she asks gently, and I startle at the fact that she is now standing right beside me. Looking up at her face, I see it’s etched in concern. “Her body just needs time to heal.”

“I know. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to really believe that until I look into her eyes and see it for myself.”

She smiles and nods her head.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but visiting hours have been over for almost an hour, and if you don’t get out of here soon, Carol is going to have my butt. I was able to talk her into letting you sleep for a bit, but she’s cranky today, so she’ll be in here soon to kick you out. My shift will be over in a few hours, and I don’t want to spend the rest of it on her bad side,” Sara says in a low tone. Her voice is like melted butter. I mean, seriously, I can hardly concentrate on what she’s saying because just her voice could lull me back to sleep. It’s not high pitch and irritating like some chicks. It’s kind of raspy and low.

I smile at her and pull myself up out of the chair. “I appreciate you letting me sleep a little longer. I’ll head home, but please, if she wakes up….” But before I can finish, she’s already tapping the clipboard with the pen she’s been using to write in Mom’s chart.

“I am under strict orders to call a—” she pauses, looking down at what I assume are notes, “—Ben Harper and Eli Harper the moment she even stirs.” She chuckles and then looks back up at me, smiling that amazing smile. “I assume you are one of those two.”

Where the hell are my manners? I seriously haven’t even told her my name? My mom would kick my ass if she knew I’d been around this woman half the day and haven’t introduced myself!

“Sorry, yeah, I’m Eli Harper.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Eli Harper. Now, if you could so kindly remove yourself from your mother’s room before I get fired, that’d be awesome,” she says with sass and a smirk.

I nod, pulling myself up off the chair. I lean over and kiss my mom on the forehead and whisper to her, “I’ll be back in the morning, Mama,” before pulling back and heading toward the door.

“Go get some rest, Mr. Harper. I promise to call the minute she wakes up. Oh, by the way, one of you will have to call Mr. Cordero. He is not family, so I can’t release information to him,” Sara tells me as she escorts me out of the room.

“I’ll call Cord when it’s time. And please call me Eli. Mr. Harper is my asshole father,” I complain before I can stop myself.

She laughs but doesn’t respond. We continue toward the elevators, and just as I’m about to ask her where she’s going, she turns down a different hall.

“See you tomorrow, Sara,” I call after her smoothly.

She doesn’t stop, but turns around and walks backward while responding, “See you tomorrow, Eli,” before giving me a beautiful smile and then turning back around to continue down the hallway.

I can’t contain the smile that breaks out over my face. Yep, I’m asking that girl out before my mom leaves this hospital. No doubt about it.

BY THE TIME I
make it home, my body is exhausted and sore from the events of today and from falling asleep hunched over in that chair. What I need is a hot shower, a cold beer, some pizza, and my nice, soft bed.

The moment I step into our apartment, I smell the pizza.

Ben.

“You hungry, asshole?”

“I’m starving! Thanks, dude,” I reply as I plop down on the couch next to him.

We eat in silence for a few minutes, both of us reflecting on this jacked-up day.

“When’d you leave?” I ask him.

“The hot little nurse made me leave when visiting hours ended. When I started to wake you up, she said to let you sleep and that she would wake you in a bit to tell you to leave.” Hearing him call her “hot little nurse” puts me immediately on the defensive and I growl at him. His eyes widen, and then he smirks like the Cheshire cat.

Shit.

“Dude, I wish you could see your face right now. You’re totally into the hot nurse, aren’t you?” he asks playfully.

“Seriously, Ben. Don’t,” I demand, and my face must give me away because the smile slides from Ben’s face and he narrows his gaze at me.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Ben replies, before his face lights up with a cross between amusement and intrigue.

“What?”

“You’re into a chick for more than just the usual one-nighter. You ask her out?” he asks, smiling the whole time.

“Stop being a chick about it! I haven’t asked her out yet, but I plan too,” I confess. “I don’t know what it is about her, Ben. I mean, yeah, she’s beautiful, but it’s something else.”

Ben’s smile looks like it’s going to split his face, and I can see the mischief in his eyes. He’s going to give me grief about this girl, I just know it.

“Why are you grinning like that, you dick?” I ask him with irritation.

“Dude, it makes me laugh that you even have to ask me that. You don’t do serious. You don’t ever talk about girls unless it’s you bragging about bagging ‘em.”

I consider what he’s saying and he’s totally right. I don’t do relationships. I never have. Have I gone out on dates? Sure. Never more than a few though, and none of the girls I’ve “dated” held my interest long enough to call it a relationship.

The thing is, I have no doubt that someday I’ll settle down, get married, and have kids. I want all of those things. But I’m twenty years old for shit’s sake. I don’t want them right now, so what’s the point in looking for it right now?

Ben and I sit and eat, avoiding the topic we really should be discussing. Mom and Dad.

After an hour of awkward conversation, I decide to finally broach the subject. Ben has been a daddy’s boy his whole life, so I know I need to watch what I say or this conversation will go south quickly.

“So, is it just me or was Dad acting like the biggest pussy you’ve ever seen?”

That was subtle… right?

“Eli, I don’t want to do this with you right now,” Ben growls at me.

“What? He’s my dad too. I can call him a pussy if I want to. You know it’s true.”

“What I know is that I’m pretty sure that almost losing Mom made him realize how much he screwed up. He loves her, Eli. I know he does.”

“Well, it’s a little late for that bullshit now, isn’t it? He has a new baby to worry about. He should be focusing on Amelia,” I bite back.

I hate fighting with Ben, but sometimes I wish I could make him pull his head out of his ass. He’s so blind to our father’s shortcomings and it drives me absolutely crazy!

I can tell he’s getting pissed, so I just let it go.

Just as I’m about to ask him if he’s heard from Destry about when his flight comes in, my cell rings and I jump up to grab it. When I see an unknown number, my heart starts racing.

Mama.

“Hello,” I shout.

“Ben Harper?” her alluring voice asks.

“Eli,” I growl, and she laughs. She freaking laughs.

“Sorry, I must’ve switched your numbers when I wrote them down,” she replies, sounding nervous. “I just wanted to let you guys know your mom woke up a little bit ago. She’s resting again now, but I knew you would want to know.”

“Can we come back up there?” I ask sharply and a little too loudly. I’m totally irritated that she thought she was calling Ben’s number and not mine, which means she made a conscious decision to call Ben over me. That stings.

“Visiting hours don’t start back up until 7:00 a.m. and I’ve already had to kick Mr. Harper out for sneaking in here after hours,” she tells me gently.

Wait, what?

“I’m sorry. Did you just say that my dad snuck in there after hours and was there when my mom woke up?” I watch as Ben’s face morphs from excitement to concern. My mom has basically made it clear to my dad that he isn’t to contact her unless it has something to do with us. If she woke up and he was there, I assume she wasn’t all that happy about it.

“Yeah. She had me kick him out. She had some juice and crackers, and then I sent her back off to sleep land. She was in a bit of pain, so I gave her something to ease that and help her sleep,” she assures me.

“Well, we appreciate you calling us. Ben is here, so I’ll make sure he gets the message too,” I reply with more snap than I intended.
Jesus, Eli. Pull yourself together. You’ve said approximately twenty-five words to his woman in your lifetime, and you’re jealous because she thought she was calling Ben and not you.

“Okay, well, as we discussed earlier, you may want to call Saint Cordero also. I’m unable to tell him anything about her care, but he was pretty adamant that he needed to be updated when she woke,” she replies, sounding defensive, and I immediately feel bad for being a dick.

“Look, Sara, I really appreciate the call, even though you thought you were calling my brother. I’ll call Cord and we’ll all be there in the morning,” I assure her. She’s silent for a minute and I pull the phone away from my face to see if she’s still on the line. She is.

“I knew I was calling you, Eli. I wrote your phone numbers down clearly. I didn’t mix them up,” she tells me, and I can hear her smile in her tone. “But you do make me nervous,” she continues, her voice sounding a bit firm and a little irritated, totally shocking the hell out of me.

“What do you mean I make you nervous?”

“I don’t really know truthfully. I don’t even know you,” she answers with her feistiness front and center.

I can’t help the smirk that spreads across my face.

“Well, the feeling is mutual,” I reply.

She doesn’t respond immediately, and I can tell she’s deciding on what to say. After what seems like too long, I break the silence.

“I’ll be there in the morning, Sara. If my mom wakes up again, please let her know we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“I’ll tell her, Eli.” She takes a deep breath before continuing, “Good night.”

“Good night.”