Swirl: The Complete Collection (BWWM Interracial Romance) (Books 1-3)
Page 27
He swore violently and looked up at Chris, but the man seemed too stunned to do much more than stand there, looking from the still smoking gun to Paul’s body on the floor. “I… I didn’t…” Chris dropped the gun like it had burned him, and backed away, tripping over the leg of the coffee table to land in a sprawl on the floor.
Reese moved as quickly as he could to get to the gun before Chris could get back up, kicking it away with his good foot before turning his attention to Paul. He was breathing, thank goodness for that, and from the pained expression on his face, he was conscious.
The blood was spreading along the light fabric of his shirt from his right shoulder, and Reese let out a soft sigh of relief. He’d be fine, then.
“What were you thinking?” he demanded, crouching down as best he could.
“I could… ask you the same question. What are you even doing here? Don’t you know how to read? I told you—”
“Yeah, well, forgive me for not really wanting to listen to you after everything,” Reese snapped, but there was very little heat to it. He was exhausted and he just wanted this to be over. “Can you sit up?”
Paul grimaced, but managed to push himself up one handed. “God, that hurts.”
“Yeah, well. You just got shot.”
Chris made a low noise of distress from the floor where he hadn’t even bothered to get up.
Reese wasn’t going to waste time trying to reassure him. This wasn’t going to end well. Instead, he pulled his cellphone from his pocket, wincing when he saw how many missed calls he had from Eve. She was going to be angry.
With a sigh, he dialed 911. Time to get this wrapped up.
CHAPTER 12: A STEADY PATH
“You’re going to want to try to not move that arm for a while,” Eve said, keeping her voice stern and looking at her chart. “You’re already on the maximum dose of painkillers we can give you, which I’m still not convinced you need, but the doctor prescribed it, so here we are. Any excess movement is just going to make the pain worse.”
“I appreciate the help, Eve.” She looked up at him with narrowed eyes, and he raised his other hand in a gesture of peace. “Nurse Cooper,” he corrected himself.
She pursed her lips and wrote something else down on the chart. “You’re welcome, Mr. Spencer. All a part of the job.”
Eve wasn’t exactly thrilled to be tending to Paul Spencer of all people, but she supposed after what he had done for Reese she could put aside her grudge against him for long enough to make sure he got the proper treatment he needed.
Reese certainly seemed to be letting bygones be bygones for the most part, and he’d been hanging around the hospital more now than he had before.
He was actually supposed to be there right then, or that was what his text had said, but she hadn’t seen him all day. Instead she’d made her rounds, purposefully leaving Paul for last.
All things considered, both Paul and Reese had gotten off lucky. Both of them could have been killed, and Eve still felt like she was overdue a lecture in Reese’s direction about not going to have meetings with people who wanted him dead.
Honestly, sometimes she was concerned that he had been dropped on his head one time too many, and he’d never recover his good sense.
She huffed and checked the IV that was delivering fluids and morphine to Paul’s body, nodding and making another note when everything proved to be in order.
He had a nasty wound where he’d been shot in the right shoulder, but it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been. The doctors had been able to get the bullet out and clean up the resulting hole with little trouble, and though they were sure he’d be stiff in that shoulder for some time to come, they expected everything to go smoothly with the healing process.
Eve had a bitter little thought that she hoped he would feel it for a while, but she sighed and let that go.
Paul had never wronged her personally, and she was trying to be better about grudges and wishing bad things on people in general. It wasn’t easy, especially considering the fact that she thought Reese was being way too lenient with this man, but it wasn’t her business to get involved in. So she just nodded to him and let herself out of the room after replacing the chart at the end of the bed and reminding him to hit the button if he needed anything.
Hopefully this whole mess would all get resolved quickly. The police were involved now, and the last she had heard, Chris Hamilton was in their custody and waiting to see what kind of charges Reese was going to press against him.
Surprising no one, Paul hadn’t been brought in for questioning yet. Eve had thoughts about that, too, but she trusted Reese to make the call that felt right to him.
Either way, she was glad that she was mostly on the fringes of it and it wasn’t her headache.
Luckily, she was nearing the end of her shift, though what she had planned for when she got home wasn’t any less stressful than being at work, really.
Due to the commotion with Reese and Paul and this Chris Hamilton guy, Michelle had stayed an extra couple of days to watch Devin while Eve made sure Reese was alright. It had sort of come out that Reese was more than just a friend, and she already knew her aunt wanted to meet him. So they were going to have dinner that night.
Devin was ecstatic, of course. It was like all of his favorite people in one room, and he couldn’t wait. Eve was less excited because she knew her aunt, and she knew that Michelle was going to give Reese a hard time.
That’s just how she was.
But it would probably be fine. Reese certainly seemed to be excited about it, seeing as he’d agreed instantly when she’d brought it up.
She suspected that he was just happy about taking that leap with her, or about being able to since he hadn’t gotten shot in the face.
Either way, it was likely to be awkward and tense for a bit.
“Thinking about me?”
Eve snorted and looked over her shoulder to see Reese rolling down the polished floor of the corridor in a wheelchair.
“Why do you even have that?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. “Do you not know what ‘walking cast’ means?”
He snorted and rolled up beside her. “Of course I do. I’ve been toddling around on this thing for weeks now. I get what it’s for. But the nice nurse asked me if I’d prefer a chair, and since I’ve been here for three hours already, I accepted.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. And what do you mean the nice nurse?” she asked, frowning. “I was always nice to you when I was your nurse.”
Reese looked around to make sure the coast was clear and then grinned. “You certainly were.”
“Pervert. Anyway, what did the doctor have to say?”
He had come in to see Paul and Eve, but also to have them take a look at his leg and make sure that everything was healing the way it was supposed to. With so many breaks in his leg, they had to make sure that each bit was fusing together the way they were meant to.
Judging from Reese’s sunny attitude, though, it had been good news.
“I’m healing perfectly,” he said, leaning back in the chair. “They said it’s actually going faster than they had anticipated and that I must have been getting some good relaxation in and taking care of myself. I didn’t bother to tell them that’s not exactly true, but whatever. No complaints from me.”
“That’s awesome, Reese,” Eve said, smiling. “Did they say how much longer?"
“Maybe four months,” he replied. “And then it’s getting back in shape. Man, I can’t wait.”
“Yeah, well. Don’t get any ideas about doing death defying stunts while you’re in that chair. My aunt’s not going to be very impressed if you hurt yourself right before you meet her, and I’d at least like her to think you’re something of a good influence on Devin.”
Reese smiled at her. “You know I’m going to try to make a good impression. I want her to like me.”
“She probably will. Come on.” Gesturing for him to follow, she headed along the corridor to an
empty room, under the pretense of wanting to make sure that it was clean and ready for a new patient. Once Reese rolled all the way in, she shut the door and didn’t bother to turn the light on.
“Ohoho,” Reese teased. “Are you thinking about getting up to no good at work again, Nurse Cooper? I don’t know if I can condone that kind of behavior.” But he was grinning, and he patted his lap.
Eve laughed softly and slowly eased herself down onto him, not wanting to jar his leg. It was nice to have a minute to breathe, and there was so little time left in her shift that she was pretty sure no one was going to come looking for her with some crisis. She hoped not, anyway.
“How’s Paul?” Reese asked softly, fingers stroking up and down her back. She knew that the two of them had finally managed to talk through some things the day before, but she was refraining from asking too much about it.
“He’ll be fine. The doctor in charge said the bullet didn’t hit anything bad, and he’ll make a full recovery.”
“That’s good. I’m still really mad at him, but I’m also convinced he might have saved my life, so.”
“Dilemma Well, he’s going to be fine, so you can keep being mad at him if you want. I certainly intend to. And while we’re on the subject, I believe I owe you a lecture about being a giant idiot, buddy.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I know. I’ve heard it all from my parents. Surprisingly, it was my dad who yelled at me this time. I’m under strict order not to go anywhere without telling them for the rest of the time I’m staying at their house. I wanted to tell them that I’m a grown man and they can’t make rules for me anymore, but I think I really scared them.”
“And they’re not the only ones,” Eve pointed out, poking him hard in the side. “What were you even thinking? If Paul hadn’t got there when he did…”
“I know, Eve. Trust me, I have had a lot of thoughts about my own mortality lately. It’s one thing to risk my life tearing down a mountain, and another to do it trying to talk sense into someone who really doesn’t want to hear it.”
“Well, as long as you know that,” she said, slightly mollified.
“I do. Scouts honor.”
The two of them sat in the silence of the dark room for a moment before Reese spoke again. “Did you decide what to do about your dad?”
She’d talked to him a little bit about what she and her aunt had discussed, but she hadn’t had time to think about what she was really going to do. “Do you have an opinion?” Eve asked, because having more people chime in, people she could trust, seemed like a good idea.
“I think… I think that you shouldn’t have to make yourself super uncomfortable by being around someone who made your childhood crappy, but I also think that if he’s really serious about being better then maybe it’s okay that you’re not depriving Devin of time with him. I mean, I know that I love my mom and I learned a lot from her, but my dad and I are really close, and he taught me things that I’m glad I learned.”
“And you think I can’t teach Devin those things?” Eve wanted to know.
“No, I think that you already have enough on your plate as it is. But it’s up to you, you know? Not even your aunt can decide this for you since you’re Devin’s legal guardian and all that.”
Eve sighed and nodded. She knew that it was up to her to make this decision, and she’d been agonizing over it for a while. Really, she felt like she already knew what she was going to do, she just didn’t know how to come out with it.
“I guess it wouldn’t be the worst thing to let them meet,” she said. “I mean, I’ll be there, and Devin’s a smart kid, and…” She waved a hand. “It’ll be okay, right?”
“I feel like it will. Let me know if you ever want me to come over and be threatening. I can do that.”
“Oh, sure. You’re so menacing with your one leg. I bet he’d back right down.” Eve was teasing, but she was really very glad that he’d offered. He made her feel safe, and if he wanted to be there while her father was there, the last thing she was going to do was turn him down. It would be nice to have his support and have someone who was mostly an impartial party (at least in the way that he’d never met her father before) to keep an eye on things.
And it meant a lot to her that he cared enough to offer.
She leaned in to kiss him softly and then got herself up from his lap. “Okay, I need to go and do the last of my rounds and get this room ready for whoever’s coming in next. Why don’t you go visit with Paul, and I’ll meet you at the nurse’s station in fifteen?”
“Sounds good to me,” Reese said, saluting her and then rolling himself out the door once she’d opened it. Eve couldn’t help but laugh as she watched him go, feeling warmth building in her.
She’d never expected her life to go this way, but there wasn’t much she could actively complain about at the moment. Yeah, there were things that could be better, things she missed and wished she could have. She’d never stop wishing she could do more, give more, to Devin or that her mother wasn’t gone, but thinking about the things she did have now was enough to make sure that she wasn’t longing for the past and forgetting about how much the present was starting to come together for her.
Reese had pretty much dropped into her life, and her father’s return hadn’t been welcome, but she was learning a lot about rolling with the punches and continuing on even when things were hard.
Actually, she mused as she walked out of the room and went to fetch her paperwork, it was a lot like the things Reese did when he got it into his head that he could fly and not fall. You had to make those uphill climbs and take those leaps and hope that there would be something—or someone—there to catch you when you finally came down.
And somehow she had people like that. It wasn’t going to be easy, with Reese healing up faster than expected and already raring to get back to business, but she was less worried about that than she had been in the past. Things were going to be alright between them.
They’d survived this, after all, and she had confidence that they could handle bigger things, things like separation.
Time would tell, but Eve had a good feeling about all of it. She whistled as she went about her work.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hello,
My name is Lexi Lewis. Reading many romance novels is what eventually got me into writing them myself.
As a teenager, I would constantly go to the library or bookstore and pick up romance novels. While I did enjoy them very much, I noticed that most of the women in these covers and stories where not like me. You see, I'm a an African American woman with curves. Besides perfect looks, these characters I read as a teenager seemed to have perfect lives. Therefore, I was having a hard time relating to the characters in these stories.
I started writing Fantasy and Multicultural Romance stories because I wanted to represent woman of color and give them great romantic stories that they could indulge in and relate to. Love comes in all sizes and colors, so should the women in romance novels.
If you wish to contact me or keep up with my latest works, please visit my website at http://lexilewis.net
Kisses,
Lexi
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Publisher’s Notes
Chapter 1: The Thrill
Chapter 2: Home Life
Chapter 3: Rude Awakening
Chapter 4: Bedside Manner
Chapter 5: Relating
Chapter 6: Setback
Chapter 7: Mistake
Chapter 8: Regret
Chapter 9: A Plot Afoot
Chapter 10: In the Meantime
Chapter 11: Just to Say Goodbye
Chapter 12: Settling
Chapter 13: Unsettled
Chapter 1: Out of the Bag
Chapter 2: More Problems
Chapter 3: A Moment Alone
Chapter 4: More Than a Taste
Chapter 5: Hitting the Fan
Chapter 6: Hitting Harder
Chapte
r 7: Change of Plans
Chapter 8: Breather
Chapter 9: Danger
Chapter 10: Consequences
Chapter 1: Harsh Truths
Chapter 2: Family
Chapter 3: Conspiring
Chapter 4: Meet the Family
Chapter 5: Respite
Chapter 6: A Break in the Case
Chapter 7: No Should Mean No
Chapter 8: Public Face
Chapter 9: Desperation
Chapter 10: Leniency
Chapter 11: The Face of Fear
Chapter 12: A Steady Path
About The Author