“Yeah, you can turn on the heat. The thermostat is on the wall in the hall around the corner.”
“I’m on it.” Sonja raised her hand to volunteer. She shot down the hall before I could counter.
“I’ll look for a blanket,” Bobbi said. “It should help.”
Simon pointed. “Down the same hall, linen closet, two doors to your left, and thank you.”
I just smiled. I loved my girls. I loved how they helped. I didn’t have to ask them. They were on it in two seconds flat, busying to bring comfort to my man… I mean to Simon.
“And what can I do for you, Mr. Foster?” I folded my arms over my chest and rocked back and forth on my heels expectantly.
“Well, I’d ask you to lie here and snuggle with me if I didn’t think it would cause me pain. I miss your body next to mine.”
“You know I can’t do that. What would Katelyn think?”
“You mean what would Dane think? I’m pretty sure you couldn’t give a fuck about what Katelyn feels or thinks about anything.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re right. And I’m definitely sure you feel the same about Dane.”
“I opt to plead the fifth.”
“Yeah, I thought you might.”
I got Simon a pitcher of water from the kitchen, made sure it wasn’t too cold, and set it on the end table next to him. Bobbi and Sonja came back from their tasks with a blanket and the heater turned on.
“Anything else?” Bobbi asked, with her hands on her hips.
“I think that’s it, you two,” I responded. “Let me walk you both to the door.” My friends gave me knowing looks, which I studiously ignored.
Simon waved. “Thanks, you two.”
Bobbi called out, “You’re welcome, professor.”
“You can call me Simon from now on, Bobbi. We’re all adults here—friends, right? You’re no longer students.”
“Um, sure,” said Bobbi uncertainly. Bobbi and Sonja looked at each other.
“I guess that’s true,” Sonja acknowledged.
We hugged at the door. “I’ll talk to you two later, and thank you so much.”
“Anytime, girl,” Bobbi said. “I suggest you make him some eggs, something soft. He looks a little skinny, and he has to be hungry.”
I hugged them again before closing the door and turning around.
“Snuggle time?” he asked.
“You and your blanket can do what you want. But I’ll be in the room upstairs if you need me.”
Lesson # 19
Sour can be the grapes that are not your own
“She belonged to my brother, whether he deserved her or not.” -Simon Foster
Simon
The pain I felt lying there on my couch was like no pain I’d ever experienced before. There were so many things hurting from my head to my toes (including my cock—that God-awful catheter!) that I couldn’t have touched Lynn if I wanted to. I could hardly stand up on my own.
“You can sleep down here with me. I’m harmless, all but useless sexually, save for maybe my tongue.” Hell, who was I kidding? Even my tongue was incredibly dry, and kept sticking to the roof of my mouth when I talked. It didn’t seem to matter how much water I’d had to drink.
“Nope.” She crossed her arms to her chest. She was so beautiful to me that it was almost sickening.
I was helpless, watching Lynn walk past me. She had a cheeky grin on her face, like she knew it was torturing me to be incapacitated while she was so close. I twisted my neck to stare as much as I could just to prolong my view of the form I used to tightly hold in my arms.
When she vanished from my sight down the hall completely, I felt a deep loneliness, something I wasn’t used to. For me, being alone brought me comfort of a sort. I could do what I wanted, whenever I wanted and however I wanted to do it, but tonight being alone didn’t interest me in the slightest.
“What if something happens to me through the night? I just got out of the hospital, you know.” I crossed my arms and pouted, genuinely annoyed at being achy and unattended to.
Lynn padded back down the stairs, saying, “Hey, you insisted on leaving the hospital. I think I want your room. It’s perfect.”
“Sleep wherever you want.”
I didn’t mind Lynn sleeping in my bedroom, although I would’ve preferred she sleep next to me on the uncomfortable couch and somehow help me take away my pain. There was no way I could make it upstairs, feeling the way my body was feeling. My head was pounding and any sudden movement made lights flash. I fought a mild sense of vertigo.
I shifted my heavy legs over some so Lynn could sit near my feet, and she settled onto the couch with a wistful expression on her face that seemed to confess her busy thoughts. I wondered what her amazing mind was pondering, but I halfway knew. We were in an awkward situation. She belonged to my brother, whether he deserved her or not, and I had…Katelyn.
“Why did you get me to get you out of the hospital and not your Amazon girlfriend?” asked Lynn with a snort.
I closed my eyes and rested my head against the firm armrest of the couch. I put my arm across my forehead to block out some of the light, since it was making my head hurt even worse. “She wasn’t there.”
Lynn smacked my feet, eliciting a chuckle from me. She muttered, “Asshole.”
I smiled and shook my head, but the move caused my head to spin, and I held my breath, waiting for the swimming feeling to pass. “She’s not the caretaker type. For all her pluses, her big minus is selfishness. I don’t know how or why or by what chain of reasoning, but somehow I knew you’d be here for me.” I didn’t move my arm and my eyes were still closed, but I could feel her body relax against mine, and I knew the simple truth pleased her.
There was something about Lynn that I couldn’t shake, no matter how hard I tried to move on with someone else. Lynn had her own brand of selfishness, or rather she had the exuberance of youth that made her yearn to test options before making a decision, and I understood her nature.
Because, at the end of the day, it was Lynn who’d break a man out of the hospital and get him safely home. It was Lynn I had dreamed about over and over during the indeterminable amount of time I had been in a coma. “I dreamed of you.”
“You were asking for me…in your sleep.”
“I’m glad you came.” I peeked from the cover of my arm to watch her face. She had told me she loved me. I knew the confession only made our complex relationship even more tangled. I drifted off to sleep, the only escape from the aches and pains plaguing my battered body. With Lynn next to me, everything felt right, regardless of the pain. I needed her. I loved her.
Lesson # 20
Around each and every corner lies a surprise
“Stepping off the elevators on the intensive care unit, I knew immediately something was wrong.” -Dane Foster
Dane
The Aston Martin squealed in protest as I made a sharp turn and cruised into the hospital parking garage. Unlike before, when I hadn’t intended on being here long, today I had to make good on my promise to my father to go see Simon—if not just to smother him under a pillow.
I parked the car and sighed in frustration as I climbed out. My cell phone seemed heavy in my pocket, and I pulled it out to give it one last check, but there were still no missed calls from Lynn. Shoving the device back in my slacks, I loped across the concrete and found the entrance. I’d had to deal with her disappearing act later.
After coming back from my meetings, she hadn’t been in my hotel room or her parents’ room, and I had no way of getting in touch with Bobbi. Lynn had mentioned she’d be staying with her. I hoped that was where she had returned, but my gut instinct told me it was unlikely; otherwise, she wouldn’t be avoiding my calls.
She was definitely avoiding me. I tried to ignore the unsettled feeling that always accompanied thoughts of Lynn. Although she had finally succumbed and taken me up on my offer to move with me to New York, something told me that her yes had come too quickly, or she w
as unsure.
There was nothing I could do but do what I must, as I strolled the now familiar trail to the elevator bay and up to Simon’s floor. I hummed idly to myself. My intentions were to get in, get out, and report back to my father that I had done my brotherly duties.
Stepping off the elevators on the intensive care unit, I knew immediately something was wrong. Caroline’s unmistakable voice screeched loudly and emotionally. I rushed around the corner to see whom she was talking to, fearing Lynn was somehow involved. Instead of running into her berating Lynn, however, I came upon Caroline, my father, and my half-sister Selene. Caroline was in obvious distress, which wasn’t unusual because she was a high-strung person. It was my father’s stern gaze and furious silence that alerted me something was very wrong.
“Dad? What’s going on?”
My father and Selene looked my way as I approached, but it was Caroline who answered. “These people! These God damn incompetent people have no idea where my son is!” She gasped dramatically, like breathing was a chore, and her anger turned into a wailing sob of anguish. I was taken aback by what she’d said and the cowering staff’s apparent culpability. None of the nurses appeared able to provide an explanation. How the hell did a hospital lose a patient?
“Have they checked everywhere?”
One of the timid nurses spoke up: “We were sort of understaffed last night, but when the doctor made his rounds this morning, we found the patient had gone missing.”
“Dad?” I looked to my father. The admission from the nurse had him trembling with unspoken rage. I put a calming hand on his shoulder, and his eyes met mine. “I’ll find him. I will.” I honestly didn’t care where Simon had gone to or how; he wasn’t my concern. Seeing my father shake with impotent anger was unacceptable, however, and I’d find my brother for his sake.
Caroline collapsed into my father’s arms, and he patted her back comfortingly. Selene looked lost and afraid, but she also had something of a guilty look in her eyes, so much that wouldn’t catch my gaze, and I wondered what she had to hide. I gave instructions to the hospital staff to follow whatever their protocol was, to send alerts or announcements about a missing patient, and I made sure they got my father and his wife comfortably situated in Simon’s hospital room. Then I pulled Selene to the side to see what information she had and if it could help me on the manhunt.
“You know something, don’t you?” I accused her. We marched together down the corridor, glancing in the stairwell and the public restroom, checking waiting rooms on the floor and the vending machine area, with no luck.
“I might’ve told a certain someone that Simon would be here alone last night.”
“Lynn.” I gritted my teeth to keep from cursing in front of my little…well, half-sister. She had strawberry-blond hair and a pretty face that was a mix of Cornelius and Caroline. I had never even imagined having a sibling, much less a sister, so it was difficult to wrap my head around the fact we were related. My flesh and blood, who had, as I should’ve expected, betrayed me. Heated anger boiled up inside. “How could you encourage her to come here when you knew that she had no business visiting Simon?”
“Dane, I’m so sorry! I just thought maybe she could say or do something that would cause Simon to come out of the coma. He had been asking for her.”
I slowed my stride and stopped to face her. “Selene, Lynn is mine. I don’t care if Simon asked for her. She’s mine.”
Selene looked at me with somber, serious eyes. “Is she?”
The question caught me off guard, because it was one I’d had to ask myself one too many times. I stared at Selene for what felt like forever before my eyes lowered to the floor, and I contemplated what it meant that everyone around me seemed to know the truth to that question. I whipped my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Lynn’s number again. I had a growing suspicion that wherever she was, we’d find Simon not too far away.
I had no luck, so I called her parents. Mr. Minnelli answered the phone. I heard Mrs. Minnelli giggling like a teenager in the background, and he launched into a gleeful chat about the sightseeing they’d been doing all morning.
“Excuse me, Mr. Minnelli, but I don’t have much time for small talk. Have you seen Lynn? It’s very important.”
“No, Dane. Like I told you earlier when you dropped by the room, we haven’t seen her since yesterday. Is something the matter? Where’s my baby girl?”
“I don’t know. But I will find out.”
“Where are you? We’ll meet you there. I’ll help you find her.”
“I’m at the hospital. No, don’t worry. She’s not here. I don’t think she’s hurt, but she could be in a lot of trouble. She’s missing and Simon’s been taken from the hospital.”
Lesson # 21
Clarity is the truth unexpected
“I had come so close to dying in my attempt to escape the love that I had.”-Simon Foster
Simon
I awakened slowly, gradually becoming aware of the light weight on my chest and the yellow sunlight across my face. I opened my eyes slightly, noting the light didn’t hurt so badly now that the morning had come. My arms were around Lynn’s warm, soft body, and I could feel her heartbeat against my chest. A smile flitted across my face. She had slept downstairs after all. That tiny act of consideration made me warm with love for her.
I tried not to wake her, as I tested my muscles by wiggling my toes and shifting my legs to see if the aches from yesterday had abated, and I sighed with relief when everything moved more fluidly than it had before, but I wasn’t out of the woods. Not yet. I tried to remember what had brought me to this point, but the accident was a blur. All I could sift out from the jumbled memories of the night of the party was my anger and sadness about Lynn and my need to get as far away as fast as I possibly could.
I still didn’t know what had happened, but I remembered a blinding flash of light and the swerve of my bike. I must’ve been hit by a car or ran into something like a street lamp.
I had come so close to dying. In my attempt to escape the love that I had for the woman cradled in my arms, I had almost lost everything, my family, the love of my life, my birth-given right to keep breathing. My loved ones had been there for me, I was sure of that. My loving mother wouldn’t have left my side, and I knew in my heart my father had made an appearance or two, though I doubted he had lingered long.
The sense of belonging and being loved almost brought me to tears, as I thought about the loved ones I would have never seen again had I never opened my eyes. Yet in the serendipitous way life can sometimes be, the tragedy was responsible for bringing Lynn back to me.
She stirred against my chest, and I dropped a tender kiss to her forehead. Her voice was raspy and sexy with sleep. “Is everything okay?” I nodded, resting my cheek on the crown of her head. She snuggled against me, but pulled back suddenly. “I hope I’m not hurting you.”
“You’re not.”
“I guess by now everyone has figured out you’re not at the hospital anymore. I wonder how that’s playing out? I’m sure Caroline is making an example of the staff, chopping heads off at the neck and taking names. Katelyn is skewering the nurses. Your dad is shutting down the whole facility.” Lynn giggled softly at the image she was painting.
“They’re not that bad.”
“Ha! Your loving, dear, sweet mother had me forcibly removed by security guards. I would put nothing past her.”
“Did she really?” I was surprised.
“And your darling significant other tried to pick a fight with me in the waiting room. If Bobbi and Sonja hadn’t shown up, I’m sure that bodybuilder would’ve cracked me in half with her bare hands.”
“Wow! All that you had to go through trying to see me?”
“Yes, but I’ve got you here now. That’s all that matters.”
“You’re right. That’s all that matters to me, too. I just need to know how to keep you here. Do you want to talk about that thing you said about moving to New York?”<
br />
She lay on top of me, silent. I listened to her inhale and exhale, and I wondered what she was thinking. My chest felt tight at the thought of losing her. She had plans to leave me. She deserved a chance at happiness. I knew I shouldn’t begrudge Dane that, but Lynn didn’t love him. She loved me, and I didn’t know how I would face the pain of knowing that he got to have her.
“Never mind that. What about Katelyn?” Changing the subject.
There wasn’t much to think about for me. Katelyn was someone who had filled space for a bit of time, but I didn’t care for her like I cared for Lynn. Sure, being with Katelyn would make my mother happy. She was the type of woman my mother thought would be an asset to the family. The kind to try and make me a polished gentleman. I knew Caroline could only see Lynn’s flaws and the fact she hadn’t grown up in the lap of luxury, but I could see Lynn’s goodness and sweetness. Those were luxuries money couldn’t buy.
“Do you honestly think I could go back to her, knowing that you love me?”
“But how can I leave Dane? I owe so much to him. He’s been so helpful time and time again, and I…care for him too.”
Hearing her almost say she loved him hurt my heart, but I listened to what she was saying, not just the words. “I think you appreciate him. I don’t think you really care for him like you do for me. Whatever he has promised you or paid for, I could pay him back, remove any and all debts owed.”
Lynn rose up on my chest and stared me in the eyes. “It’s not about any money, Simon. Money doesn’t solve everything and money doesn’t move me. What moves me has to do with his feelings. I don’t want to hurt him.”
Teacher's Pet - The Complete Series: Books 1-4 Page 33