I cranked up the music louder than I would if I had clients inside and got to work. I finished up the inventory and schedule quickly and decided to restock the stations. My mind was on Gabe the entire time and more than once I caught myself grinning like a fool in the mirror’s reflection. “Take it easy, kid,” I told my reflection. “Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your faith in…somethings.”
The phone rang several times while I worked, but I let it go to voicemail since the salon was closed. Chaz would return the calls and schedule appointments when he came to work on Tuesday morning. I noticed that the phone was busier than usual, but didn’t give it much thought. I wished that I had when I heard loud knocking on the front door of the salon. I turned around and saw a frazzled looking Adrian standing on my porch. Our eyes met, and he waved his hand urgently for me to come to the door.
I knew whatever he had to say wasn’t good news, but that didn’t stop me from going to him. “What’s wrong?” I asked Adrian. He was wearing a large bandage on his forehead and didn’t look so good, but he was at my salon, and Gabe wasn’t. I tried so hard not to panic, but it wasn’t working and was evident in my voice when I asked, “Where’s Gabe?”
“He’s at County General,” Adrian replied. “Our cell phones were taken, so I didn’t have your personal number, only the salon. I drove over here to get you when you didn’t answer the phone. Grab your coat, and I’ll take you to him.”
I quickly grabbed my coat and followed him to his car that he’d left running out front. “What happened, Adrian?” I asked once we were on the road. My heart was up in my throat by that time.
“We were following a lead and let our guard down when we shouldn’t have.” He removed one hand from the steering wheel and pointed to his bandaged head. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”
“I’m freaking out here, Adrian. What kind of condition is he in?” Against my better judgment, I had let my guard down to have a chance with Gabe. I was terrified of losing him.
“I’m sorry, kid. I didn’t mean to scare you half to death.” Adrian took his hand off the wheel again, but that time it was to ruffle my hair. I saw that I’d have to set down some rules with Adrian about calling me a kid and touching my hair, but it could wait until after I was sure that Gabe was okay. “Gabe’s in stable condition, but he has one hell of a concussion. He’ll probably be staying at Casa de County General for a few days.”
“He’s going to be okay though, right?” I was relieved to hear that he hadn’t been shot or stabbed, but head wounds could be tricky.
“He’s tough, and you’ll be the incentive he needs to get better.” Adrian glanced briefly in my direction and offered me an assuring smile. I hoped he was right about all of it. I assumed Gabe was plenty tough enough, but I wanted to be his incentive to heal.
We were given his room number right away when we arrived at the hospital. My heart pounded in my chest, and the sound of my blood rushing through my veins roared in my ears. I became lightheaded and dizzy outside his room and realized I’d been holding my breath.
“I need a minute,” I told Adrian. “I don’t want him to see me like this.” He was the one injured for fuck’s sake. I needed to get my shit together and be strong. I got my breathing under control and said, “I’m ready.” I forced a smile on my face when Adrian opened the door, but it quickly fell when I saw Gabe lying in bed, his head wrapped in white gauze. “Gabe!” I rushed to his bed and reached for his hand.
Gabe’s eyelashes fluttered then his eyes opened slowly. He had blinked several times before he was able to focus on me. “Hurts.” His slurred word broke my heart, but the way he reached for me with his hand pieced it back together again. “Come here.” He seemed uncoordinated as he tugged me down for a sweet kiss. “Better now.” He dropped back to sleep, and I just stood there staring down at him.
I finally looked over at Adrian. “Is there anyone we should call for him. His parents?”
Adrian shook his head. “I’d say yes if he were gravely injured. I think it’s best to let him call his folks when he’s feeling better.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “These are Gabe’s,” he said, “I’m going to get Buddy and take him home with me while Gabe is here. Do you want me to come get you later tonight?”
“I’m not leaving,” I told Adrian. “I’ll call my friends if I need anything from home.”
Adrian nodded in approval. “He’ll be just fine,” he told me. “I’m going to head back to the station so I can help with the search for the person who did this to us.” I wanted to ask who it was, but I knew he couldn’t answer me.
“Take care of yourself, Adrian.”
“I’ll be back later to check in on you both.” He offered me a quick wave before he took off, eager to find the person responsible for putting Gabe in the hospital.
Once I was alone with Gabe, I looked down at his serene face as he slept. “What am I going to do with you, Gabe?” I released his hand long enough to pull a chair beside his bed. “Look, I think we need to come to an understanding,” I said seriously as if he was listening to me. “I probably more than like you, but I’m not ready to tell you that yet. I want the chance to tell you someday, so can you stop getting hurt?” Of course, he said nothing. “I’ll take your silence as agreement.”
A nurse came in around an hour later and woke Gabe up to ask him a series of questions. I was happy to learn that he knew the year, his birthdate, and who the president was. He looked happy to see that I was still there. “Hi, beautiful.” He chuckled and then moaned in pain after I looked around to see who he was addressing. “You, Josh.”
“Those must be some serious drugs,” I told the nurse as she replaced the IV bags.
She laughed quietly and said, “They’re pretty good but not as good as he’d like after being knocked in the head as hard as he was. He can have some more potent stuff a little later.” She looked at me and smiled when she finished. “Do you want me to have a cot brought in so you can stay with your boyfriend.”
“That would be great.” I didn’t know if Gabe considered us boyfriends, but it didn’t matter. I was staying.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Gabe said when we were alone again. He cleared his throat like it was really dry.
“Let me get you something to drink.” I poured a cup of ice water from the pitcher beside his bed and held the straw up to his mouth so he could sip it. “Slowly,” I told him when he wanted to gulp it. “Little sips until we see if your stomach will keep it down.”
“I’m sorry if you were scared.” Gabe reached a shaky hand up toward my face, and I met him halfway to help him conserve energy. I was hoping he’d be able to stay awake for longer periods of time.
“I was at first, but Adrian assured me that you were okay.”
“Where is Adrian?” Gabe asked
“He went back to the station to help with the search.” I brushed my hand along the side of his face. “I’m sorry that you’re in pain.”
“I can’t believe a seventy-year-old woman got the drop on us,” Gabe said. I must’ve misunderstood him, or his head injury was worse than I thought. “Wanda Honeycutt should win an academy award for best actress in a homicide investigation.”
“Wanda Honeycutt?” I asked. “Seriously?”
“Spawn of Satan,” Gabe replied. “If she didn’t kill Georgia then she sure as hell knows who did.”
“I can’t believe it,” I said, recalling the sweet lady who taught bible school to me as a child.
“Believe it, babe.” Gabe squinted his eyes while he concentrated, and I realized he wasn’t aware of what he had called me.
My heart realized it though and thumped a little harder and faster at the cheesy endearment. I never considered myself a guy who wanted to be called “babe.” I always thought I’d want to be called something more exotic and less commonplace until the word rolled off Gabe’s tongue.
“What?” Gabe asked. I looked at him in confusion because I hadn’t sai
d anything. “You have a strange look on your face. Did I say something stupid because I’m going to blame it on the concussion, the drugs, or something else.”
“No, Gabe. What you said was right, not wrong.”
That look of intense concentration crossed his face again. He could’ve been struggling to remember what he’d just said or straining to fart; it was a tossup. “I called you ‘babe.’ You’re not freaking out,” he told me.
“Nope.”
“It’s because you like me.” His eyes were starting to get heavy again as sleep beckoned him.
“I sure do.” My words earned a sweet smile.
“I like you a lot,” he replied. “I can’t wait to get out of here so I can show you.” He let out a growl that was about intimidating as a kitten’s meow.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “Okay, tiger, but how about you get some rest first.”
“Mmkay.”
Once he had drifted back to sleep, I pulled my phone out and dialed Meredith. Of course, the story had already started to circulate throughout the town, and she’d called me twelve times since I had arrived at the hospital. I had my phone on silent and didn’t realize I missed her calls. I felt terrible for causing her distress, which I told her as soon as she answered the phone.
“You’re not forgiven,” she said huffily.
“Can I please ask a favor? I need a few things from home…”
“Already have them,” she said from behind me as she entered the hospital room. I spun around and saw that Chaz had come with her.
“I’m so happy to see you,” I said in relief.
“Jazz, I’m right here. You don’t have to talk to me through the phone.” She disconnected the call and slipped the phone into her pocket.
“Oh,” I said, feeling like a complete idiot. I put my phone back in the pocket of my jeans.
“We brought you some clothes, a warm blanket, and a pillow,” Chaz said. “Are you okay?”
“I am now that I’ve seen him with my own eyes,” I answered.
“Is he going to be okay?” Mere asked. “Hell, I’d heard about twelve renditions of the story—from him only needing stitches to him needing an undertaker.”
“Don’t say that.” I clutched my stomach.
“We’ll hang out with you for a bit to keep you company,” Chaz said.
“Thank you,” I told them. If my friends stayed and kept me occupied, then maybe I wouldn’t fixate on how close I could’ve come to losing Gabe.
Adrian and Sally Ann showed up a little while later and brought some dinner. The nurse hadn’t been back in to wake Gabe yet, and he was sleeping soundly, with only a few occasional moans. Each time he made a noise, I reached for him, and he would calm down like my presence comforted him.
A different nurse came in not long after we’d eaten and she performed the same tasks as the first nurse I met. She was just as friendly, took the time to introduce herself to all of us, and asked if there was anything she could bring Gabe. “Some broth maybe?” she asked him.
“That would be nice,” he replied. Once the nurse left to get him broth, he looked at Adrian with a fierce expression. “Please tell me that you’ve found her.”
“Fucking-A,” he replied, “but she’s not talking.”
“Yet,” Gabe replied. “I won’t be in this hospital bed forever.” The fierce determination in his voice had me wiggling in my chair. I knew damned well he wasn’t going to rough up Wanda Honeycutt, but I believed in his ability to get her to confess. “Are they searching her house for evidence of the crimes? I reckon she could’ve stabbed Georgia easily enough if she snuck up on her. It would explain why there were no strange prints and no forced entry. I somehow don’t see her climbing beneath Rocky’s car and cutting the brake lines though.”
“I’m with you, partner. We’ve been operating on the notion that the two events are related, but what if they’re not? It sounds like the pair had their share of people who might want to harm them. We’ll dig deep and won’t leave any stone unturned,” Adrian said. “Right now, you need to worry about getting better.”
“I’ll be back on the job in no time,” he said confidently, but the way he started to wilt said otherwise. He didn’t stay awake long enough to sip the broth the nurse brought in for him.
Everyone left me alone with Gabe with promises to be back the next day. I was grateful for the quiet so I could just sit and watch him sleep. I eventually lay on my cot beside him, content to hear his soft snores while he rested peacefully.
My return to active duty wasn’t as fast as I had boasted about in my hospital room. The captain forced me to take an additional week off after I was released from the hospital, so I missed out on the Wanda Honeycutt investigation, but Adrian kept me apprised every step of the way.
When the police department searched her house, they found the evidence that Georgia used in her attempt to blackmail Jack Wallace. That alone wasn’t sufficient evidence to tie her to the homicide because she could’ve easily said she was holding it for Georgia. But when coupled with the pair of shoes they found in her garage that had minuscule drops of blood on them; things started to look up.
That wasn’t the only thing interesting they found in Wanda’s garage. They found a pair of snips that had brake fluid on them. After some digging, we discovered that Wanda’s grandfather, and then later her father, owned an auto repair shop many years prior. In fact, it was so long ago that only the oldest citizens remembered it. Adrian’s grandfather had told him about it, so the search team knew to look for any tool sharp enough to cut brake lines.
“I still can’t believe she crawled beneath his car in the winter and cut the lines,” I had said to Adrian when he stopped over after they concluded the search.
“That’s how much she hated him.” Adrian shook his head.
Adrian, the best partner on the planet, snuck me into the station so I could watch the interrogation through a monitor in the equipment room. Captain Reardon was too busy playing the role of bad cop to know that I was in the station. When faced with the evidence against her, Wanda Honeycutt confessed to everything but the vandalism. She was adamant that she didn’t do it and we couldn’t prove differently, so unfortunately, that part of the case was still open.
“Georgia was going to replace me,” she said tearfully. “I didn’t have a choice. No one could take care of her like I did.” Her voice and expression switched rapidly from sad to angry. “That was the thanks she was going to give me after everything I did for her after that bastard broke her heart. She was going to take him back and start a new life that didn’t include me. She thought I was too old to do my job.” By that time, Wanda’s eyes were protruding from her sockets and veins were popped out on her forehead. “They both got what they deserved.” Spittle flew from her mouth, and she pounded the table angrily with her small, balled-up fists.
“I don’t think she’s sane,” I told Adrian once we left the station. “I don’t see her doing hard time. Do you?”
“Probably not, partner.”
“Thank you for today, Adrian.” I reached over and held up my fist for a bump. “It means a lot to me.”
“Anytime.”
I got out and entered through the back of the salon and found Josh waiting for me upstairs with his hands on his hips. I wisely kept my mouth shut, but he honestly looked like a pissed off diva—not unlike the reality housewife shows he seemed to be addicted to watching.
“Where have you been?”
“Um…”
“Was that Adrian I saw bringing you home? Were you at the police station after they put you on leave for a week?”
“I…”
“Gabe, what am I going to do with you?” Josh asked.
The best thing to come out of my injury and downtime at work was getting to spend it with Josh, who insisted I come home with him for a few days so he could look after me once I was released from County General. I wanted to bristle and say that I didn’t need babying, but I saw somethi
ng in his eyes that cautioned me to keep silent and accept his offer. It wasn’t the warning look I received when I returned from sneaking off to the police station with Adrian. No, that look was softer and affectionate. What kind of dumbass resisted Josh’s hard-to-obtain affections?
Josh packed a bag for me, grabbed Buddy’s dishes and toys, and moved us into his house. I worried that Buddy and Diva wouldn’t get along. I had visions of Buddy chasing her through the house and making her miserable, but he completely ignored her. True to her name, Diva wanted no part of being ignored. She would puff up on the back of the couch in hopes of getting his attention, but Buddy continued to ignore her in favor of playing with Jazzy the ferret. Diva would even jump in front of him and hiss in hopes of getting his attention, but he continued to play hard to get until she gave up. Only then did he press his nose to hers to introduce himself.
I thought my dog might be onto something with his tactics and took mental notes for the next time Josh baited me into an argument. I think he wanted to push me to see if I’d run off or stick around. I had no intention of running from him, and it was past time Josh realized it.
I spent those days at Josh’s house soaking up his affections and resting. Adrian and Sally Ann frequently visited, as did Josh’s salon employees, who I learned he loved and treated like family. When Josh was busy downstairs, I entertained myself with television, movies, or coloring in the adult coloring book full of swear words that Sally Ann gave me. Hell, even I learned new words that I didn’t know and did my damnedest to teach them to Savage.
Josh wasn’t impressed when he came home the second day of my stay and Savage squawked out, “Fucknugget,” as loud as he could. I tried to shrug like I didn’t know where he’d heard it, but it wasn’t very convincing when I was doubled over in a fit of laughter.
“Oh, it hurts,” I said, in between peals of laughter.
“It’s going to hurt really bad if you keep it up,” Josh said, trying for fierce, but miserably failing as he fought back laughter.
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