"What was she doing in here?" I growl, throwing an accusatory glance at Meghan.
"Hey, it's not my fault." Meghan snaps back. "Doesn't matter anyway, I made her leave."
"Cameron," my eyes snap to Amelia, who has addressed me for the first time. Her eyebrows are slightly furrowed and her frown is almost unnoticeable. "Wasn't that your mother?"
"Yeah." Starting to smile, I approach the bed. She didn't meet my mother until right before a few months before our engagement. "Babe?" I catch Megan staring at me as I lay my hand across Amelia's forehead. "Are you remembering something?"
She flinches when my skin touches her so I pull my hand back.
"I've seen her before... In pictures." She explains seeing Meghan and I's confusion.
Disappointment crashes down on me like waves on the beach.
Dr. Percy knocks before entering the room.
"Mr. James. Mrs. Hunt" He nods at me before Meghan. "Amelia."
"Dr. Percy," Meghan grabs the neurologists attention. "Amelia and I have had a conversation." She turns to Amelia, quirking her eyebrow.
"Doctor, please call me Mrs. James." I try to catch her eyes but her flushed face refuses to turn to me.
Dr. Percy smiles. "Mrs. James, that's a great step to recovering. I've actually just come to discuss your discharge."
"I can leave?" Amelia smiles softly. "Like go home?"
"Yes," Dr. Percy alternates glancing at Amelia and I. "Dr. Kingsley has no concerns about the baby and your injuries aren't concerning as long as you promise to take it easy."
I'm comforted by the way my wife's eyes brighten slightly at the idea of going home. Going home will help things be slightly more normal. We've been here for a week and I desperately need some sense of normality.
"I promise." She nods eagerly. "I'll call my parents to make sure they have a room ready."
What? "Um."
"What?" Meghan voices my thoughts. "Honey, no."
Amelia looks confused. "What?"
"Um, Mrs. James," Dr. Percy looks calm and collected, the complete opposite of me. I may be keeping a stoic facade on the outside but on the inside I'm shaking. "I would recommend going back to your normal routine."
Her brows furrow. "Um."
"Come home." I can't stay silent any longer. "With me please."
Wide-eyed she stares at me, paling slightly.
"In my professional opinion," Dr. Percy starts seriously. "that would be the best course of action."
The room goes silent as Amelia inhales deeply.
Isaiah comes into the room moment later, breaking the silence.
He shakes Dr. Percy's hand, greets Amelia, and kisses Meghan all before noticing the tension in the room.
"Um. What's happening?"
"We're leaving to give Amelia and Cameron a second to talk." Meghan grabs Isaiah's hand before he can respond. Dr. Percy nods at me, following the two of them.
The silence in the room is deafening. Amelia refuses to look away from the door and she stiffens when I move to the chair next to her bed.
"Are you scared of me?" I ask, tired of being confused when she stiffens each time we're in close proximity.
She hesitates before shaking her head. "Not you specifically." She looks as if she has more to say so I learn forward, showing my interest. "It's more that this whole situation terrifies me."
"You're not scared of me, but you are scared of me as your husband."
"Can you blame me?" She questions softly. "I mean we're not exactly... close." She winces, probably worried she's upset me.
"You're right," I sadly smile. "We weren't close for a long time and that's my fault."
She looks at me waiting for me to continue, and for the first time since the accident her eyes are unguarded toward me.
"I know why you came to my office that day and-"
Her eyes widen as her face flushes and she quickly looks away.
"Amelia," I chuckle as she presses her hand against her flushed cheek.
"Oh my goodness."
"Sweetheart." I actually laugh this time, pulling her hand away from her face. "Listen, we're married, I would hope that you had a crush on me."
She tries to stutter something out.
"If it makes you feel better I had a crush on you too."
She stops stuttering at my confession and I use her shocked state as an opportunity to give her hand a quick kiss.
She inhales sharply. "I was actually in love with you." I whisper, knowing I'm pushing my luck.
She slowly pulls her hand away without breaking eye contact. "Then why did you act the way you did?" Her tone is soft, curious.
I think back to the last time we had this conversation.
"He's not invited." I growl as Amelia writes Ryan's name on a wedding invitation.
She licks the envelope and I watch as her tongue drags across the top. She says something but I'm to far gone to hear.
"What?"
She laughs, setting the invitation on top of the pile of addressed ones.
"I just said no." I snap, no longer entranced. That douche bag will not be at my wedding.
"Well, like I just said," Her tone is tight. "It's common courtesy."
"Amelia."
"He's going to be invited."
"Amelia." I say, pissed now. "This is the one thing I'm putting me foot down with. I do not want him there." I stand up from the chair, towering over her.
"Babe, he probably won't even come." She looks away, addressing another invitation.
I kneel down next to her and a grab her hands. She must notice my vulnerability, and she becomes serious. "Amelia, I will give you what ever you want for our wedding but I do not want him even invited."
Her eyes study mine. "Okay." She pulls away, pecking my lips quickly, then grabs the envelope with Ryan's address from the pile. She quickly tosses it into the wastebin next to her chair before smiling at me and continuing to address the next envelope.
"He took you from me." I say after she's addressed two more invitations. I can't help but feel a need to justify my ass-like behavior.
Her brows furrow. "What?"
"A bought Salem for you." I say, preparing to tell her the truth.
"What?" She says again, sitting up straighter.
"I dropped him off with a note asking you to meet me at that flower garden in the park." The note said a lot more but she didn't need to know that. "I couldn't handle it anymore. Thinking about you loving someone else physically made me sick, and I knew it was a long shot but I needed you to know that I would give you everything I could if you gave me a chance."
"Ryan took me to that park that same day and he kissed me. She frowns. Her eyes widen as the dots suddenly connect. "Oh! That- that-"
"Asshole?" I suggest.
"Well, I was going to say weasel but that works too."
I laugh, moving from my kneeling position back to the black dining table chair.
We sit in a comfortable silence for a few more minutes before Amelia gasps.
"That day I came to your office..." She trails off, expecting me to explain my inexcusable actions.
"I can't tell you how sorry I am for the way I acted." I tell her sincerely. "I thought you cam to tell me it was him."
"Cameron! I can to tell you I had a crush on you!" She shouts jumping up.
"Well, I know that now." I mumble, wishing I had just let her talk that day.
"Cameron!" She shouts approaching me. "We could have been together almost seven years ago!" She slaps my chest.
"Ow!" I wince, and rub my chest. "I know that." I've thought about it everyday since she told me that she had a crush on me before she started dating Ryan.
"But we're together now." She sighs, smiling before bending down to be eye-level with me, and pinning me with her stare.
"Yes," I gulp. "We are."
"And we have a lot a missed time to make up for." She mutters, staring at my lips.
My hands move to her hips and I pull her down. "That we do."
"Cameron?" Amelia asks, pulling me from the past.
"I was angry." I admit. "Like I said I was in love with you, and I had seen you and Ryan kissing in the park a few days earlier."
"Oh.." She mutters. "I'm sorry."
"Baby, look at me," I'm surprised when she doesn't pull away as I grab her chin. "You never apologize to me okay, ever." She nods slowly. "Especially, for my idiotic behavior. Okay?"
"Okay." She whispers and I release her chin.
"Are you ready to go home?"
"As ready as I can be."
***
I don't even know anymore.
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