"Madeline Rose Lenertz, I am so mad at you."
I held the phone away from my ear to save myself from losing my hearing. Nessa's voice grated on my senses, which were riddled with pain meds to distract me from where Luke Hadaway tried to slice my organs in two.
My doctor, a no-nonsense woman with bouncy gray-white curls and glasses she wore on the tip of her nose as she referenced my charts, told me that I was lucky. An inch or two lower, and my reproductive system might have been injured.
She said she would have thought he was aiming for it if she didn't know any better.
Bren barely contained himself at that, fisting the sheets in my bed as she spoke. But he visibly relaxed when Dr. Webber said that I would be fine. The damage Luke had done would not be lasting. And at the look on Bren's face, she even reassuringly stated that my chances at getting pregnant in the future would not be affected.
Bren got a little red and flustered at that. And my brain responded by conjuring up images that I knew I shouldn't be thinking of yet—images of a baby with dark brown hair and eyes.
"Madie, are you listening to me?"
"Ah, sorry. Not really, to be honest. A little hard to focus over here."
Nessa's voice softened. "What do they all have you taking?"
I shook my head. "I don't even know. You'll have to ask Bren. He's keeping track of it all."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bren nod his head once. He was bent over his phone, slumped in a chair in the corner, doing god-knows-what.
"Now, what were you mad at me for?" I asked, chuckling a bit.
"I'm mad because you ran off to Fresno on some dangerous mission without a single word and left me here with Grayson!"
I laughed. "Oh, that. I bet you guys had fun, though."
Nessa snorted, not committing to my statement. "He told me that you directed him to stay with me, and he took that very seriously."
A broad smile spread over my face. "Do tell."
"Well, I tried to get him to drive me to Fresno, and he refused."
"Good job, Grayson."
I could practically hear Nessa rolling her eyes. "And then when I tried to leave the room to find my own way there, he had the audacity not to let me leave."
If I could have clapped without dropping my phone, I would have. Instead, I just giggled into the speaker. "Well I did tell him to stay with you even if you threw a fit."
"Oh, I threw a fit alright," Nessa said beneath her breath. "And then do you know what he did?"
"No, but I am very curious to find out."
"The man threw me over his goddamn shoulder and took me to his room."
My eyes widened as I slapped my hand over my mouth. Bren glanced up from his phone, giving me an amused look from where he sat in the corner.
I had a hard time muffling my laughter, though, and it definitely made its way to the other end of the phone. Nessa huffed into my ear.
"Um, and then what happened?" I choked out.
It grew so quiet that I thought perhaps the call dropped.
"Nessa? You there?" I asked as I grabbed for the little dixie cup of water sitting on my bedstand.
"Oh, nothing," she said quickly. Her voice was high, and I smirked into my drink. "Nothing happened."
"Well, he didn't hurt you, did he?" I asked, figuring I should check. I didn't think that Grayson would take things too far, but then again, guys had fooled me before.
"Oh god no, nothing like that. Grayson is far too nice. Annoyingly nice."
"So... you admit that he's nice?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?" Nessa snapped, and a burst of laughter slipped through my lips again.
"And strong, I suppose," I added with a lingering giggle that I couldn't seem to tamper.
"Yeah, I suppose." Nessa sounded more resigned this time. "I think he could bench me if he wanted."
"And hot, of course," I offered.
Bren looked up from his phone again and flashed me a frown, narrowing his eyes.
"Of course. That's a given," she admitted surprisingly.
"Oh, it is now?"
"Hey," Nessa cried into the phone, drawing out the word. "I don't like this game anymore. I know what you're doing."
"Nessa, you brought up Grayson, not me."
She sighed. "Okay, fine. But in all seriousness, how are you doing? Should I hitch a ride to Fresno somehow?"
I shook my head even though she couldn't see me.
"No, Nes. I'm okay. They're releasing me soon, and then with spring break starting next week, I'm just going to stay with Caroline and Bren to recover for a bit. Beau already left. He should be back soon, so you won't be totally alone." I paused, considering. "Not that you were alone. I mean, you had Grayson."
She made a dismissive noise. "He doesn't count." Before I could argue that point, Nessa continued. "God, I was so scared for you all."
"I know," I said, my voice suddenly small. Because I was scared, too. "But it's over now."
"Thank goodness."
Nessa and I talked a few more minutes before we hung up, and I turned to Bren. His eyes bore holes into mine.
"Hot, huh?" he asked, raising his brows.
I giggled—again. "Hey there, jealous boy."
He tousled his hair and sheepishly peeked between the strands before standing and crossing the room.
"Can't help it," he muttered. "When it was just the two of us, I got used to having all your attention, and I liked it. Hard to hear you giving it to someone else." He leaned down, perching on the railing of the bed with a teasing smile.
"You don't even like attention, Bren," I countered, shifting so I could angle my body toward him and his cute face. A bit of pain shot through me at the movement, and I ignored it, managing not to wince. I didn't want the smile to fade from Bren's face.
"I like it from you," he replied, leaning down to murmur the words across my mouth. I didn't want the slight brush of his lips against mine, though. I wanted more. I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers, and I had the inexplicable need to laugh, but I wanted more. So I tilted my chin up and kissed him fully. Bren cupped my face and moaned as our mouths connected. Heat spread through me.
"As soon as we get out of here, I'll give you all the attention you could ever want," I breathed when we came up for air. And then I nipped at his lip so he'd know exactly what I meant by that.
Bren jerked upright at that, clearing his throat. "I don't think so, Madeline. You're gonna spend your spring break resting and healing."
I snickered and pulled my bedsheets over the bottom half of my face, trying—for some reason—to hide my laughter from him. "Yeah, resting in bed with you."
Bren flashed me a stern look. Well, somewhat stern. His mouth flattened into a line, but his eyes still danced as he looked down at me. "The keyword there is resting, Madie."
I pouted, letting go of the sheets and crossing my arms over my chest. "Are you trying to impose a no-sex rule right now? Is that what's happening?"
He nodded. "Yep." His lips popped together dramatically on the p.
I smirked. "Challenge accepted."
Bren and I weren't very good at resisting each other. He'd never last.
But he only seemed partially amused. Bren took two steps back to rest his hands behind him on the window ledge. He cocked his head to the side. "It's literally on your discharge papers."
"Shut up," I exclaimed. I actually think I shouted it, so I tried to say the next words quieter. But they were still pretty forceful. "No way. It is not."
"Sh, baby. It definitely is," Bren said, barely containing his laughter as he pointed to the folded piece of paper that the doctor had given to him the last time she'd stopped by the room.
He smiled at me when I didn't know how to respond. "It is right next to no trampolining just in case you had any desire to go to a SkyZone or some shit," he added.
I narrowed my eyes at him in annoyance, and he laughed. "The way you're pouting right now is adorable. It's just for like a week, babe."
"I'm sorry." It was hard to keep the attitude out of my voice. "But I was kind of hoping that the next time I'd see you, you'd make good on everything you've been texting me since your birthday."
Bren's eyes darkened at that. "Oh, I will. You just have to wait a little bit."
I rolled my eyes. I didn't want to wait.
Chuckling, Bren walked to the door. "I'm going to go let Caroline know that we're ready to go home so she can bring the car around."
"Yeah, ready to go home and wallow in my horniness."
Bren laughed loudly at that, throwing his head back as he reached for the door handle. I loved to see his broad smile. It lightened up his face.
"Damn, girl," he said, pausing and looking back over his shoulder.
"What?" I huffed. "How am I supposed to feel around my hot boyfriend? I can't help it."
Bren released his grip on the handle and stalked back over to me, giving me a look that would have made me squirm if it wasn't for the whole stomach wound thing.
"I said we couldn't have sex," Bren said lowly, bending down to kiss me on the cheek. Next, his lips moved to my ear to whisper in it. "I didn't say I wouldn't make you come the first chance I got."
God, this boy. I didn't know if it was him or the drugs, but I was absolutely floating.
Madie was so fucking doped up. They'd given her a dose of meds before they cleaned and re-bandaged her wound earlier, and it was definitely still in effect. It killed me, but in a good way. With her sheer adorableness, random outbursts, and all that talk of sex, I didn't know how to feel.
I pulled back from whispering in her ear to see her biting her lip, looking up at me beneath her lashes. But I refused to get a hard-on in a hospital, so I forced myself to walk out of the room before my brain went places it shouldn't.
Alright, before my brain went more places it shouldn't.
I'd already had to make myself stop wondering how high I could get her heart monitor to spike if I'd wanted.
Fuck, her heart. It was mine. No matter how fast or slow it was beating. No matter how much or little blood it pumped through her veins.
Blood. I'd always been weird about it.
People didn't usually think about their blood. Not until there was an accident or a cut and maybe a little dribbled on their skin. Blood made the human body run, but who bothered to concern themselves with that?
I mean, I did. Because I'd seen blood when it ran out. When there wasn't enough of it left to circulate through the heart, to keep the body going. It wasn't in the body at all. It was on the floor.
So when I saw Madie's blood, when I felt Madie's blood on my hands, so much of it—fuck, it was like re-living my worst nightmare.
In my mind, blood meant death.
But as I'd watched Madie the last day or two, getting her wound cleaned and vials drawn to check for infections and shit, I realized that blood was life.
It meant that Madie was alive. Hell, someone out there had created Madeline Lenertz. They'd put blood in her veins, fire in her heart, and she went out in the world, breathing and living until one day she met me. And every day since I'd met her, she's lived. Because of her will to do so but also because of that blood within her.
Even now, it kept her alive.
And I was so goddamn grateful for it.
Caroline gave me a funny look when I walked over to her in the waiting room. My expression must have given away my current amusement with my cute-ass girlfriend. Thankfully, Caroline didn't ask about it, though.
Instead, she was quick to bring her car around, and soon enough, we were getting Madie loaded up to bring home.
It wasn't until we were all settled in Caroline's Ford Escape that Madie sighed.
"I think I should call my parents," she said.
I frowned. Madie chose not to tell them that she'd been in the hospital, and I hadn't been about to try to convince her otherwise. She said after the way they behaved the last time, she wasn't up for the effort it would take to include them in the situation.
But I knew she felt guilty about it. And I suspected she'd want to talk to them about it eventually, even though she'd shut them out the past few months. But I wasn't sure if it was just the meds talking right now or if that was what she really wanted.
"Okay, baby," I said.
She nodded once before looking out the window. She stared at the passing houses for a moment before glancing back over at me.
"Do you know who the cops arrested when they thought it was Luke?"
I shook my head.
"I wonder..." She pursed her lips, thinking. It was cute, and I smiled. But that quickly faded when she said her following words.
"Your dad," Madie mused offhandedly. "He said the oddest thing to me when he...you know."
I gritted my teeth. "Yeah, I know."
"What did he say?" Caroline asked from the front of the car.
"He said Devon Reid says hi."
I jerked forward in my seat.
"What?"
"Who is that?" I saw Caroline's confused look in the rearview mirror before swinging my gaze to Madie.
I didn't recognize the name Devon, but I sure as hell recognized the name Reid.
And sure enough, she muttered, "Quinton's dad."
🤍
A bit of a longer chapter for you.
Hope you enjoyed!
It was nice to write something more light-hearted here!
Thoughts on Devon?
xoxo